Movie Review - Hell or High Water ~ Directed by David MacKenzie

Hell or High Water opens in West Texas - a landscape I recognized from the years I lived in Lubbock, Texas. I seemed even to guess the location of the opening scene. The movie was actually filmed in Clovis, New Mexico beginning in May of 2015. It premiered at the 69^th annual Cannes Film Festival in May 2016.

Midland, Texas, about two hours from Lubbock is the scene of an early morning bank robbery. Two brothers, Toby Howard  (played by Chris Pine) and his brother Tanner Howard (played by Ben Foster) rob the Texas Midland Bank of small bills only. This first bank robbery was simple and quick, with some violence. Toby and Tanner race through back alleys and dusty West Texas plains to their family ranch. The family ranch, poorly cared for, and sandblasted by the Texas wind was all that was left for these brothers.  Their mother had passed away several weeks before, Tanner had shortly been released from jail.  The brothers continued on their bank robbery spree of Texas Midland Banks, escalating as the story progressed.

Texas Rangers were called in after the first bank robbery. Ranger Marcus Hamilton (played by Jeff Bridges) and Ranger Alberto Parker (played by Gil Birmingham) grate on each other but manage to work together while they follow the trail of bank robberies and escalating violence. Stationed in Lubbock, Texas the two Rangers get in their pickup and begin the chase that county sherrifs have already begun. After the final bank robbery and a chase into the West Texas plains, the spree ends tragically. 

Final scenes are after Ranger Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) has retired. He was still puzzling and trying to work out, as only a West Texan can, why the robberies had taken place. Tanner (Ben Foster) did have a rap sheet of violence and bank robberies for which he had served time.  Toby (Chris Pine) did not, but he did have a family and owed his wife much money in back child payments. Ranger Hamilton’s final conversations are with Toby and just when they are beginning to talk about what happened, Toby’s exwife and children arrive at the home that is now their own.

Dialogue, rich and colourful, included racial slurs towards Native Americans characters, which I found rather jarring, however individuals suffering the brunt of these slurs either returned it in kind or turned a very cold shoulder. The issue of gun violence was addressed in an interesting manner. Initially it seemed as though having the ability to defend in the bank robbery situation was being praised. However later in the movie, the impotence of several handguns in the face of one assault rifle, was demonstrated very effectively. Was that on purpose? I don’t know, that was my perception.

Written by: Taylor Sheridan
Directed by:  David MacKenzie
Starring Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine and Ben Foster

Rated R for some strong violence, language throughout and brief sexuality

“No amount of fire or freshness can challenge 

what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.”

~ F.Scott Fitzgerald, from The Great Gatsby