Movie Review: "Hell or High Water"

I watched this film originally when it came out as it was nominated for quite a few Academy Awards. Back then, I thought of it as a cautionary tale of what would happen if small townsfolk took their power back into their own hands for the sake of teaching the big-wigs a lesson. Upon a second watch, I find that there is a lot more to the tale than simply a Robin-Hood-esque escapade of two brothers across Texas. Instead, I saw many more themes such as brotherhood in two different types and the coming together of two very different human beings to get what they needed to out of other people who did not deserve nor need it.

There's a lot to unpack here. First of all we have the two brothers - one of which has a serious criminal record and the other who is squeaky clean and has only been to court because of a divorce. After their mother dies from a long ilness, the bank tries to foreclose the house and ranch after missed payments. Determined to have the ranch belong to his sons, the younger non-criminal brother (Toby) hatches a plan in which the two brothers rob banks together. These banks are then paid back the payments for the ranch with their own stolen money, without them knowing. That seems all well and good first off - but the criminal brother (Tanner) goes off the rails, making wild things happen and frustrating his younger brother. Eventually, against the plan, people start dying and the walls begin to close in around them.

Meanwhile, Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton is supposed to be retired but has this one last gig before he can take it happily. He wants to catch these bank robbers but can't seem to find anyone willing to give them up though many people claim to have seen them. After learning that they have helped in paying off someone's mortgage at a restaurant and hearing a bunch of people talking smack about the bank, the Texas Ranger is not any wiser as to where they might be. After bringing it down to the wire, a shootout will break out in a crucial point in the story with the only differential part of the equation being who is driving which car and when. After a while, we see the Texas Ranger slowly narrow down the banks, the chances and the methods that the robbers have been using all this time - knowing that it had to be the smarter, cleaner brother that came up with this - though he does not understand why.

Hell or High Water is a great production of neo-western cinema which celebrates the anti-hero whilst also completely chastising it. The two brothers both represent two different angles of the anti-hero: one who thinks he is an anti-hero because of his wicked ways and the other who only wants to help his children and will do anything to achieve it. Honestly, I think it is a great example of how a film can do both things; firstly it can show you what bravery looks like in the face of adversity through the Texas Ranger at the shoot-out and through the fact that a man who has just witnessed his mother die after a long illness could pick himself up and do whatever is necessary for his children. Secondly, it shows us that the criminals do not always win; first we have the bank, and we all know that banks are criminal - and then we have the brother who has been to jail: Tanner. Both of which cannot be trusted by anyone but who work for two different sides.

All in all, after a second watch there is more to notice about this film. The soundtrack is something I always remember as being incredible though - the songs are really good. The fact that Nick Cave worked on the soundtrack just makes it better. If you have not watched this movie already could I recommend that not only do you watch it, but you watch it a few times because it only gets better with each viewing. And with each viewing, you will realise a hell of a lot more than you did the first time you watched it. Hopefully, you will be pleasantly surprised.