Taylor Sheridan has become synonymous with modern Westerns thanks to shows like Yellowstone, 1883, and 1923, but one of his best Western stories actually arrived on the big screen a decade ago … before any of those shows we’ve come to know, love, and become completely sucked into ever existed.
Hell or High Water, which Sheridan wrote and David Mackenzie directed, is now among the titles featured in Prime Video’s Top Westerns category. And given its reputation, it’s hard to argue with the placement.
‘Hell or High Water’ Is One of Taylor Sheridan’s Best Movies
Long before Sheridan’s television empire expanded into multiple Yellowstone spinoffs, Hell or High Water established many of the qualities that have since become hallmarks of his storytelling.
The movie follows brothers Toby and Tanner Howard, played by Chris Pine and Ben Foster, as they rob a series of banks in an attempt to save their family’s West Texas ranch from foreclosure. Jeff Bridges plays Marcus Hamilton, a Texas Ranger nearing retirement who is determined to catch them.
It’s technically a crime thriller, but the Texas setting, struggling ranchers, dusty landscapes, and themes of land, money, family, and changing times allow it to exist within the modern Western category, too.
Rotten Tomatoes’ critics consensus praises the movie as a “well-acted Western heist thriller,” noting that it relies on confident pacing and fully developed characters rather than mindless gunplay.
The movie currently sits at 97% from 288 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, while its 89% audience score shows that viewers have largely been just as enthusiastic about it.
Taylor Sheridan Had a Very Specific Approach to Writing It
One reason Hell or High Water still feels different from a lot of modern Westerns is that Sheridan wasn’t interested in overexplaining the story.
In a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Sheridan discussed how his years as a television actor influenced his approach to screenwriting. He said that having to deliver exposition-heavy dialogue while acting on television gave him an aversion to the technique.
“I’m allergic to exposition now in my writing,” Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter.
Instead, Sheridan said he looks for extremely simple plots that allow him to focus on the characters.
That philosophy is easy to see in Hell or High Water. The central premise is straightforward: Two brothers rob banks to save their family’s ranch, while a Texas Ranger tracks them down. But the movie spends much of its time exploring why these characters are making the choices they are making and what they’re trying to hold onto.
That makes the movie feel less like a traditional bank-robbery thriller and more like a character-driven Western about a part of Texas that is rapidly disappearing.
The Movie Arrived Before the ‘Yellowstone’ Era
It’s also easy to forget just how early Hell or High Water came in Sheridan’s career.
The film followed his screenplay for Sicario and arrived before he directed Wind River and before Yellowstone premiered on television. Hell or High Water earned Sheridan an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Rotten Tomatoes currently ranks it as the No. 1 movie among Sheridan’s film and television projects by Tomatometer score.
That makes the movie an especially interesting watch for anyone who discovered Sheridan through Yellowstone and its expanding universe.
