I have been a fan of Jeff Bridges for over
40 years. From The Last Picture Show in 1971, through Thunderbolt & Lightfoot in 1974, Cutter’s Way (’81), Starman
(’84), The Fabulous Baker Boys )’89),
The
Fisher King (’91), Fearless (95), The
Big Lebowski (’98) and K-PAX in 2001 right up to Iron Man, (08), Crazy Heart (09) and True
Grit in 2010. He
has performed for the heavyweight
Directors John Huston, Michael Cimino, John Carpenter, Peter Weir,
Ridley Scott, Walter Hill, Frances Ford Copola,
Sidney Lumet and the Coen Brothers, but he has always been willing to work with lesser known
directors as well. Instead of becoming
a ‘Film Star’ who gives audiences exactly what they expect, as if their own
personality simply inhabits the (rather similar) characters they play, Bridges has
deliberately taken a 90 degree turn
after most of his movies. So Starman, in which he plays a rather
charming benign alien, was followed by Jagged Edge. Wild
Bill (Hickok) by The Big Lebowski,
Iron Man by Crazy Heart and Crazy Heart
by True Grit.
In Hell
or High Water he has lent his
support to a relatively new Director, David MacKenzie. MacKenzie was born in Northumberland and adapted and directed
the well received Starred
Up (2013) with Jack O’Connell and Ben Mendlesohn, after two low budget but very interesting
British movies, Hallam Foe (07) with Jamie
Bell, and Young Adam (03) with Tilda Swinton and Ewan McGregor. Giles
Nuttgens was behind the camera for both of these earlier films. Hell
or High Water was written by Taylor
Sheridan who wrote Sicario and also acts
a small part here. MacKenzie, Nuttgens and Sheridan came together to make Hell or High Water with Jeff
Bridges, Chris Pine and Ben Foster in front of the cameras. And it
works.
Chris Pine is characterized by IMdb as ‘frequently playing mischievous but charming and likable
characters’. Here he produces his most complex and mature performance as Toby, a young Texan, with no great prospects, divorced, missing his boys, aware that any small inheritance
the family might receive from his recently deceased mother’s farm will soon be
swallowed by the omnivorous bank.
This is Comanche territory, and we hear how in the past the white man
took the land from the tribes, and now the banks are taking the land from the
poor whites. His elder brother Tanner
has just been released from prison, jailed
for bank robbing, and the two of them set out on a lightning series of raiding
small town banks to get the money to redeem the loan (plus interest) that would
swallow up the farm. They only rob the
bank that made the loan. Tanner is
played by Ben Foster, who I saw as
Stanley in the Young Vic broadcast of A
Streetcar Named Desire, along with Gillian Anderson.
On the brother’s trail come two Texas
Rangers, Marcus played by Bridges and
Gil, (Alberto Parker). There is an
undercurrent of tension between them, as
Marcus habitually tries to bridge the cultural gap with his Comanche partner by
making racist jokes. Gil does not seen these
as amusing or ironic. They both know that their partnership is
soon coming to an end as Marcus is facing compulsory retirement - and hates the
idea. Maybe it would be better to go
out in a blaze of glory. Maybe not.
I enjoyed Bridges’ portrayal of an intelligent and
complex man, perceptive in many ways but blind in others. Marcus and Toby, lawman and outlaw, do not
meet until the final scene. They may
both be lonely unattached men, each with a sense of decency and a determination
to do what they see as necessary, but
they have no other common ground. There showdown crackles. They
are not at all like the cop and robber in Heat,
who could be seen as two sides of the same coin.
This is a well made and engrossing movie,
as much concerned with social issues as with the crimes, well directed, acted,
filmed and scored.
