What would you do if your mother died and entrusted the family ranch to your sons — but they will never actually get it? The local bank has the land tied up in mortgages and back taxes, and you have always been poor, so there’s no way you could ever pay it off before the bank forecloses on the property in two weeks.
Unless you turn to bank robbery. More specifically, robbing the bank that is robbing you of your land.
Toby Howard (Chris Pine) is a quiet and focused man who is estranged from his divorced wife and sons, but he is determined to save the land for them. He enlists the help of his older brother, Tanner (Ben Foster), a short-legged, curly-haired pistol who recently got out of jail. Toby develops a plan to acquire the necessary money in time, and the two men begin a series of heists across West Texas.
Hot on their trail are a pair of Texas Rangers, Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and his partner Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham). Marcus is on the cusp of forced retirement, and this is his last rodeo. The Rangers start out with the impression that the two amateur bank robbers will slip up and be an easy catch, but the unpredictable brothers won’t be so easily apprehended.
“Did you like it?” my husband asked me as we left the theater.
“I’m not sure,” I said, processing out loud. “I felt so angry towards the end, but I think that’s because I cared about all the characters so much. There were no bad guys.”
“That’s the sign of a good story,” my husband agreed. “It’s kind of a modern-day Robin Hood story: robbing from the rich to give to the poor. And it’s a contemporary Western, too, drawing us in to the charismatic life and culture of West Texas.” He thought for a minute and then said, “I liked it. I think it’s the kind of movie everyone should see. It tells the truth about the way the world is.”
That, coming from my husband, is high praise indeed.
In addition to being a good story, the actors are all perfectly chosen in Hell or High Water. Jeff Bridges especially stands out as the wizened Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton, a respected symbol of law and order who is also an intolerable and politically incorrect jokester. Fans of John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in the original True Grit will see many nods to that infamous cowboy in the character of Marcus Hamilton. He is impossible, endearing, curmudgeonly, and tough as nails, and does everything while wearing a Stetson as big as Texas.
The critics agree that the film is far better than most of the movies at the box office this summer. Hell or High Water has earned a score of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and 88% (“universal acclaim”) on Metacritic. Don’t let this one pass you by. It’s iconic, honest, and American, and is one we’ll be recommending over and over.
Movie times: click here
Genre: Crime film/Drama film
Directors: David Mackenzie
Actors: Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Gil Birmingham
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour 42 minutes
