Hell or High Water (2016)

A divorced father and his ex-con older brother resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family's ranch in West Texas.

Director:

David Mackenzie

Writer:

Taylor Sheridan

Stars:

Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 48 wins & 166 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dale Dickey	...	Elsie
Ben Foster	...	Tanner Howard
Chris Pine	...	Toby Howard
William Sterchi	...	Mr. Clauson
Buck Taylor	...	Old Man
Kristin K. Berg	...	Olney Teller (as Kristin Berg)
Jeff Bridges	...	Marcus Hamilton
Gil Birmingham	...	Alberto Parker
Keith Meriweather	...	Rancher
Jackamoe Buzzell	...	Archer City Deputy
Katy Mixon	...	Jenny Ann
Amber Midthunder	...	Vernon Teller
Joe Berryman	...	Bank Manager
Taylor Sheridan	...	Cowboy
Howard Ferguson Jr.	...	Vernon PD Officer (as Howard S. Ferguson Jr.)

Storyline

In Texas, after the death of his mother, the unemployed oil and gas worker Toby Howard is losing his ranch to the Texas Midlands Bank. Toby is divorced from his wife who lives with their two sons. When his brother Tanner Howard is released from the prison, they team up to rob agencies of the Texas Midlands Bank to raise money to pay the loan so that Toby may leave the real estate to his sons. Meanwhile the Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton who is near retirement and his Native American-descendant partner Alberto Parker try to anticipate the next move of the thieves.

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Plot Keywords:

texas | bank robber | brother brother relationship | armed robbery | bank robbery | 

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Taglines:

....not the way it woulda gone little brother.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

Parts of Comancheria (the film's original title) were filmed in Clovis, NM, with residents of the city being used as extras.

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Goofs

Toward the beginning of the movie at 4:48 when Toby and Tanner are driving away from the Texas Midlands Bank, Tanner says, "See little brother, not a worry in the world!" You can clearly hear two separate audio tracks being overlaid. Most likely, an ADR track was mixed over the production sound, which also had to stay for some reason.

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Quotes

Tanner Howard: You know I love you, don't you?
Toby Howard: I love you too.
Tanner Howard: Hey Toby, go fuck yourself.
Toby Howard: Go fuck yourself.
[they cheerfully laugh]

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Connections

Referenced in The Late Late Show with James Corden: David Duchovny/Jeff Bridges/Nastasya Generalova (2016)

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Soundtracks

Sleeping On The Blacktop
Written & Performed by Colter Wall
Courtesy of Windrow Entertainment Inc.

User Reviews

A morally complex "cops-and-robbers" film

In a year when the quality of life in middle America small towns has come back into focus, "Hell or High Water" feels like an important film, perhaps more important than it might have been had it been released prior to 2016. But it's not just timeliness that makes this a good movie. There are strong performances and strong writing Taylor Sheridan, someone we should definitely be paying more attention.

The "Sicario" writer returns with another tale set near the U.S.-Mexico border, this one following two poor West Texas brothers, Tanner and Toby Howard, one an ex-con (Ben Foster) and the other a divorced father of two (Chris Pine), who start robbing banks for petty cash. Their objective is to make enough money to pay off the bank before it forecloses on their recently deceased mother's ranch, which she willed to her grandsons. The property also happens to be sitting on enough oil to guarantee the boys' future.

With the stolen amounts too small to warrant attention from the FBI, a nearly retired Texas Ranger named Marcus (Jeff Bridges) and his partner, Alberto (Gil Birmingham), are assigned to track down the robbers and the cat-and-mouse game begins.

The characters could be distilled to two outlaw anti-heroes and the ranger on their tail who is about to hang it all up, but Sheridan's script evolves beyond the archetypes and into complicated, ugly territory, which is exactly where he took 2015's "Sicario." Whereas most cops-and-robbers stories have clear good guys and bad guys, this one doesn't.

Foster's Tanner is the wild one who can take things too far and lacks a moral compass, but he's fiercely loyal and devoted to his brother. Pine's Toby seems good through and through, but he has a violent streak and their whole illegal scheme is his idea. Even Bridges' smart, shiny-badged old ranger has a slightly bigoted attitude that often expresses itself to his half-Mexican, half-Native American partner.

All this "gray" makes watching how "Hell or High Water" plays out all the more interesting. We find ourselves rooting for the brothers' success only to have Sheridan execute some jarring turns in the story. Suddenly the stakes get higher and more real, and director David Mackenzie wisely keeps his hands off it all, which actually adds to the shock factor. We never feel comfortable with the violence in the film because it never feels stylish and never becomes commonplace, and that makes the violence that does happen more effective.

There's also a social commentary at play beneath the main thrust of the narrative, which is what really makes Sheridan's work stand out. Race crops up at various points, sometimes subtly and other times less so. At one point, Tanner has a confrontation with a Comanche man at a casino that seems to digress from the story a bit, but it serves the purpose of highlighting differences and animosity between people, and the pervasive "otherness" that causes so many rifts in our society.

That's where the timely factor comes in. It's not just about how these brothers represent the millions of Americans whose small town way of life is going extinct and creating such desperation, it's about how we go after what we want at the expense of other people, and treat others like the enemy. These fears, these attitudes and this desperation is cancerous and, sadly, cyclical.

That's more than you'd expect from a movie about bank robbers, to be sure.

~Steven C

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Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Page Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 August 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

Comancheria

Filming Locations:

Clovis, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$621,329, 14 August 2016

Gross USA:

$27,007,844

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$37,879,877

Company Credits

Production Co:

CBS Films, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, MWM Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1