It's another episode we recorded well ahead of time (you'll notice easily enough when Bob gets the episode number wrong and fails to know that we'll use this format with The Northman and The Batman), but this was one that was particularly fun. The spoilers on this are heavy throughout, and we really suggest strongly that you watch the movie first. It's a good one, and it's worth seeing unspoilt. Music: Intro and Outro music excerpted without alteration other than length and volume from AcidJazz by Kevin McLeod under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode 00:10 Intro and getting the episode number wrong, and then getting the novelty of this format wrong because we recorded The Batman and The Northman after this, but published them sooner. 1:01 How we chose to discuss Hell or High Water 3:12 Digression on the Oscar Best Picture mix-up 4:07 Deciding to avoid spoilers for the first section of the podcast 5:04 (Mostly) spoiler-free synopsis (no more spoilers than one would get from the trailer) Jump to 7:10 to skip synopsis entirely 7:10 How the movie reveals the plot and motivations slowly and how the trailer short-circuits some of that effort 8:54 Taylor Sheridan 9:28 Ambiguity regarding the morals and motivations of many of the characters 10:44 The odd quasi-mirroring of the pairs of antagonists and the relationship between them 15:50 HERE DO THE SERIOUS SPOILERS BEGIN! 15:58 Comparison to No Country for Old Men 19:26 Ben Foster's portrayal of the older brother, Tanner 21:39 Scapegoats and sin-eaters 23:54 Viewer impressions of Tanner 25:21 Plot discussion: change of bank target at the end of the film 27:27 How Tanner's character leads to the final outcomes 28:33 Tanner and staying out of prison 29:30 Texas and frontier justice 30:25 The film testing the viewer's loyalty to the protagonists in the third act 32:11 Bob's favorite scene and character 38:09 Mark's favorite scene 40:08 If that ain't Texan, I don't know what is 40:56 Excellent writing creates sympathy for the villains 41:31 Sympathy from other characters 46:48 Frank view of human frailty and failings and expressing affection when culture forbids it 53:29 The expression of grief and loss 56:17 The final showdown 1:00:00 Reversal of roles, mirroring of the pairs 1:06:43 Spoiler for the end of Inception, comparing endings 1:08:03 One more scene... 1:09:31 Closing thoughts, hidden gems