Back in August, the Western heist thriller “Hell or High Water” debuted to modest box office numbers but a consensus of critical acclaim, earning a 98% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Weekly Oscar predictions from the site Vulture have placed the movie on the shortlist to receive an Academy Award nomination this year.
Part of the reason critics hold this movie in such a high regard is the apparent realism director David Mackenzie was able to portray on film, particularly in the action sequences.
Now in this exclusive clip provided to HuffPost ahead of the movie’s digital release tomorrow, Mackenzie explains that striving for realism was an explicit goal of his while filming. “I’m trying to make everything feel as real as possible,” Mackenzie says in the clip. “When you have an action scene, when you have a sex scene, you’re less real by definition, because you’ve got to fake more. So I was trying my hardest to make the action elements feel as real as possible and not feel glamorous.”
In the video segment, Mackenzie also talks about a specific fight scene involving Chris Pine, where the actor’s character gets in a fist fight. “There’s a scene in the film where Chris Pine defends his brother from a guy whose being a bit of an asshole,” says Mackenzie. “We tried hard to make it feel as authentic as possible.”
How did he try to capture that authenticity? Watch the clip below to find out:
“Hell or High Water” has a Nov. 8th digital release and Nov. 22nd release for the Blu-ray & DVD.
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