West Texas is the romanticized West of twenty first
century Hollywood still populated by outlaws, sheriffs and thousands of
cows. The edgy element of romance is provided by skeletal still art of
derricks dotting the desert-scape, populated
by dirt-poor ranchers, slick oilmen and occasionally, in saunters Jeff
Bridges in a cowboy hat.
In Hell or High Water, West Texas is played by
Eastern New Mexico. Same difference, the same earth under the same sun
on either side of an invisible human-drawn administrative line,
apparently invisible lines have no effect on geographies.
In addition to the strangely addictive West
Texas-Jeff Bridges combo, Hell or High Water has a great cast and a
subtly kick-ass script by Hollywood’s true Texan writer – Taylor
Sheridan. Directed by David Mackenzie, the movie is about two
brothers taking revenge on a financial institution, to put it
indirectly staying clear of spoilers.
Chris Pine and Ben Foster work the dynamics of an
endearing brothers-in-arms duo, one a happy go lucky ex-con and the
other a reserved and protective father. The brothers are balanced on the
other side of the law by two Texas rangers –
wise-cracking Jeff Bridges and a half Comanche-half Mexican ranger
played by Gil Birmingham. There is an interesting tension between these
two law men characters colored with sarcasm and racial jokes yet their
banter (mainly one-sided by Bridge's character)
has the looking out for each other, brother-from-another-mother
quality.
The camera panning the desolate expanse of the desert towns and the story chasing the brothers through
the lone star state's western outposts captures the
hopelessness, isolation and rapidly creeping poverty of the region. If
you like neo-Westerns (there might or might not be cowboys, by Western I
just mean they are shot in the American south west)
check out Serpico, True Grit or Nocturnal Animals, the desert is a
prominent player in all these remarkable movies.
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