Last year, one of the bigger critical successes was the
harrowing war thriller Sicario. It also represented one of the few times when I
met the critical consensus not just in opinion, but in the magnitude of that
opinion. Sicario, structurally, was easily the best film of the year and all of
its individual pieces were genius on their own and created sheer magic when
brought together. Since almost everyone involved already laudable careers to
fall back on, I sincerely hoped that writer Taylor Sheridan would also stick
around. I mean, if that was his first attempt, I legitimately can’t wait to see
what he’s cooked up for us this time.
The plot: Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster) are
brothers who have been hitting several banks in the western Texas area and
Texas Rangers Marcus (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto (Gil Birmingham) are hot on
their trail. However, as the details become clearer for both parties, it seems
that this string of robberies may not be as clear-cut as they appear and who is
on the “right” side may not be so easy to discern.
The focal cast here is small but tightly packed in terms of
energy and finesse. Ben Foster, quite frankly, gives the best performance of
his career thus far as this lewd and insanely energetic ex-con that makes for
easily one of the most engaging presences of any character this year. Opposite
him is Chris Pine, another actor I haven’t always had the best impression of,
and he works brilliantly as the moral compass of the two. Jeff Bridges will
always be awesome regardless of what drivel he’s given, and him as a Texan
Ranger lets him break out his inner Rooster Cogburn once again to make for a
captivating performance. Birmingham as his partner is a little bland, but then
again that’s only in comparison to Bridges.
In keeping with the murky tone of Sicario, Taylor Sheridan
goes into a similar lane of moral examination and what justifies what actions.
Except where Sicario focused on the actions of a majority, in that case the
U.S. government compared to the Mexican cartel, this looks at the actions of
individuals. In that sense, it’s closer to the Coen brothers’ No Country For
Old Men than Sicario. Now, while I will always love morality tales when they’re
done right, I’m not so hot on how it is executed here. The reason why is that
this primarily focuses on the grey standings of morality that crime falls into,
i.e. doing subjectively wrong things for the right reasons. It’s a method of
writing that has become textbook when it comes to modern crime dramas, and
since it’s played here fairly straight from the very start, it feels rather
been-there-done-that.
Now, that’s not to say that the characters feel tired as an
extension of that. The moral themes may be tried-and-true by this point but the
characters that personify them here are still very well-written. Particularly
when it comes to the relationships between the characters, from Toby and
Tanner’s sibling rivalry and adoration to Marcus and Alberto’s weirdly nuanced
connection through their respective cultures, even down to Marcus’ begrudging
understanding of the brothers and why they are taking the path that they are.
The morality on its own may be basic, but the way it manifests itself through
the characters and their dialogue is genuinely well done. A moment that sticks
out for me is a scene in a casino where Tanner gets into a confrontation with a
Native American. The note that that encounter ends on is another one of those
punch-to-the-gut moments that I know is going to stick with me for a while yet.
This may seem like a weird statement to make, but I don’t
see this as a revisionist Western film. This doesn’t the same sort of
retrospective commentary that a lot of those types of stories wear on their
sleeves. Instead, the elements that are normally associated with the Western
genre are played relatively straight, just updated. It sticks to what could
loosely be called the usual script and applies it to the Texas frontier of
today. The relationship between whites and Native Americans, showing staples of
the genre like the saloon and local gaming establishment, the desire for land
and its plunder (just swapping out literal gold for black gold), the final
shootout, even the music sensibilities courtesy of go-to modern Western sound
creators Nick Cave and Warren Ellis; the regular trappings of a classic Western
story are all here, just with a modern setting. Rather than remarking on how
much the culture and our sensibilities have changed since the old frontier days
like the usual revisionist fare, this film instead shows how much ultimately hasn’t changed in terms of setting and
circumstances.
All in all, it took me a while to reach it but my ultimate
conclusion is that this is a damn good Western flick… and I’m not even that big
on Westerns to begin with. The acting is good, with easily Ben Foster’s most
enthralling performance yet, the writing may take the easy route with its
morality but conveys in some startlingly brilliant ways, the music is country
at its best and finally redeems Nick Cave for his dud work on Far From Men and
its approach to the Western genre manages to remain faithful to the ways of old
and merge with modern storytelling techniques without going too far into
revisionist fare that, honestly, we’ve been getting too much of recently.
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