Two themes run deep. The first, Native Americans lost their land to The White Man who in turn lost their ranches to a “too big to fail” banking system characterised by irresponsible lending and light-touch regulation. The second, poverty breeds poverty and like a hereditary cancer can blight the lives of future generations. Mix the two together and what you get is a lethal cocktail in which something’s got to give. That something being hope, closely followed by patience, tempers and finally law and order.

Texan brothers Toby and Tanner Howard (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) are the victims-turned-perpetrators. The former a penniless divorcee up to his eyeballs in debt following the death of his mother whose oil-rich ranch is on the cusp of being repossessed by a local bank who lent as little as they could to keep the family in arrears and thus maintain their hold on the property. With the date of foreclosure drawing near, Toby enlists the help of his gun-toting brother Tanner who has recently been released from jail to rob a few banks and raise enough money to settle the debts and pass on the ranch and its riches to his ex-wife Debbie (Marin Ireland) and their two children.

But standing in their way are two old-timers: Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and his counting-down-the-days-to-retirement partner Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham) whose Comanche and Mexican background is the butt of many a drawl one-liner from a man so steeped in the world of policing that his personal life resembles the classic ingredients of an old country and western song: wife up and left, dog by his feet, bottle of beer in hand.

Yes, there are gunfights and car chases and a splattering of blood, but the pace by Scottish director David Mackenzie (starred Up) is deliberately glacial and all the better for it with the action sequences never forced or gratuitous, fuelled instead by character and motive. Taylor Sheridan‘s screenplay is the perfect mix of less is more and quick-fire wit. “This is what you call white man’s intuition,” says Hamilton after tracking down his felons. To which a world-weary Parker responds: “Sometimes a blind pig finds a truffle.” The barren landscapes by cinematographer Giles Nuttgens (who worked with Mackenzie on Hallam Foe) mirror the broken communities bereft of hope. As does Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’s score which nails the sinking hopes and fading dreams of the main protagonists with: “I’m lost in the dust of the chase that my life brings.”

Video courtesy of: CBSFilms

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Peter Callaghan
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