Movie Review – “Hell or High Water” Is More Than Just A Good Soundtrack
If you’re going to make a movie based in West Texas about the destruction of the agrarian economy and the way the banks rape the poor and why so much of the American heartland has turned into a ghost town husk of what it once was, what better way to embellish the moments than to include the songs of artists like Ray Wylie Hubbard, Scott H. Biram, Colter Wall, and Chris Stapleton in it. These are the men who’ve witnessed the destruction first hand and sing about it regularly.
Hell or High Water, written by Taylor Sheridan, directed by David Mackenzie, and starring Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster, and Chris Pine, is a neo-Western story about two brothers that go on a bank robbing spree to help keep the family farm in the family. Soundtrack and score writers Nick Cave and Warren Ellis also included classic country cuts from Waylon Jennings and Townes Van Zandt in the film, answering the question for many traditional/independent country fans what it would feel like to witness a modern-day big budget movie with all of your favorite artists comprising the soundtrack. The answer is it’s pretty damn cool.
But Hell or High Water is much more than just a vehicle for good music. Up for multiple Academy Awards Sunday night (2-26), including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Jeff Bridges), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing, director David Mackenzie has taken his little film with a cool soundtrack and made it one of the most critically-acclaimed flicks of the season, shining a greater spotlight on the artists and songs that are deftly interwoven with the story, and in moments with haunting and auspicious timing. Independent music artists know that awards aren’t everything, but if Hell or High Water wins big at the Oscars, it will be no small bragging rights for the musicians involved.
The film moves a little bit slow at the beginning, struggling to create the adrenaline rush you would anticipate from scenes of bank robberies and high-speed getaways. It takes a while for the viewer to find a personal connection with the main characters, and despite the true-to-life and naturally-poetic setting of West Texas, we’ve seen this many times before, and recently. The story of the retiring (or recently retired) lawman, in this case Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton played by Jeff Bridges, is a trope of many of these movies. Take Tommy Lee Jones in No Country For Old Men for example.
When the intricacy of the plot of the two brothers played by Chris Pine and Ben Foster begins to be revealed, and the relationship between them is given time to meld, this is when the movie begins to take hold, especially when their plan begins to race to a conclusion, and risks unraveling. This isn’t your traditional Oscar-contending film in the sense that it isn’t primarily intellectual or artistic in scope. These elements are certainly paid great deference, but this is a film of action, plot twists, and characters.
Where Hell of High Water does play to the Hollywood mindset is how it re imagines the whole Robin Hood story in a fresh and relevant light, despite the age and grit that encompass the story in its West Texas setting. This film could have been set in 1980 from how so many of the buildings, places, and people haven’t changed. But the story is very 2017 in how legacy farms and ranches throughout the United States—and the family ties that have made them the harbor of memories for generations—are being threatened like never before by a modern-day banking system that does not account for how estate taxes and corporate farming do a disservice to the interests of independent land owners.
As Hell or High Water works towards its conclusion, the lines between good and bad get blurred, and the moments and characters hold much more weight. Though the film feels like an outsider for Best Picture, and one you probably watch once and greatly enjoy but don’t feel the need to revisit, it does sell you on the idea it should be in contention for the best in a given year.
Often it is mourned that music awards shows are not more like the Oscars, where truly the best films and the best performances are what is rewarded as opposed to a simple acknowledgement of commercial success. Yet as we’ve seen in recent years—including an Oscar for Ryan Bingham in 2010—the film industry can be a lucrative outlet for the artists that should receive accolades, but are often overlooked. Hell or High Water not only accomplishes this, it’s a hell of a movie.
1 3/4 Guns Up (8.5/10)
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Biscuit
February 26, 2017 @ 11:28 am
Speaking of Bingham, is anyone going to be rereleasing those early albums? Thanks for the reminder I want to see this movie but I had forgotten about it. That new Scott biram album is pretty good too.
CCRR
February 26, 2017 @ 11:49 am
I love that you reviewed this movie…I feel like it flew under the radar a little bit, but it’s fantastic. I recommend it to everyone and not a single person yet hasn’t enjoyed it. For those that haven’t seen this yet, do yourself a favor and watch it. It’s a great story with well-developed characters, you won’t be disappointed – I’d say it’s one of my favorite movies in recent years.
Kross
February 26, 2017 @ 11:58 am
Maybe I’ll catch it on Netflix, but if it’s nominated for an Oscar, there’s already a good chance I won’t like it.
Trigger
February 26, 2017 @ 12:11 pm
Yeah, but like I tried to explain in the review, it’s not your typical Oscar movie. When the Oscars expanded their “Best Picture” category a few years ago, they did it to include films like this that might otherwise get overlooked. This wouldn’t be a terrible idea for music awards to follow suit.
Matt
February 26, 2017 @ 5:28 pm
Sorry but that’s really stupid reasoning. Stop trying to be a hipster
Deemo Outdoors
February 28, 2017 @ 7:44 am
Stop trying so hard to be edgy.
karl
February 26, 2017 @ 12:10 pm
Good review. I watched it a while back and was really stoked by the Waylon tune in the middle there. The acting and story were quite good, and the soundtrack really just fit in perfectly.
Mike W.
February 26, 2017 @ 12:22 pm
My favorite movie of last year. Sadly, it has zero chance at the Oscars because it doesn’t have an extremely diverse cast or is a love letter to Hollywood.
Jackson
February 26, 2017 @ 12:24 pm
The only Best Picture nominees I’ve seen this year are this one, Hacksaw Ridge and Arrival. In my opinion it doesn’t come close to Hacksaw Ridge, but it’s a lot better than Arrival. Great soundtrack and Jeff Bridges is always a plus in any movie. I recommend it.
Farmer Brian
February 26, 2017 @ 2:37 pm
I haven’t checked this film out yet, but it looks like I need to. There’s been a few farms in the family that have been foreclosed on, Lord know we were close to that point at one time too. I guess it doesn’t matter if you’re in wear Texas or in the middle of Ohio, sooner or later the family farm falls in bad times.
Jacob W.
February 26, 2017 @ 3:21 pm
Favorite movie of 2016
hoptowntiger94
February 26, 2017 @ 4:14 pm
Loved Hell or High Water; I hope it wins.
We are going to Mountain Stage tonight to see Margo Price, Dead Man Winter (so no Oscar’s).
Mike2
February 26, 2017 @ 6:20 pm
Have you seen “I don’t feel at home in this world anymore”? It’s another really well-done crime thriller with lots of traditional country music.
kapam
February 26, 2017 @ 6:46 pm
Looks like a pretty good film – one that certainly passed me by at initial release, by the look of it.
I notice your mention of Nick Cave in credits for the soundtrack. While I’m not a welded-on fan, I dare to suggest he has some interesting output which might earn something of a “country” label. I am primarily thinking of the song “Red Right Hand” which sounds for all the world like something out of a lost Sergio Leone movie. Always thought he could turn his hand well to any kind of Western film, judging by that song.
Bigfoot Is
March 1, 2017 @ 4:59 pm
You should see The Proposition. Amazing movie and screenplay by Nick Cave.
kapam
March 1, 2017 @ 6:30 pm
Yes I will. I remember that film at release but have not seen it yet! Thanks.
sbach66
February 26, 2017 @ 8:54 pm
Watched this the other night with the wife, I had heard of it, she had not. So damn good, with a killer soundtrack. When they were singing along with Waylon in the truck…so awesome.
DimM
February 27, 2017 @ 3:28 am
I don’t like Chris Pine but i was impressed by Ben Foster. And i didn’t like the fact that it was a movie based in West Texas but it was filmed in New Mexico.
Whiskey_Pete
February 27, 2017 @ 10:50 am
They filmed in New Mexico for the refundable tax credit. Film and television production get these tax incentives if they shoot in New Mexico. I believe the movie “No Country for Old Men” did the same thing.
Also the hit show Breaking Bad was mostly filmed there too.
Chris
February 27, 2017 @ 7:22 am
Excellent movie and soundtrack.
I also thought of No Country for Old Men when I saw it.
truth5
February 27, 2017 @ 8:17 am
Great movie. Don’t forget Jamey Johnsons “Playing the Part” in the movie when the two brothers are checking into the casino hotel.
Shawn A Bivens
February 27, 2017 @ 9:33 am
Waylon Jennings, YES!!! Kimmie Rhodes, YES !!!
Whiskey_Pete
February 27, 2017 @ 11:24 am
Yea this was another great neo-western movie that I fully enjoyed last year. Love Jeff Bridges. That guy is just excellent in western themed characters. His wise ass cracks at people were just hilarious. “They bopped you on the schnozzola, huh?”
Marcus Hamilton: “Oh, who knows. Maybe one of these bank robbers is gonna want a gunfight and I can dodge my retirement in a blaze of glory.”
Alberto Parker: “Well, I’ve seen you shoot. There won’t be much glory in it.”
I remember watching it and just couldn’t help be reminded of the film ‘No Country for Old Men’ because of the similar west Texas setting.
The boys cruising and listening to Waylon Jennings: “You Ask me To” was icing on the cake for me. What terrific set of songs they picked to accompany this film. Overall a great movie.
Acca Dacca
February 27, 2017 @ 4:12 pm
“Often it is mourned that music awards shows are not more like the Oscars, where truly the best films and the best performances are what is rewarded as opposed to a simple acknowledgement of commercial success.”
Point taken, but let’s not get carried away. If you hang around enough serious film buffs you’ll come to find that they feel much the same way about the Oscars as music fans do about the Grammys, it’s just a bit more subverted (the most telling description I’ve yet heard is that the Academy’s standards are “middle brow”). Hell, a group of people I know were just having a debate today about which films that have won the gold over the years “deserved” it and which didn’t, and there were quite a few classics brought up that didn’t meet their standards.
As for Hell Or High Water itself, I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, even from a co-worker who hates country music (not that it’s the point of the film, but I’m surprised to learn it plays such a big part after hearing praise from him). I’m a big fan of No Country For Old Men so if this is at all similar I suppose I’m in for a treat, whenever I may actually get around to it.