Oscars-nominated film “Hell or High Water” unravels a story with far more intrigue than a pair of West Texas brothers robbing a chain of banks has to offer. The movie is a fervent portrayal of the desperation poverty brings and the lengths kin will go to provide for their own.
“Hell or High Water” takes place in nowhere, West Texas. While the entire movie was filmed in New Mexico, the wildscaping landscapes, free roaming cattle and rustic-tin houses lining the highway feel reminiscent of conservative, small-town Texas. The movie opens up with two brothers, Tanner Howard (Ben Foster) and Toby Howard (Chris Pine), robbing a small bank called “Texas Midwestern Bank.”
While the brothers move from bank to bank and get-away car to get-away car, the audience slowly starts to grasp that like all good crimes, theirs is strategic and the money isn’t solely for the purpose of getting rich. The brothers have quite a bit at stake. Younger brother Toby has a significant child support debt to pay back to his ex-wife, but ultimately the plan is to pay back the bank that is set to foreclose on the family ranch with its own money — Texas Midwestern Bank.
This film stands apart from other films in the way the plot unfolds. Instead of viewing the series of events that lead up to the Howards' robberies, one has to assemble how these events came together before meeting the siblings in their wild escapades.
Slowly one starts to piece together how the Howards have found themselves in such a grim situation. The foreclosure on the Howard Ranch comes after older brother Tanner gets out of jail — a common occurrence for the character — leaving Toby to take care of their gravely ill mother, who eventually dies. The brothers find out that the ranch sits on a bountiful amount of oil, enough to pull them out of generations of poverty and give Toby’s two sons and ex-wife the ability to “do different than me,” as he commands his son to do in the film.
Giles Nuttgens achieves a level of beautiful cinematography within the film. The lush-green pastures and breath-taking sunsets feel bittersweet and suffocating in contrast to the Howards' situation. This juxtaposition is difficult to execute but is one of the reasons the film resonates as so much more than just a Western film.
Another reason why audiences can buy into the Howards situation is the ever-present tension between the siblings. Toby and Tanner’s personality differences are natural, yet their blood-deep genuine love for each other is evident.
While the only physical resemblance between Pine and Foster is a set of piercing blue eyes, the bond they share helps the audience buy into their plan — a vital element the movie would drown without. As the movie title alludes, they have sworn to stick to their plan together, come hell or high water.
The brotherly relationship Tanner and Toby share contrasts well to the relationship between Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and half-Mexican, half-Comanche marshal Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham). Hamilton is a soon-to-be retired ranger who finds tracking down the Howard brothers as an opportunity to get into a gun fight and “dodge my retirement in a blaze of glory.” He also makes absurdly racist comments to Parker throughout the duration of the entire film, no doubt capitalizing on the inability of many to understand that America is not their land but has been taken from Native Americans. Parker points this out in an eloquently sharp monologue toward the end of the film.
The heavy atmosphere between Hamilton and Parker makes the end of the film incredibly heartbreaking, to say the least.
While Bridges received an Oscar nod for his performance, it’s a shame Pine failed to receive one as well, as his quiet demeanor spoke volumes throughout the film — never failing to make the viewer wonder what was running through his head.
The end of “Hell or High Water” culminates what the film is about in a showdown between Toby Howard and Hamilton. While Hamilton struggles to cope with the incentive for the Howard’s robbery, Toby answers in a simple yet stunning statement.
“I’ve been poor my whole life," he says. "My parents, their parents before them, it’s like a disease passing from generation to generation, becomes a sickness, it’s the only thing they know. But not my boys, not anymore.”
"Hell or High Water" has been nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing. The Academy Awards are Feb. 26.
