Hell or High Water * * * * *

Here's a fine American drama from  a Scotsman.

David Mackenzie likes to march to the beat of his own drum, which is fine as long as people like what you are doing.  Fortunately in David’s case they do.  Nearly everything he has done has been a success,and this fine film will only serve to enhance his unblemished reputation.

"Soon as we finish this beer let's go visit 
the bank and pay out the mortgage"
"Sounds like a plan"

Written by Taylor Sheridan (and a huge improvement on Sicario) it’s quite a simple story really, which proves yet again that you don’t need to get complicated to be spell binding.

Set in Texas it’s the story of the Howard brothers who realise the only way they can stop the banks from foreclosing on the family ranch is by robbing the banks themselves to get the money to pay the mortgage.  Pretty good idea really.  

So like a couple of robbers from the olden days they go from bank to bank.  They only hit the one brand of bank and they don’t ask them to “open the safe”.  They know that money from the teller drawers is much harder to trace and less likely to be dye-bombed, trouble is, by just taking the up-front money each robbery only yields a few thousand, which they take to the Indian Reservation Based Casinos to launder.

Meanwhile, we are introduced to Sheriff Hamilton a man on the verge of retirement.  Trust this job to come along in his last days.  But Sheriff Hamilton has experience and a wiliness that works in his favour.

So it’s virtually two men - the Howard Brothers v two men - the Sheriff and his Deputy Alberto -   a man who is also a Cherokee Indian.

This is an exciting, cat and mouse drama that will keep you in suspense until the end and even after that will leave you wondering.

Great story, superb acting and dialogue, great photography. Not much to fault with this one.
(5)