10 Years Ago, Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine Made the Best Modern Western With This Hit Movie

The Western was once one of cinema’s most consistently reliable genres. It did well on the big screen and, thanks to shows like Gunsmoke, on the small screen. This was especially true from just shy of 1940 to about 1960, which was called the genre’s “Golden Age.” It was the era that saw the release of John Ford’s The Searchers, Stagecoach, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon, and William Wyler’s The Big Country. But there have been bright spots since 1960, too. The late mid to late ’60s had The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the ’70s had Little Big Man and The Outlaw Josey Wales, and the ’80s had Pale Rider and Young Guns.

It’s a genre that never goes away and never loses its appeal, though without a doubt, fewer of them have served as, say, a studio summer tentpole as the years have progressed. But every now and then, one hits the big screen and manages to impress everyone with its revitalization of the well-worn genre. Such was the case with the Taylor Sheridan-penned Hell or High Water.

What Is Hell or High Water About?

Hell or High Water follows brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner Howard (Ben Foster) as they carry out their plan to rob multiple West Texas banks so they can save their family ranch. They’ve already successfully robbed two branches, but soon learn they’ll need more to ensure their future.

Several factors are working against them. One is Tanner’s hot temper, which doesn’t get along with Toby’s more reserved and calm method. After all, with two sons to take care of, he needs to be more cautious. Then there’s Marcus Hamilton (Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham), a pair of Texas Rangers assigned the task of bringing the brothers down.

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They get a lead when the brothers rob their next bank. It’s more crowded than they prefer, but they’re pressed for time. Unfortunately, a gunfight breaks out, resulting in Tanner killing both a security guard and an armed civilian. Toby is also shot, not by the Texas Rangers, but rather by a posse of local men.

With the noose closing around the brothers’ necks and the Rangers getting a better sense of where they’re currently holed up, it isn’t long before another gunfight breaks out, this time in a desert mountain ridge. Both sides suffer losses, but one remains of each side for a final confrontation, one where words are traded instead of chunks of lead.

What Makes Hell or High Water a Modern Western Classic?

Hell or High Water scored four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Bridges, and Best Original Screenplay for Sheridan. Deservedly so on all fronts, but especially for Sheridan, whose script is arguably his best. Before he started creating a litany of streaming series, Sheridan had a phenomenal big-screen winning streak going for him.

In 2015, he penned Sicario, which, like Hell or High Water, is a modern masterpiece. After Hell or High Water, he made what amounted to his directorial debut (not counting 2011’s low-budget horror film Vile) with 2017’s Wind River. Like Hell or High Water, Wind River is a compelling, touching, character-focused neo-Western that incorporates Native American culture.

The next year, 2018, was when he created Yellowstone, and as a result, his subsequent feature-length projects (Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Without Remorse, and Those Who Wish Me Dead) fell short. But, plenty of Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lioness, and Landman fans would attest that it was for the better that he transitioned to long-form storytelling.

Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River are the three installments of Sheridan’s American Frontier Trilogy, and given the strength of all three, it’s clear that he and his script are deserving of a lot of credit when it comes to High Water’s quality. But Bridges and Pine also carry the film extremely well. And, in the few moments they share the screen, they have considerable chemistry. Toss in equally strong supporting work from the ever-underrated Foster and Birmingham, and the movie is as well-acted as it is well-written.

It’s also a win for indie movie director David Mackenzie, who had scored three years earlier with the Jack O’Connell-fronted Starred Up. Mackenzie and Pine reteamed a few years later on the far higher budgeted Outlaw King for Netflix. And, while impressive on several fronts, it didn’t live up to their first collaboration.

Stream Hell or High Water on fuboTV.