Bank robbery is still a thing, huh? –I mean, obviously it still is, that’s where the money lives, but two guys in ski masks running into a bank, hopping over teller windows and cleaning out registers … that doesn’t happen as much any longer. Cameras, silent alarms, lack of vault access and bullet-proof shields have seen to that. And yet, West Texas is a throwback to simpler times of tumbleweed towns and armed citizens. I’m sure many find the latter welcome, bankers nothwithstanding.
Tanner (Ben Foster) and Toby (Chris Pine) Howard are bank-robbing novices. Life has brought Toby to this level of desperation – Texas Midland Bank manipulated the Howards into accepting a reverse mortgage with ugly terms and a crappy payout just to finance the last days of dying matriarch. Now the bank is all set to foreclose, so the boys are robbing Texas Midland branches to pay down the foreclosure debt. Yeah, this isn’t gonna work.
Sometimes you encounter a character or a plot that just makes you shake your head. You have two brothers who are set on robbing, essentially, only Texas Midland banks; I don’t think you need to be Hercule Poirot to set up a decent sting here. KnowwhatImsayin’? And, of course, that isn’t the point. Hell or High Water is about the romanticism of the effort – Tanner and Toby have noble cause. Well, Toby has noble cause, Tanner has a rap sheet the length of Harry Potter’s potions homework – whatever he says, he’s in it for the thrill. There’s a real Robin Hood feel to Hell or High Water – bankers are presented, to a man, as villains. Toby wants to save the home not for himself, but for his estranged wife and sons. Thus, we root for Tanner and Toby even when they deserve little of our support.
The Sheriff of Nottingham here is played by Jeff Bridges. Now wait a sec before you get set to hiss, the film loves him, too. And this is even when he’s making deliberately racist remarks to his Native American/Mexican Texas Ranger partner, Alberto (Gil Birmingham). I think the film wants us to see Ranger Hamilton (Bridges) as deceptively shrewd, using his folksy bigotry to mask some sort of rustic law enforcing vanguard … as stated earlier, I’m not sold on that idea. In fact, I’m not sure I bought much of this film, but that didn’t preclude my enjoyment. There is a romanticism here of the life and deed. IMHO, Foster
and Pine have both never been better and the deliberately subdued final scene is brilliant and worth the price of admission alone.
Hell or High Water feels like an authentic Texan film. Sure, there are a standard share of Southwestern exaggerations: the highways interrupting long dusty expanses are rarely cow infested, some Texans surely own smaller vehicles and might even favor moving away from an oil-based economy, not every Texan owns a cowboy hat, nor makes use of the suicidal packing heat policies (rarely will you see a greater glorification of armed citizenry than in this film … toting a firearm and preparing to use it at any time is seen consistently as self-righteous and almost entirely without consequence in Hell or High Water), not every Texan hates banks and bankers, nor rails against legalized thievery while voting for the exact candidates who actively advertise the same deregulation that allows predatory banking to happen in the first place. Yet all of it feels very Texan, very Lone Ranger, very vigilante-ish. Not sure if my impression of Texans is correct, but I am sure this is a Texan film through and through.
♪As I was a strollin’ the “streets” of West Texas
As I was passin’ bank Midland one day
I spied a fleet robber emerging with money
Got out my piece and it’s now time to pay
“I can see by your ski mask that you are robber.”
As I took shelter behind my Bronco
That gives me the right to empty my weapon
In the direction that you plan to go.
Don’t care who the man is; he’s surely a villain
As I shunned responsibility
Got all th’ evidence to take deadly action
This is entirely why I carry
So load the gun boldly and cock it back slowly
Try to hit flesh. Improve the world so.
Don’t need more reason for execution
I’m judge and jury today, badge or no♫
Rated R, 102 Minutes
D: David Mackenzie
W: Taylor Sheridan
Genre: Texan tale
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Texans
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Bankers
♪ Parody inspired by “Streets of Laredo”
