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In a mist of Hollywoodized films, here comes another stand-out with authentic Texas settings, suspense-laddering music, punctual editing & masterfully handled cinematography!
The storyline is as simple as a sentence: Two brothers are on a robbing spree with two local rangers after them. The amount of time writer Taylor Sheridan has devoted to shape these personas is astounding. Very good character-building! They truly felt like salt-of-the-earth! Ben Foster as the asshole on loose Tanner Howard & Jeff Bridges as the aging law-keeper named Marcus Hamilton steal the show! Chris Pine serves justice to the role of Toby Howard as well. Differences between the brothers strike in color whenever a robbery happens. From the way Marcus conducts investigations on the said robbery, his characterizations thicken. Brilliant!
The introduction is on the dot, soaking audiences in a country-themed background music throughout while serving red hot crime drama in the tavern. Nothing's lesser than realistic. This point is especially proven when Toby hits a punk hard in a gas station, causing a real denture on a car door metal. Talk about the way relationships are highlighted in this picture! The siblings who have each other dash together towards their goal while the argumentative 'buddy' cops inch closer to finding the culprits. The insulting racist remarks from Hamilton is obviously noticeable, but nothing ever came out of it. What could be the aim of it being included, one wonders. Dialogues are direct. The resolution scene featuring Hamilton & Toby is vigorous!
While for the initial run the screenplay moves in a breakneck speed, things do slow down when the Second Act emerges. The real cancer cell in the script is the Confrontation phase. There aren't any episodes of conflicts. The brothers are successful in their mission. They plan well, they bury the evidences and all. In fact, too successful to a point where there's only 1 conjecture that turned the whole plan haywire. The Texas Midlands Bank thievery at Post is the incident that picks up the pace of the movie & drives to a chest-thumping hill shooting! Why couldn't have the writer eradicated the thrift-spending portions in the casino which has no weightage or whatsoever & inserted more obstacles on the way? Also, the script should have also explained the backstory. These 2 aspects would have been a wiser use of screen time!
At the end of the day, Hell or High Water only manages to grow into a tamer version of Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men.