Hell or High Water
Directed by: David Mackenzie.
Written by: Taylor Sheridan.
Starring: Chris Pine (Toby
Howard), Ben Foster (Tanner Howard), Jeff Bridges (Marcus Hamilton), Gil
Birmingham (Alberto Parker), Katy Mixon (Jenny Ann), Dale Dickey (Elsie),
Christopher W. Garcia (Randy Howard), Kevin Rankin (Billy Rayburn), Melanie
Papalia (Emily).
Watching
David Mackenzie’s excellent Hell or High Water – easily one of the best films
of the year so far – you cannot help but think back to the Coen Brothers No
Country for Old Men. Both are crime dramas about greed, in which regular people
get involved in something that spirals out of control into inevitable violence.
The Coens film is timeless – it was set in 1980, but really could have been set
in any Post WWII time in America, as it is ultimately about the way everything
has changed, and how you can longer tell the good guys from the bad guys, and
how everything has gotten more morally muddied. Hell or High Water has more modest
– and timely – ambitions than No Country for Old Men. It is a crime thriller
for now – where good people try to do the right thing, and are robbed blind
anyway – not by criminals with masks, but by the banks, who will do any and
everything they can to make money – people be damned – and do so with the
protection of the government. The film centers on two brothers who set out to
do the right thing, by doing the wrong thing – and the consequences it brings
down on them, and everyone around them.
The
film stars Chris Pine and Ben Foster as Toby and Tanner Howard – two Texas
brothers, who really do seem like brothers, despite how different they are.
Toby has tried to do the right thing his whole life – he has gotten married,
had a couple of son, but that ended in divorce. He has no job, no money and had
to spend his time taking care of his dying mother – who just died, and left him
everything, including a good sized ranch. But, of course, she owes money to the
bank on it – and they’re about to swoop in a take it from him. His brother
Tanner has spent years in prison, and never really got a foothold his life – he
killed their drunken, abusive father in a “hunting accident” and has been the
black sheep of the family ever since. The pair of them team up to rob a series
of Texas Midlands banks – the same ones foreclosing on their ranch – but are
smart about it. They don’t want the money in the safe, they don’t want $100
bills, and if possible, they want to rob them when very few people are around.
The crimes are so small, the FBI doesn’t care. It falls to the Texas Rangers –
specifically Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) – just a few weeks shy of
retirement – and his partner, Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham) – who bicker like
an old married couple.
So
yes, this is another crime drama about masculinity, and I think it’s safe to
say the film doesn’t come close to passing the Bechdel Test – the only female
characters of note of Toby’s tired ex-wife, who doesn’t hate him as much as
she’s tired of being poor, and him not helping, a bank teller (Dale Dickey) who
gives more lip than she probably should to two masked men with guns, and a
sensitive waitress (Melanie Papalia), who first takes pity on Toby because of
how sad he seems, and then turns fiery when confronted later by Hamilton – who
says the large tip he gave her is “evidence”. If the movie seems to be saying
anything about Texas women at all, it’s not to piss off them off.
You
could well argue that Hell or High Water doesn’t do anything particularly new
or groundbreaking – and you wouldn’t be wrong per se. What the film really is
though, is a perfectly executed genre piece. The screenplay is by Taylor
Sheridan – who wrote last year’s excellent Sicario (this is even better than
that one), and what he’s done with the screenplay is create two mismatched male
duos – and then makes us like all four characters as individuals and as part of
those pairs, before introducing the inevitable violence that the climax of the
movie demands. So often in movies, dozens of people are killed, and you don’t
feel a thing in the audience – all it is kinetic movement and activity on the
screen, that doesn’t mean anything. The modern blockbuster has increasingly
become one where whole buildings or cities are destroyed – likely costing
thousands of people their lives, and in the audience we’re not supposed to
think about it – just sit back and be entertained. Far fewer people die in Hell
or High Water – but every single one of those deaths hurt, and it’s not because
we know the characters who do (we don’t in a couple of cases), but because of
the way Mackenzie directs, and Sheridan writes. The deaths in Hell or High Water
hurt because they feel real.
None
of the effect the movie has would be possible without the four great central
performances in the film. Chris Pine has never been better than he is here – he
is an actor who often isn’t called on to do much expect coast on his movie star
looks and charm – something he, admittedly does quite well – but here, with a
mustache and stubble, and a fine, unexaggerated Texas drawl, he makes Toby into
a sad, tragic figure – he’s a good guy pushed into something bad, but he never deludes
himself into believing what he is doing is the right thing – just that it’s the
only thing he can do for his kids – to break them of the disease of poverty
that he hasn’t been able to break any other way. With Tanner, Ben Foster gets
to add another “crazy” character to his resume – I really do think Foster wants
nothing less than to become the Christopher Walken of his generation – but Tanner’s
crazy is more grounded in reality than most of Foster’s ne’er do wells. Like
Toby, he doesn’t really suffer under the delusion that they’re doing a good
thing – he just doesn’t give a shit anymore. He’s along the ride mostly just
because he was honored to be asked by his brother – the only family he’s got,
and perhaps the only person who doesn’t hate him. Yes, Foster can go
over-the-top in many of his roles – but he never quite does that here – making
his performance all the stronger. Marcus Hamilton is the type of role you hire
Jeff Bridges for – because even if Bridges decided to phone it in, you’d still
get a hell of performance out of him. He doesn’t do that here thankfully – and
his work ranks alongside the best work he’s done. It’s a sneaky performance,
because of how comedic much of it is – he delights in teasing Alberto about his
Indian and Mexican heritage – and doesn’t seem to be taking too much too
seriously. But he’s good at his job, and knows exactly what he is doing –
nothing gets by him. We immediately like him, and are at ease with him – but he
has a few scenes late in the film where that inner steal comes out. Gil
Birmingham will get the least amount of praise for his work as Alberto of the
four leads – it is, in some ways, a quieter performance than the rest – one
that calls on him to lovingly roll his eyes at all the insults that come his
way. But he builds a complete character here – and although we see his fate
coming, it hits, harder than anything else in the film.
This
summer has not been a good one at the movies – especially not if you want
mainstream, adult entertainment. The best of the big summer movies have been
for families – Finding Dory, The BFG, Pete’s Dragon (even if families didn’t go
see two of those – stupid families). Studios either don’t think adults go to
the movies, or think we have the mentality of teenagers, who just want to see
things blow up real good, with lots of fast editing and action, and a lot of
CGI crap floating around. Perhaps then, I – and others – are slightly
overrating Hell or High Water – I will admit it, it is certainly possible that
after the dull summer movie slate we’ve endured that it’s possible. That when
we look back in a few years – or even months – at Hell or High Water, what I’ll
see is just a really good genre film, and not the great film I think it is.
It’s possible, of course, but I don’t think so. Yes, it’s easier to see the
contrast between those other films and Hell or High Water – but there is
something special to this film. Sometimes a perfectly executed genre film is
just that – and sometimes it’s a little bit more. I think Hell or High Water is
that little bit more.
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