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| Hell or High Water (Directed by David Mackenzie) |
The bank robbers are the Howard brothers, Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster), the former troubled by the grim necessity of their actions, while the latter throws himself enthusiastically into proceedings. Toby, laconic in the Western tradition, needs cash to prevent the family ranch from being foreclosed by the Texas Midlands Bank, and comes up with a plan both elegant and logical, to steal the money required from the scattered branches of the bank itself. Tanner, meanwhile, is the untamed, older brother, just out of prison and gleeful at the opportunity to explore his criminal tendencies.
In steady pursuit of the two brothers are Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges), a slow-talking Texas Ranger nearing retirement, and his American-Indian partner, Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham). The hunt for the two bank robbers leads them from one isolated, economically broken West Texas town to another. The landscape itself, dusty, parched, clinging onto life in the face of the odds, is a key dimension of the film. It’s painful history of dispossession haunts the protagonists as they face the same fate as the Comanche whose land this once was.
Although falling into the mythical category of western outlaws, the film does not romanticize its two leads. Toby and Tanner aren’t alluring characters, just two desperate men trying to survive in a world that has turned its back on them. And while the script is explicit about the harsh economics of their predicament, it avoids preachiness, suggesting instead that as victims of economic fallout they are as much driven by a sense of despair as one of injustice.
The script alludes to and echoes the Coen brothers’ Texas-set classics, No Country for Old Men and Blood Simple, in its use of a tightly-scripted fatalistic structure, a western landscape that offers no promise, and the slow grinding wheels of justice. Going back further still, Mackenzie’s film is in conversation with Arthur Penn’s more boldly romantic take on the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
Such resonance is interesting to a point but, Hell or High Water is a work of considerable power on its own terms. The beautifully wrought script, by Taylor Sheridan, whose Sicario was a brilliantly conceived take on the drug cartel thriller, takes the viewer on a journey into the heart of modern America’s wayward soul. And Mackenzie’s direction is considered, poignant and finely attuned to the changing moods of the script, funny, dark, contemplative, explosive—with smooth confidence.
Hell or High Water is a genre film that surpasses its generic origins, an American fable that is nonetheless firmly rooted in a particular location and period. In turn comic, compelling, and poignant, it is a film that never loses sight of the human predicament at its core.
The following extract on Hell or High Water is from an interview with director David Mackenzie and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan who discuss the script and the making of the film.
Taylor Sheridan: I wrote Sicario first. I sent Hell or High Water to Peter Berg, asking if he’d like to be involved. He did a phenomenal job with [West Texas fare] like Friday Night Lights, both the film and the TV series. He really responded and took to scouting locations. His schedule didn’t permit him to direct. We found ourselves in a competitive situation with a bunch of finance companies bidding for it. It was Sidney Kimmel who said he’d shoot my first draft. It was a decision that was made alarmingly fast.
What took a long time was finding the right director, and ultimately we found David. I’d seen his film Starred Up and he had an authenticity. That movie follows a father and son who wind up in the same prison together. He’s an unsentimental director, and he’s patient with the camera in a way that doesn’t feel slow. And I felt there were important moments in Hell or High Water that could be overly sentimental, such as between Marcus and Alberto’s friendship, and when Toby meets his ex-wife, or goes to sit with his son. There’s a lot of landmines, and David effortlessly stepped around them. David boarded and we cast the film quickly.
There’s something about European directors where they’re able to look at something American through unique eyes; they don’t have a dog in this fight. I didn’t want this movie to be political in any way; rather, social.
David Mackenzie: Taylor’s script was love at first sight. I loved the way it moved, the sense of place and people and its connection to the great movies of the 1970s that I really loved. But it also felt like it was a snapshot of contemporary America with resonance of the past, a slightly poetic song to the change of the Old West. I wasn’t trying to be an outsider, but an amateur American. I wanted to embrace and respect this world we were trying to represent.
Taylor, your uncle was a lawman like Jeff Bridges’ Marcus character.
Sheridan: He was a federal marshal. They have a mandatory retirement age. The day before his, he was kicking in the door and serving a warrant, then turning in his badge and gun. That was fascinating to me, that all of the sudden your life has no purpose.
The fact that Pine and Foster’s bank robbers steal from one chain in the movie— where did you draw inspiration for that?
Sheridan: I was driving through these small towns in Texas and every town had a bank and a café with nothing else to do. Everything else was closed. And I said to myself, “Why is there still a bank?” Well, obviously they needed to deposit oil royalties. I thought, someone can rob this place blind. There’s only two county sheriffs in an area that’s the size of greater Los Angeles. I then worked through in my mind the cycle of poverty, by robbing the people who legally robbed from you. I watched as the recession hit, and there was anger, and I allowed that to manifest.
The film’s opening tracking shot is pretty stunning. Where did the idea for that come from?
Mackenzie: On the very first day of shooting, it was the very first shot. I tried to shoot the outlaws sequentially. But the shot was trying to set up the scope of the world, and some kind of tension as you’re moving through this landscape. I tried to do a lot in fairly long takes. It’s important that the pace of the film be what it is.
As an outsider, to come into an uncluttered landscape [like West Texas], felt very beautiful to me and my DP, Giles Nuttgens. We’ve worked on five films that I’ve done. For us it’s a beautiful place, and for some people in America, they would think it’s normal and slightly depressing.
Sheridan: I don’t write tracking shots in my screenplays or any camera directions, but I do try to give a sense of how the action is moving. David came up with the method of weaving and he shot it on the back of a motorcycle.
From Encore: Taylor Sheridan & David Mackenzie On Raising ‘Hell Or High Water’: “It’s About Fatherhood At The End Of The Day” by Anthony D'Alessandro.
