Tyler Sheridan just writes and directs stuff I want to watch. I loved Sicario and Hell or High Water, and I loved Wind River, but I might not ever watch it again. Wind River is like Sheridan’s other films, a neo-western set in the modern day but still in the American west. It follows the investigation into the death of a young Native American woman on The Winder River Indian Reservation.
Sheridan directed this film, and he did an amazing job visually, with tons of shots of beautiful Wyoming. The setting is a lonesome place, windswept with snow gathered by the foot. It’s quiet, desolate, and beautiful. You feel the snow crunch, hear the wind, and feel the chill.
Part of the reason the story pops off is the cold. It’s a danger that’s always present. The film starts with a woman who dies running through the snow, and the investigation into her death is what carries the film. The setting imparts a feeling of desolation, especially on the lonesome and poverty-stricken Indian reservation.
The setting establishes a loneliness that really feels like it’s cut off from the modern world. As one character says to another, “This isn’t the land of backup….this is the land of you’re on your own.”
Wind River — Cowboys and Feds
The main characters are Cory Lambert, played by Jeremy Renner, and FBI Agent Jane Banner, played by Elizabeth Olsen. Cory is a solitary man and hunter by nature. As a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agent, he is a tracker in charge of hunting predators to help maintain a balance. He hunts wolves across the snowscape. He doesn’t enjoy killing the wolves but understands the necessity of it.
After the discovery of the dead woman, FBI Agent Jane Banner arrives, she’s a rookie assigned to investigate the death since it’s on tribal land. At first, she is out of her element and unprepared for everything, including the weather, but she proves to be a smart and tenacious fighter.
They work with the Tribal Police Chief Ben Shoyo to figure out what happened to their victim, Natalie Hanson. Her death, including whether it was an accident or a murder, is unclear. Natalie was also the best friend of Lambert’s daughter, who died mysteriously two years prior.
No one stands out as some avenging hero focused on justice. Mostly, it’s just people doing their jobs. There is no bravado among our protagonists. There is frustration, loneliness, and sadness, but we don’t get a Captain America promising to make right what’s wrong.
Into the Cold
Wind River moves along at a decent pace, rarely wasting time but never moving at an exhausting breakneck speed. It’s just right. Interspersed between the procedural nature of the investigation is a bit of action that keeps you watching. The dialogue is great. It stays steady and grounded without dipping into cheesiness or tropes on vengeance or justice.
The film is clearly shot without some douchey means to try and stylize it. We get some beautiful shots of the Montana countryside that might linger, contrasted with the poverty of the reservation. The action is very clearly shown, and the movie feels like it’s in the old west, aside from the four-wheel drives and Glocks.
One of the things I love most about Wind River is that Cory and Jane don’t end up together as a couple. They respect each other, work well together, and have good chemistry. Throwing in some half-cocked romance plot would have killed the film for me.
There is a specific scene where we, as the audience, see what happened to Natalie. The scene doesn’t pull any punches and it’s very difficult to watch. It even somewhat subverts what we thought had happened and what we thought of an unseen character. It’s great storytelling.
The Guns of Wind River
You guys don’t come here for me to wax poet about good cinematography. Let’s talk about guns and action. Most of it is very, very good with just a little bit of Hollywood leaked in.
Some early scenes reveal that someone behind the camera knows a little about guns. Lambert reminds his son about gun safety rules when he accidentally points his BB gun at him. He also has a reloading setup to craft hand loads for his favored rifle.
Lambert is a rifleman armed with a powerful and area-appropriate Marlin model 1895SBL. The .45-70 in a lever gun seems appropriate for a western and works for dispatching large and dangerous game. The SBL model is stainless and optics-ready, and Lambert has equipped it with a scope. Lambert briefly has a Ruger Blackhawk, which, when combined with his lever gun and Stetson, establishes him as our cowboy.
We also see a smattering of shotguns in the hands of the bad guys, throughout the film, and what appears to be an HK 416.
The Gunplay
Wind River does a good job of keeping about 95% of the gunplay grounded, and both Elizabeth Olson and Jeremy Renner handle their firearms well. Most notably, in a scene where Jane is bear-maced, she still draws her gun and pursues and kills a threat. She smartly and properly uses cover and even executes a fairly decent reload.
Near the end, Jane, the Chief, and his deputies are investigating and getting close to the bad guys. Lambert has returned to his job tracking a mountain lion. One of the Tribal Chief’s deputies notices they are being flanked and draws, and they enter into a Mexican standoff that’s slowly talked down. If you watch, the deputy is right, they are being set up, and he knows.
Boom Bang Pow
Jane is shot through her door with a shotgun, but her bulletproof vest saves her life. In a bit of Hollywood action, she’s thrown rearwards. Everyone has armor, and most of them get shot. What impressed me was that it’s not portrayed as something you can just walk away from easily. It hurts, ribs are cracked, the air is knocked out of you, and everyone is on the ground in pain from it.
It’s also the first time I’ve seen a gunfight where almost everyone runs dry and struggles to reload. When they are dry, there is a lull in all the gunfire. When all looks dire, the boom of Lambert’s rifle saves the day.
He guns down the bad guys quickly and from a hidden position. Here is where Hollywood has its say. We see the .45-70 round lift men off the ground and throw them like ragdolls. Guns don’t do that, even the powerful .45-70.
The action is mostly solid and done well, though, it’s not always grounded, both literally and figuratively speaking.
Why I Won’t Watch It Again
This is a well-made movie with a poignant message that’s often ignored. It’s a movie about good men and bad men, about protectors, prey, and predators. Justice is served to the bad guys, but it changes nothing. No grief is lifted, and no one is brought back from the abyss. It’s a brutal film, and I might be exaggerating when I say I don’t want to watch it again, but I won’t watch it anytime soon.
