Hell or High Water Review

There was a time when Hollywood’s go to film was the western, with so much desert around they were cheap and easy to churn out in large numbers, so easy in fact that they got worst and worst until they seemed to stop making them. Then came the revisionist westerns, and in more recent years the modern western, they might not feature cowboy’s vs Indians, but the modern westerns have a passion for the south with films such as No Country for Old Men and now David McKenzie’s Hell or High Water. The film features Chris Pine and Ben Foster as bank robbing brothers who are hitting banks in an attempt to raise enough money to save their family farm, Jeff Bridges is the Ranger on their tail.

                What’s to obviously exceptional about McKenzie’s film is that it seems like a direct descendant to the westerns of old, a film whose views on the present Texas reflect on how it was formed by the Texas of old. This is most notable in the conversations between Bridges and his part native American partner Alberto, in one moment Alberto lectures Bridges on how the America now doesn’t really belong to those who think it’s being taken away from them because it was never theirs to begin with, it’s the luxury of the modern western that it can have this reflection. There is also brilliant social commentary on how the American frontier of old that Pine and Foster represent is being taken over by corporations and denying them what they feel is rightfully theirs.

                Despite being a native of Northumberland England, McKenzie captures that sense of the south perfectly, it’s a sparse landscape and sleepy Texan towns populated with quaint local Texans, it’s almost beautiful in its lack of beauty. He also directs with a genial sense of pace that allows the contents of the frame to do most of the talking.

                The performances are all exceptional, Ben Foster plays the Joe Pesci type role in the sense that he's the manic liability who though fiercely loyal also feels dangerous to everybody. Jeff Bridges essentially plays Jeff Bridges in a Rangers uniform, but there's something so intensely watchable about Bridges that it's rarely anything other than brilliant to see him up on screen.The real surprise of the cast is the performance of Chris Pine, there’s never been any question that he’s a good actor, but he’s never been given a role with enough flesh on it to sufficiently demonstrate this, fortunately here he can really show off his chops and its really impressive stuff.

                It’s not flawless, as ever with films set in the south it seems to have a very frustrating attitude towards its female characters, there are few given enough screen time to register, and when they do they’re never entirely in a positive light. The set pieces are genuinely very exciting and well-orchestrated, but it often strays into familiarity, and when you start thinking of another film that’s done it better, then the film begins to lose some of its charm.

           Ultimately this is the best western you’ll see at the cinema this year, it feels Cohen-esque but also like a film that could have been better if it was actually in the hands of the Cohen’s, but with a cracking soundtrack and some decent performances this is well worth a watch. (High 4 Stars)