4 Star

For the Love of Family.

From director David Mackenzie (Starred Up, Perfect Sense) and writer Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone (TV Series), Sicario) bring us a tale of generational poverty in West Texas USA. As companies close and farmsteads are repossessed, it’s the banks that sit pretty, but some folks want to do anything to save their heritage. 

Toby Howard (Chris Pine, Star Trek, Wonder Woman) has been living at his parents farm in West Texas, due to the split with his wife Debbie (Marin Ireland, Glass Chin, Materialist) and two children. Unfortunately she passed away a few weeks ago, and with the West Midlands bank holding their reverse mortgage, a mortgage loan usually secured by a residential property, that enables the borrower to access the unencumbered value of the property. The loans are typically promoted to older homeowners and typically do not require monthly mortgage payments. Borrowers are still responsible for property taxes or homeowner’s insurance. This leads to a huge deficit that the poor can never payoff before foreclosure of their lands. Toby’s older brother Tanner (Ben Foster, 3:10 to Yuma, Leave No Trace) has been out of jail for a year and Toby has called in his wild brother to help solve his problem.

The basic plan is stealing the money from the West Midlands Bank that will take their farm, pay them back with their own money. They start in small town America, hitting the branches that just serve the local dwindling population, but new to this caper, their first attempt is a bit rushed, as the tills are not even filled yet, so they have to wait for the manager, then on to the next, this time the cash registers are full of small bills, that’s what they want, the untraceable cash.

This gets noticed by retiring Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges, The Giver, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot) and his mixed race partner Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham, Yellowstone (TV Series), Wind River), and Marcus never lets him forget his heritage.

How have you stayed out of prison for a year?

It’s been hard.

Now begins a game of cat-and-mouse as Marcus tries to anticipate where they are going to rob next and Toby has to deal with his wayward brother.

This slow-burner is well worth adding to your 4K UHD collection, the writing is brilliant and so is the acting is superb. Add this to a lively country soundtrack by Nick Cave.

Those concealed carry permits sure complicate a bank robbery.

Hell or High Water is on 4K UHD.

On Disc Extras:

•“ENEMIES FOREVER”: THE CHARACTERS OF HELL OR HIGH WATER” FEATURETTE

•“VISUALIZING THE HEART OF AMERICA” FEATURETTE

•“DAMAGED HEROES: THE PERFORMANCES OF HELL OR HIGH WATER” FEATURETTE

•RED CARPET PREMIERE

•FILMMAKER Q&A

•INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR DAVID MACKENZIE

Hell or High Water (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) track listing
No.
Title
Artist(s)
Length
1.
“Comancheria”
Nick Cave
Warren Ellis
2:05
2.
“Dollar Bill Blues”
Townes Van Zandt
3:01
3.
“Mama’s Room”
Cave
Ellis
2:49
4.
“Dust of the Chase”
Ray Wylie Hubbard
5:05
5.
“Texas Midlands”
Cave
Ellis
2:02
6.
“Robbery”
Cave
Ellis
3:26
7.
“You Ask Me To”
Waylon Jennings
2:29
8.
“Mountain Lion Mean”
Cave
Ellis
2:07
9.
“Sleeping on the Blacktop”
Colter Wall
3:12
10.
“From My Cold Dead Hands”
Cave
Ellis
2:30
11.
“Lord of the Plains”
Cave
Ellis
2:35
12.
“Blood, Sweat and Murder”
Scott H. Biram
2:54
13.
“Casino”
Cave
Ellis
1:50
14.
“Comancheria II”
Cave
Ellis
1:49
15.
“Outlaw State of Mind”
Chris Stapleton
5:35
Total length:
43:29