Apparently I dig neo Westerns and Taylor Sheridan, y’all. I had absolutely zero desire to see Hell or High Water in theaters based on the premise and the actors alone. No offense intended to them—they are all great actors, but when it comes to criticism, they are not exactly walking uphill against the wind during a snowstorm wearing loafers. They do not need me. Even after it ended up on top ranking lists, it did not grab my attention. I only decided to see it because I am a completist. Once I realized that Sheridan wrote Sicario, which I loved and is Sheridan’s freshest, most bleak work, and Wind River, which I enjoyed in spite of well-worn tropes put in new bottles, and that they were part of his American frontier trilogy, I had to see the entire set. (Disclaimer: subsequently Sheridan wrote Sicario: Day of the Soldado, which was dreadful so maybe his best work is behind him, but still most people never get the chance to be a has been and what work!)
Hell or High Water is a delightfully symmetrical film about two brothers who are robbing banks for some reason and the two Texas Rangers trying to stop them. It may be Sheridan’s most cheery film to date, or maybe my definition of cheery is woefully dark. I know that this description sounds basic in the dullest way possible. You feel as if you have seen this movie already and know exactly how it is going to play out. If I give you more information, you may slightly alter your predications and still think that it is predicable, but Sheridan is deft at trucking in clichés then finding ways to turn sideways and appreciate them with brand new eyes. Tropes had to start somewhere and must have felt innovative before lesser people copied them to death, and Sheridan is the king of the reboot. I gradually forget the cliché because of the emotion than he infuses in the scene.
Ben Foster, who is a chameleon, one of the finest American actors of our time and has the acting chops that Scott Eastwood believes that he has, plays Tanner, the older, wilder brother, and Captain Kirk and Mr. Wonder Woman, Chris Pine, plays Toby, the younger, smarter and decorous brother (fun fact: pine is actually slightly older). The story and the acting combined result in a morally textured individual and relationship portrait that had me invested in two men that I was never inclined to empathize with. It is definitely Pine’s best acting to date that I am aware of, which makes the looks a darn shame because they probably get in the way of getting opportunities to stretch himself. Jeff Bridges plays Marcus, the older, more experienced, less procedural, about to retire Texas ranger, and Gil Birmingham plays his younger half Native American, half Mexican, by the book partner who mostly tolerates with gritted teeth Marcus’ idea of Gran Torino bonhomie. Just watching the performances is worth the price of admission. It is a complementary pairing upon complementary pairing of pairings. It is stylized while feeling organic.
If I am being honest, I knew that Hell or High Water got me when I began to enjoy Tanner, a man that objectively I should despise and would never get near voluntarily. I actually began to chuckle at his lines and appreciate his preparedness. I get why having an automatic rifle can be useful depending on your profession. I went from thinking that he was the most unnecessarily violent man in the world until I realized what his mission statement was and realized that it was not right, but he was not wrong. He unexpectedly managed to inject humor into a serious situation.
Visually Hell or High Water is a beautiful film. While this film would not exist without Sheridan and the cast, David Mackenzie, the director, perfectly composed and framed each shot to further complement the character development, the relationship dynamics and the narrative’s trajectory. I have only seen one of his prior films, Perfect Sense, which was a bit dissonant, but if this film is indicative of his talents, it shows that he has grown tremendously and could be a great director in the making. If not, he had one perfect job, which is more than most people experience in a lifetime. He never steps on the performances and shows a John Carpenteresque sense of rhythm, pacing and timing to represent the entire spectrum of stillness to heightened tension so we fully appreciate the calm and the storm without wishing for more of either. He shows great appreciation of the traditional scope of a Western without diminishing the impact of civilization and a fall of greatness and quotidian cheapness of strip mall culture superimposed on the epic, a theme of the story that elevates a traditional heist film into a continuous story of civilization callously conquering great wildness and humanity without consideration of what came before.
Hell or High Water keeps challenging the viewer’s conception of who is a good guy versus a bad guy and exploring the further corners of humanity. The story of the West is a tale of civilization as the invading conquerors, cowboys, versus Native Americans, the rightful inhabitants of the land. I am not going to pretend that I am not uneasy at a Sheridan film once again reframing the definition of Native Americans to encompass people who are not only not Native American, but probably direct descendants of the people who misplaced Native Americans in the first place. The only self-professed cowboy is Marcus, but the role of the evil, despised cowboy is the banks that foreclose property. It is not simply a heist film, it is a clever, subversive, vengeance film. We are never allowed to get comfortable with a single character without recognizing that character’s level of complicity in violence, actual or state endorsed violence against the underdog. The battlefield is littered with ordinary people, and no one really benefits or comes out clean. The American dream is actually the perpetuation of the legacy of poverty.
It is this kind of thoughtfulness in the subtext that makes me appreciate Hell or High Water’s action more. Usually movies are intellectually provocative or action packed, but this film has a nice, consistent balance. The realistic violence scattered throughout the film finally pays off in the last action scene, which I enjoyed thoroughly. If you are only looking for well-choreographed car chases and shoot outs, it is definitely a deliriously heightened payoff. I know that many people did not enjoy the actual denouement because it is an ambiguous ending, but I loved it. It is an emotional John Woo standoff between two characters that viewers really do not want to have a showdown between. The wardrobe choice is elemental, classic, but also a reflection of the character development of each character having to live with well-intentioned choices made and disastrous results.
Hell or High Water may be the most entertaining in Sheridan’s American frontier trilogy. I highly recommend it if you are not sensitive to violence or brief, but graphic sexual situations. I hope that Sheridan, Mackenzie and Pine have even better movies ahead of them. Foster will always rise to the top.