{"id":6084,"date":"2016-09-28T07:55:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T11:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6084"},"modified":"2016-10-28T06:52:18","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T10:52:18","slug":"hell-or-high-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6084","title":{"rendered":"Hell or High Water"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ben

Ben Foster & Chris Pine in Hell or High Water<\/p><\/div>\n

This modern outlaw Western directed by David Mackenzie (trailer<\/a>) is receiving high praise from critics. Like the faceless cattle barons and railroad tycoons memorialized in 1950s celluloid, today it\u2019s the bankers who are handy villains bent on destroying the little guy. That\u2019s true even if the modern cowboy rides a drilling rig.<\/p>\n

Brothers Tanner and Toby Howard (Ben Foster and Chris Pine, respectively) team up to rob branches of the Texas Midland Bank, an institution that has drained the value from their late mother\u2019s ranch and now (since corporations are officially people, I can anthropormorphize) sits rubbing its hands, waiting to foreclose. That would be a double catastrophe, because oil has been found on the land, and Toby is desperate to hang onto it so he can pass this valuable parcel to his kids. But he lacks the cash to save it. Thus, the robber scheme is hatched.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff

Jeff Bridges & Gil Birmingham, Hell or High Water<\/p><\/div>\n

On the hunt for the robbers are two Texas Rangers\u2014Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham). Hamilton is just weeks from retirement, and figures out the broad outlines of the plot. He just can\u2019t quite put the pieces together. He rides his American\/Indian\/Mexican partner mercilessly, and you understand Parker\u2019s stoicism in the face of these insults is part of the joke. He gets his own barbs in too. Early on, he asks Hamilton: \u201cAre you going to do anything about these robberies, or just sit there and let Alzheimer\u2019s take its course?\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching Hamilton and Parker is fun; watching the brothers is fun. They are real characters and they have real relationships here. For me, a big part of the fun is not knowing exactly what to expect, because the movie falls both within and outside the usual formulas. As Philadelphia Inquirer <\/em>reviewer Stephen Rea<\/a> says, it\u2019s \u201cat once a tale of desperation in hard times and a keenly observed character study\u2014or studies.\u201d I\u2019d give it 7 stars out of 10.<\/p>\n

I had a little flutter when the lawmen referred to Lubbock (home of my grandparents) and Young County (my great-grandparents). The filming, however, was in New Mexico. Not the same at all.<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating: 98%, audiences 90%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This modern outlaw Western directed by David Mackenzie (trailer) is receiving high praise from critics. Like the faceless cattle barons and railroad tycoons memorialized in 1950s celluloid, today it\u2019s the bankers who are handy villains bent on destroying the little … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Hell or High Water - when the local banker ain't your friend.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[440,52,57,104],"tags":[622,619,620,621,285],"class_list":["post-6084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-crime","category-movies","category-the-morgue","tag-ben-foster","tag-chris-pine","tag-gil-birmingham","tag-jeff-bridges","tag-texas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1A8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6087,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6084\/revisions\/6087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}