A tragic woeful tale about the pursuit of justice in the unforgiving cold barrens of a Wyoming Indian Reservation.

Name: "Wind River" (2017) - Movie Review
Item: Wind River
Author: @shortshots

![wind-river-poster.jpeg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/shortshots/23yJ8DzUsRMbqh2StbD8hFPz9A6rL4mHBhtK2mXhbuHByeotgqDGCSCPKjCBe9vEWn2bf.jpeg)

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Synopsis

A wildlife hunter and rookie FBI agent team-up to solve the mysterious death of a local Indian girl found frozen to death far from home.

Where'd I watch this?

Netflix.

Why'd I watch it?

I find that Elizabeth Olsen is usually in some pretty good stuff.

But if you don't believe me, here's the movie trailer from Youtube.

What'd I think?

Overall, I liked WIND RIVER. To be fair, it was a bit depressing.

(Also as a WARNING, there's a sexual-assault scene in this movie that was very difficult to watch. As an American, I'm used to my entertainment having a fair bit of blood and explosion but when people do bad stuff to women and children it can leave me feeling rather nauseous.)

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From the opening of Jeremy Renner's Cory Lambert gunning down wolves, picking up his son from his ex-wife, and later discovering the frozen body of a teenage girl in the snow--a girl who used to be friends with his dead daughter--I knew this was going to be one hell of a heavy movie.

His character represents personal justice, while Elizabeth Olsen's Jane Banner -- the FBI rookie -- represents societal justice. There is a constant bit about there's not enough cops in the area, too much drugs, how the town isn't exactly thriving and so the youth commit crimes and end up in prison where some of them can get three meals, a bed, and a solid roof over their heads for the first time in their lives. When the tribal police chief calls for federal help in what looks like a murder case, they send one agent, and a rookie at that. She still does a good job but there is that unavoidable feeling that the government doesn't give a shit what happens on Indian reservations.

Source I like Jeremy Renner's character -- Cory Lambert. He's tired and old but not too old and carries a lot of emotional weight on him. This felt like a perfect role for Renner since he comes off as a worn, thick-skinned kind of guy. Not the biggest, tallest dude but something about him just says it'd take more than a few punches to take him down. Screen Shot 2022-07-10 at 6.30.42 PM.png Source

His character, Cory, is an outsider. He married a Native American woman so he's pretty much the only semi-welcome white guy in town. Cory's on good terms with the tribal police chief, on the mend with his ex-wife, loves his kid but in that sad hesitant way people do after they've already lost a child. To be honest, I found his version of being the white savior of an Indian town not as cringey as I expected. Being a wildlife hunter whose job is to take down predators like wolves, bears, and mountain lions to protect people's families, farms, and property makes him something of an old soldier in that town. He basically kills monsters for a living and this film soon finds him and the FBI rookie chasing down a different type of monster -- maybe the worst of all -- man.

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Elizabeth Olsen's Jane Banner is a welcome addition to the film. She's not Wyoming, has no experience with Indian reservations, the Wyoming climate. Her superiors send her there on a whim, as a message -- one that says "We don't give a shit about fixing what goes on down here but we'll send someone to write a report for the books." Or maybe that was not their intention at all, perhaps they sent someone fresh-faced hoping she could navigate a hostile new environment with a newcomer's level of nuance and lack of seasoned assumption. Source Olsen does a great job of playing frantic but well-intentioned characters. She's not traditionally attractive but definitely not ugly either. Her Jane Banner is more than just a pretty face. She's there to do her job, not take any short cuts, and she's got the guts and know-how to use a gun when she needs to. Maybe I could've used a few more scenes of her getting the call or order to go this remote area of Wyoming, but asking for additional scenes can be asking for more chances to mess up -- and what scenes she has in the movie are all pretty clean-cut and superb.

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Gil Birmingham plays Martin, the father of the girl that Cory finds frozen to death far off in the snow. He's a great actor but unfortunately he's very underutilized in this movie. I especially liked him in the recent Hulu crime-series, UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, which followed 90s cops trying to solve a murder in a tight-knit mormon town. His character in this movie is very restrained which makes sense. His oldest child, his son, is a drug-addicted drug dealer, and his daughter who was supposed to be the shining grace of the family was found frozen to the death in the snow.

I don't want to spoil anything but the movie eventually gets very crowded and intense as it progresses.

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While it was well-done and informative about the mistreatment and historical conditions of Indians and their remote reservations which the government does their best to apparently ignore, I did wonder if I could've spent my time watching a much-more uplifting movie, that was also well done, instead.