HeyItsMau t1_iy9fiqh wrote on November 29, 2022 at 7:09 PM

Reply to comment by TheCosmicFailure in come hell or high water is a pretty good western by Perseus_The_Great

The movie kind of builds up the brothers as having a somewhat noble justification for their robberies, and by extension, they themselves are somewhat noble, even if Ben Foster is a bit of a loose cannon. The final shoot-out is just a matter of buying time for Chris Pine to get away, so I have a hard time buying the fact that Foster takes deadly aim at law enforcement and kills a cop.

I'm not claiming that that's a result that should never happen, but I guess I didn't feel like the movie did a good enough job showing us that Ben Foster had that much hate and ill-intent in him to do something like that.

TheCosmicFailure t1_iy9nx04 wrote on November 29, 2022 at 8:03 PM

I think they do show us when we find out that he killed his father when he was a child. Yes, he was defending his mother but it shows that he was capable of killing at a young age. He even tells the Comanche at the casino that hes enemies with everyone.

Tanner always planned on not making it by the end. His motive was to make sure his brother got away with enough money to save the house and help his kids. Killing the cops puts the focus on himself and not on Toby.

HeyItsMau t1_iyd0ela wrote on November 30, 2022 at 2:21 PM

Yeah, I remember those moments. Just wasn't convincing enough for me personally. And yeah, it's obvious that he was going for suicide by cop, but I think he's already got their full attention by pinning them down and delivering pot-shots from a high powered rifle. Still don't think there was strong enough justification to outright murder a cop. No point in debating further. We are both remembering the same facts, just interpreting it differently.