Where The Hateful Eight failed, Hell or High Water succeeds: in reviving the Western genre. It’s not done with gory violence or with a cast of clichés, but with strong characters, well-acted and, above all that what makes a good Western, scenery. Both prairie and small towns play their part, where Quentin Tarantino completely wasted that asset by holing his eight people up in a hut.

It’s a movie about bank robbers, so of course there are gunfights, but here you are not exposed to the overdone, mindless rain of bullets that we have to endure in so many wannabe-Westerns. Hell or High Water is even quite funny, without ever becoming cheesy.

Here’s hoping that the film will be a commercial success, so that more producers and directors will try a Western again instead of the 13th sequel to some dipshit comic strip picturization.

(Zur deutschen Fassung.)