Jeremy Renner Elizabeth Olsen Jon Bernthal Martin Sensmeier Julia Jones
Taylor Sheridan (writer, director) is an artist
who knows how to draw out the best from the other artists in his
films—Cinematographer Ben Richardson, Musician Warren Ellis, Actors Jeremy
Renner and Elizabeth Olsen and the rest of the cast, Production Designer Neil
Spisak, Art Designer Lauren Slatten, and the other technical contributors. Wind
River represents a breathtaking example of the essence of accomplished
filmmaking, from the sweeping snow-laden landscapes stained with blood, to the
haunting musical score paired exactly with the dialog and action, to Renner’s
wise old soul with extra sensory perception and gentle touch, and Olsen’s
expert urban-trained FBI agent clearly not prepared for the different
environment and population, but willing to learn. There is even an exquisite/troubling blending of stunning
beauty and unspeakable horror.
I was especially impressed with cinematography
that has the camera slink around with Cory tracking footprints in the snow, and
guiding the eye upward or downward toward whatever it wants you to see. A view to admire is one shot from an
airplane over a snowy, mountainous landscape, showing lumbering trucks on the
highway bearing heavy snowmobiles.
This prepares us for a showdown.
One would like to imagine that the pristine
snowscapes we admire on the screen (as we sit in our toasty, comfortable
theater seats) would hold innocence and purity and be reflected in fit bodies
and souls. But alas, just as we
hear about the brutal attack by a lion on a herd of cattle, we see a fallen
human body in the snow with a head wound and blood coming out her mouth. Tracker Cory (Renner) sadly knows who
it is, which provokes memories of an earlier death that still tears at him.
Cory is a good man, a respected local who, even
without the memories, would willingly help FBI agent Banner (Olsen) who has
been called in to solve the case.
These sequences constitute the few scenes tinged with humor, when the
agent comes totally unprepared for the bone-chilling weather and has to borrow
warm clothing from the sheriff’s stern wife. (“Make sure you return it!”) Later encounters with the locals are likewise amusing when
Banner meets native Indians, unwittingly offending them, and roughnecks working
on an oil drill. Cory and the
sheriff wryly get her up to speed from time to time, and she shows flashes of
leadership and strength. (I wish
Sheridan had made her character much stronger, as many filmmakers are willing
to do with females nowadays…but maybe this is happening only in action figures
a la Wonder Woman, Atomic Blonde, and
Valerian/City/Thousand/Planets?)
This beautifully made film has substantive
points to make as well as depth of character. It’s about loss and death—especially of children—and the
multifarious ways in which people cope with it; life on an Indian reservation
(this part is not fiction); the nefarious effects of drugs on young people; the
art of skillful, informed sleuthing and interrogation; and, finally, how
satisfying justified retribution can be.
Be prepared for an extravaganza of
beauty in all its forms mixed with the realities of life lived.
