Empathy is tricky, but when it’s there, it’s there. Its power can overshadow the horrors that characters perform, and the barriers between good and evil. At the pivotal moment of Hell or High Water, the pure breed of the anti-hero tension is born as any narrative intensity is bled from both the good guys and the bad guys. That’s the true strength all the way through the film, about two brothers robbing banks. As mechanically well pulled off as the story is, the emotions of brotherly love somehow find a way into working. Seriously, Hell or High Water is so well put together as a thriller that you almost expect it to become too boring in its perfection like the bad Christopher Nolan movies. Wait, scratch that, the 8/10 Christopher Nolan movies. But it never does. Instead, the emotion of the film stays and grows to build on both the anxieties of living in modern America and the evil that sits in all of us. Hell or High Water is the type of intelligent screenplay that plays our own want to be politically correct and good against us as it uses both concepts to make us bring both sides of the characters down to in some way “evil.” Yes, Tanner (Ben Foster) and Toby (Chris Pine) Howard are robbing banks, but Jeff Bridges' old sheriff is uncompromisingly and uncomfortably racist to his Native American/Mexican partner, Alberto (Gil Birmingham). Bridges' sincerity combined with his gruff nature kind of brings him down to the standing in our minds as just another mean old man, and probably meaner than the two brothers. Especially since the brothers have a good reason to do what they are. The greatness of the film is the moment that it takes the piss out of you for siding with the robbers and judging the sheriff, simply because he’s being irreverently racist. The moment that this happens isn’t worth spoiling, but it’s a deliriously shocking moment of character realization. You realize in this moment that the sheriff, who is soon to be retired, has been being racist as simply a thin layer of bravado, trying to keep himself masculated as he nears the end of his career. The moment is both shocking because it almost completely dehumanizes things that we liked about the robbers (who for the record have been charming all the way through) and reveals all the depth of the sheriff. Now you have to live with rooting for the brothers to make it on their crime spree, and all the horrible implications that rooting for that has for the characters in the story. Hell or High Water’s ability to play with audience empathy and what that means to both the film and to the audience is masterful. It’s moments like the one described above that raises the film above the pack in doing this. This is a film that through character, theme, and our own prejudice makes us own our support for the anti-heroes at its center. The direction of David Mackenzie has always been smooth, but brutal. His Starred Up proved to be a masterpiece of prison cinema, but through a sequence of one-shots and brutal pov shots, Mackenzie outdoes himself here. His camera easily becomes the essential world building engine, using close-ups to lend an intense sense of chase to the brothers from both the sheriff and the bank and quick loan programs that have financially crippled everyone around them. This is a message movie for all intents and purposes and it wears its message not just on its sleeve but plastered to its face. Every aspect of the set design, performances, and camerawork suggests a world of poverty and people struggling to rid themselves of it, and that focus drives the entire film along with the complex character mechanics. Hell or High Water is a not too often seen spectacle. It’s a stressful, thrilling Western, with a lot to say. It sets up impossibly empathetic characters and then makes it genuinely impossible to not feel for both sides once everything falls apart. This is a genuine piece of perfection in a year of only a few. Come, Hell or High Water, don’t miss it. Hell or High Water gets a 10 out of 10.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |