By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com

Review: HELL OR HIGH WATER

Posted Thursday, August 11th, 2016 - Comments Off on Review: HELL OR HIGH WATER
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For generations the western defined the American cinema. The best of the genre embraced the natural beauty of landscape which dwarfed the settlers and wranglers forging new lives and reflected the mood of a nation pushing forward and glancing back.

Hell or High Water, set in contemporary West Texas, is in the spirit of the great westerns. Though modern set its locale, attitude and narrative without too much tinkering could have been situated in the pioneer eras that enlivened the likes of John Ford and Sergio Leone. The environment is rugged and the characters strong willed individuals unbowed by nature or man. The film travels along two tracks. In the lead are the brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner Howard (Ben Foster) that rob banks to pay for a homestead of parched earth that’s downing in debt. A furlong behind is veteran Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and his native partner Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham).

The brothers are the “good” bad men of sorts. Tanner’s served time and has a hair-trigger personality capable of a spectrum of extremes. Toby understands that fear is not part of his brother’s makeup and that he would be a willing participant in some smash and grab bank jobs to save their tiny bit of earth.

Still the film isn’t some simplistic Robin Hood variant where good intentions trump felonious pursuits. Toby has a clear-eyed view of the job; it’s calculated to avoid the kind of dopey missteps that got his brother in jail. The banks are specifically targeted to minimize risk, the getaway vehicles are dispensable and disposable and the weaponry simple and untraceable. Despite a personal history of failure (jobs, marriage), Toby is focused on turning around the fortunes of his sons by ken not desperation.

The fact that the younger Howard doesn’t fit the mold dovetails nicely with Ranger Hamilton, an equally singular individual. On the cusp of retirement, he’s seen every variant of criminal activity and immediately grasps that “his” bank robbers are cut from a different cloth. Hamilton is at a point in his life where his tolerance for the system is withering but he loves the hunt and has an appreciation for his prey that’s chilling.

The scrupulously observed script by Taylor Sheridan has found its ideal interpreter in Scotsman David Mackenzie. It seems both odd and appropriate that foreigners such as Australian Bruce Beresford and Brit Stephen Frears have demonstrated a feel for the west in films like of Tender Mercies and The Hi-Lo Country that has eludes native talent. Add in the evocative images of fellow Scot Giles Nuttgens and Hell or High Water emerges as wholly absorbing.

Mackenzie’s sleight-of-hand is to provide providing color, atmosphere and texture of this dot on the map without missing the essential cat-and-mouse game. The vistas as well as the local players organically meld and enrich a tale rife with tragedy and hope.

The film’s protagonists are ultimately the glue that makes it all come together. Foster recalls a latter day Buck Barrow with a simmering mix of violence, humor and compassion while Pine gets his first screen opportunity to play a variegated character balancing passion with ingrained self doubt. Birmingham elevates his role as foil and butt of the joke to Bridges’ taciturn lawman with a sly mix of dignity and intelligence.

Finally, there is Jeff Bridges who revels in the opportunity to be the grumpy, if canny, old man. There is no better testament to his talent and diligence as an actor than in the sequence of his trackdown of Toby Howard. In a flash he conveys a range of emotions with the precision of a marksman with blistering honesty that needs no flash or pomposity.

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Posted in MCN Originals, Movie City News | Comments Off on Review: HELL OR HIGH WATER

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

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~ David Simon