Wind River
Directed by: Taylor Sheridan
Written by: Taylor Sheridan
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Gil Birmingham, Graham Green, Kelsey Asbille, Joe Bernthal, James Jordan, Hugh Dillon, Martin Sensmeier, Julia Jones, Teo Briones, Tokala Clifford, Tantoo Cardinal, Apesanahkwat, Eric Lange, Althea Sam
Action/Crime/Mystery - 107 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 8 Aug 2017
Written by: Taylor Sheridan
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Gil Birmingham, Graham Green, Kelsey Asbille, Joe Bernthal, James Jordan, Hugh Dillon, Martin Sensmeier, Julia Jones, Teo Briones, Tokala Clifford, Tantoo Cardinal, Apesanahkwat, Eric Lange, Althea Sam
Action/Crime/Mystery - 107 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 8 Aug 2017
Actor turned writer and now major feature film director Taylor Sheridan is carving out a niche for himself not only in magnifying seldom seen spaces, but examining crimes and the authorities who attempt to solve them in unorthodox manners. Sicario dove into the extraordinary violence inherent in the drug trade straddling the U.S./Mexico border. Hell or High Water trailed two bank robbers with a plan amidst the depressed economy of West Texas. Wind River is an off the beaten path police procedural where an FBI agent enlists the help of an expert tracker and sniper on an Indian Reservation in middle of nowhere Wyoming. All isolated places, all suspenseful and enthralling plots, and all created by a man who wrote three of the best screenplays to come out of Hollywood this decade.
Tagged with the “Inspired by Actual Events” label, Wind River is a cinematic attention-getter; a “Hey, look at me” cry for awareness. On one hand, Sheridan’s film is an exposé of contemporary reservation life and all of the problems associated with it, including the stereotypes. There remains a substance abuse epidemic throttling entire generations. Poverty is overt, but there are signs of middle class success sprinkled throughout; a reminder there are doctors, lawyers, and businessmen in the tribe. On the other hand, the film plunges us into the investigation of an 18 year-old girl’s murder; one example of the mass numbers of missing Native American women. The film explains there are no quantifiable statistics on how many women are missing, let alone the lack of justice attached to their cases.
Tagged with the “Inspired by Actual Events” label, Wind River is a cinematic attention-getter; a “Hey, look at me” cry for awareness. On one hand, Sheridan’s film is an exposé of contemporary reservation life and all of the problems associated with it, including the stereotypes. There remains a substance abuse epidemic throttling entire generations. Poverty is overt, but there are signs of middle class success sprinkled throughout; a reminder there are doctors, lawyers, and businessmen in the tribe. On the other hand, the film plunges us into the investigation of an 18 year-old girl’s murder; one example of the mass numbers of missing Native American women. The film explains there are no quantifiable statistics on how many women are missing, let alone the lack of justice attached to their cases.
Natalie (Kelsey Asbille) is not missing. Wind River’s opening montage shows us in a panoramic, moonlit shot, and later up close, Natalie running barefoot in the snow, collapsing, and dying. A government Fish and Wildlife department hunter, Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner, Arrival), happens upon Natalie not only kicking off the murder investigation, but also reigniting Cory’s own nightmare past into the present. Cory has a Native American ex-wife and spends his allotted days with his son, but there is a deep sadness surrounding the family’s history which deliberately unfolds as the plot loosens the knots.
The FBI agent on the case is emblematic of what the reservation residents believe the outside world thinks about them, when they care to think of them at all. Agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen, Captain America: Civil War) appears fresh out of school, blond, and completely out of her element in blizzard country. Jane wants people to take her seriously, but all of her impressions scream rookie and awkward. Forget the stereotypes of a woman operating in a man’s world, this is a skinny, white girl far from the sorority house. Wind River occupants are insular and suspicious of outsiders; the girl from Ft. Lauderdale faces an uphill battle for cooperation and anything resembling respect.
Cory is on hand to remind Jane, “This isn’t the land of backup; this is the land of you’re on your own,” when events start to turn dicey. Tightly woven into the scenery and sporadic violence is man versus nature. There are not only wolves, coyotes, and maybe even lions, but there are also sub-zero temperatures, and a detailed explanation of how your lungs burst in the cold, drowning you to death in your own blood. The land doesn’t care for humans; the nearly empty landscape exposes and maims. All sides, no matter what side of the law they stand on, be they criminal, victim, or addict, agree, “there is nothing to do out here; do you have any idea what it’s like?”
Providing an atmosphere to how Sheridan wants his audience to feel about this harsh living is Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’s lonely score. A violin or two get lost in the snow and there are small chorus chants in the background wailing, “Ooooohh!” Perhaps these are the inner voices of everyone forced not necessarily to live on the reservation, but to survive there. Maybe they are the victims torn apart by the conditions or the uncounted women everyone has forgotten about. If these cursed sounds of grief and mourning could belong to anyone, then Natalie’s father (Gil Birmingham, The Space Between Us), may make a strong claim. Cory explains the hurt never goes away; you will never forget. Take the pain and carry it with you.
These are tough words for a modern cowboy who nobody will accuse of being hard as nails. Cory is John Wayne with identifiable human emotions. Wayne’s characters were almost caricatures in their swaggering ‘nothing can shake me’ demeanor. Cory bridges the gap between the Native Americans who recognize his self-reliance and also with Jane the FBI agent, who identifies a suffering soul looking for clues, not so much to see the wheels of justice turn, but to exact a more traditional form of revenge. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she says; Cory is there to instruct and encourage. John Wayne would have put Jane on the first train back to civilization. Native American casino money from the Tunica-Biloxi Economic Development Corp. partly financed Wind River, a sign the community respects Sheridan’s honest script and his attempts to shine a light. Look over here at a forgotten people in neglected surroundings he says; they are still there.
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