Jeff Bridges’ Best Western Is Streaming On Netflix
Hell or High Water, the best western Jeff Bridges has ever appeared in, is streaming on Netflix.
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From his early big screen appearances like in 1972’s Bad Company and 1975’s Hearts of the West, to more recent fare like the Coen Brothers‘ 2010 remake of True Grit, Jeff Bridges has delivered some of his most memorable performances in westerns. But if you’re familiar with his filmography, then you’ve got to know 2016’s Hell or High Water is the most impressive western Bridges has ever made. And if you don’t know that yet but you happen to have a Netflix subscription, then you can educate yourself immediately.
In Hell or High Water, Jeff Bridges plays Marcus Hamilton; a rustically endearing Texas Ranger inches away from retirement who doesn’t shy away from politically incorrect humor with his partner Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham). The pair are on the trail of two bank robbers–Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner Howard (Ben Foster)–who have so far managed to elude the authorities, along with doing so without bloodshed.
The bank robbers Jeff Bridges’ Texas Ranger is after are far from your average criminal pair. Toby was once seen to have a bright future among their friends and family, while Tanner is the wild child. Regardless, their bank robbery spree is both more and less than it appears.
The brothers’ mother has recently passed away, and in the wake of her passing their ranch is in danger of being seized by Texas Midlands Bank–the same bank the Howards are preying upon. With Toby’s keen mind behind the robberies’ executions, the brothers plan to steal the money to save their family ranch from the same bank they’ll be handing the check over to.
Jeff Bridges is perfectly cast as the Texas Ranger, and Ben Foster steals every scene he’s in as the hotheaded and unpredictable Tanner. Directed by David Mackenzie (Starred Up) and from a script by the Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water is a bleak, honest, and powerful modern western. The Academy gave the film at least part of its due, honoring it with four nominations including Best Picture; as IMDb recalls, it lost to Berry Jenkins’ Moonlight.
Featuring an old lawman played by Jeff Bridges in a modern western with bad fates for many of its characters hanging over them the entire film, Hell or High Water has attracted plenty of apt comparisons to 2007’s No Country for Old Men.
Jeff Bridges has since moved on to a role about another aging gunman but in a different genre. In Hulu’s acclaimed espionage series The Old Man, the Oscar-winning star plays a former CIA spy on the run when old crimes from decades earlier come back to haunt him.
