The Big Picture

  • Taylor Sheridan's film Wind River takes a dark and compelling look at the horrors faced by Native women on Reservation land.
  • The film's ending, which showcases an "eye for an eye" justice, is disturbing yet satisfying, highlighting the depravity of man.
  • Wind River serves as a call to action, shedding light on the epidemic of violence on Reservations and emphasizing the need for change.

It seems like overnight, actor Taylor Sheridan became a household name due to his work writing, directing, and co-creating the break-out hit drama series Yellowstone. While Sheridan has built his Yellowstone empire over the past few years, and even expanded beyond the borders of Montana with shows like Mayor of Kingstown and Tulsa King, or his recently announced Empire of the Summer Moon project, the Western giant began his non-acting film career as a screenwriter. After directing his first feature, a horror film called Vile (even though he doesn't consider this his directorial debut), Sheridan's career really took off after he penned the first two Sicario pictures and then the exceptional West Texas bank-robbing drama Hell or High Water. Just after those success stories, Sheridan wrote and directed his most powerful project to date: a neo-Western crime thriller called Wind River.

Wind River Poster
Wind River
R
Thriller
Crime
Documentary
Mystery

A wildlife officer, who is haunted by a tragedy that happened because of him, teams up with an FBI agent in solving a murder of a young woman on a Wyoming Native American reservation and hopes to get redemption from his past regrets.

Release Date
August 18, 2017
Director
Taylor Sheridan
Cast
Kelsey Chow , Jeremy Renner , Julia Jones , Teo Briones , Apesanahkwat , Graham Greene
Runtime
107 minutes

What Is the Plot of 'Wind River'?

Set on the Wyoming Indian Reservation of the same name, Wind River is a dark and compelling tale that'll make your skin crawl as you learn of the horrors that many Native women face on Reservation land. The film follows U.S. Fish & Wildlife agent Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) and FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) as they investigate the death of a young woman named Natalie Hansen (Kelsey Asbille), which takes them all over the snow-covered Rez. As Jane discovers the unforgiving nature of the West, Cory wrestles with his own grief after having lost his own daughter in a similarly unsolved case a few years prior. Needless to say, this one isn't for the faint of heart, especially if you've got kids.

Taylor Sheridan Works Best When Focusing on One Narrative

Jeremy Renner as Cory Lambert staring off into the snow in Wind River
Image via Lionsgate

Though there's a sequel in development, this time following Natalie's brother Chip Hansen (with Martin Sensmeier returning from the first film), Wind River remains one of the most unforgiving and important neo-Westerns of our day. Despite his newfound popularity due to Yellowstone and his other multi-season shows, films like Wind River remind us that Taylor Sheridan is a more impactful and overall better storyteller when he's focused on one intricate story rather than a collective of unfocused narratives. Maybe that's why the limited series 1883 and 1923 are better than the flagship Yellowstone series...

Looking back on personal experience, seeing this movie in the theaters back when it was released in 2017 was sobering, to say the least. Wind River features some pulse-pounding action and compelling characters, but by the time the credits rolled, the whole theater was silent. No one knew how to react or respond, and instead just meditated on the events that had unfolded before their eyes. No doubt, there isn't another Western out there that can invoke such a visceral reaction from its audience regarding Native American issues as Wind River can (though Hostiles probably comes close), and there's a clear reason as to why. To this day, the ending of what Sheridan would consider his true directorial debut is just about perfect — even if it is a tough pill to swallow.

Is Justice Served at the End of 'Wind River'?

Jeremy Renner as Cory Lambert holding his eye to the scope of a rifle in Wind River
Image via Lionsgate

Wind River doesn’t sugarcoat or telegraph its ending, instead reminding us that, for some folks, this is just how things are. In true Sheridan fashion, the film puts its characters through the wringer, and not everyone makes it out alive. After figuring out who was behind Natalie's rape and murder, Cory, Jane, and Tribal Police Chief Ben Shoyo (Graham Greene) confront those responsible, a group of drillers who seem pretty unrepentant. After an intense shootout, there's almost no one left to carry on, reminding us that, if there's one thing Sheridan's film does particularly well, it's that it makes known the depravity of man.

In the film's final 10 minutes, these harsh realities are confronted and dealt with. As someone who similarly lost his own daughter, albeit without any real closure, Cory takes the rapist Pete (James Jordan) with him onto Gannett Peak, which is the highest point in all of Wyoming. There, he offers the rapist the same chance of survival that Natalie had. While we don't actually see Natalie die (an intentional choice we'll get to in a moment), we do watch as the unforgiving elements consume Pete in one of the worst ways that you could possibly imagine. As his lungs freeze, and he takes his final breath, we're reminded of all the innocents who died similarly gruesome deaths. As Cory looks on, he sees that justice is served for Natalie, and while he may never see justice for his own daughter, it'll have to be enough.

An Eye for an Eye Ending

Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner in the woods in Wind River
Image via Lionsgate

Despite his unorthodox approach, Cory's undeniably Western brand of justice (or maybe it's just revenge) manages to garner better results than either the FBI or the Tribal Police ever could. Here, Sheridan perfectly crafts this "eye for an eye" ending that ultimately leaves the characters, and the audience, satisfied with the results, even if we are a bit disturbed by them. And make no mistake, they are disturbing. Nevertheless, the brutality of Wind River shines through in its final act as a harsh reminder of the hardships that Indigenous peoples still face to this day, even on their own land.

In the West, You Either Survive or Surrender

After sending Pete straight to Hell, Cory visits Jane in the hospital. Having been injured in the firefight, the FBI agent is shown to be recovering well, and thanks Cory for saving her life. This leads to one of the most powerful moments in the film as Cory retorts, making it clear that she saved her own life. As he puts it, luck doesn't live out in the West, "Out here, you survive, or you surrender. Period. That's determined by your strength and your spirit." Despite being looked down on by those on the Rez for her race, her gender, and even her inability to handle the cold, Jane managed to walk away. She managed to survive.

A recurring theme throughout Wind River is that just about everyone fights for their own survival in some way or another. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to have the strength or spirit for it. Cory himself is divorced from his wife, Wilma (Julia Jones), following the death of their daughter. While Wilma and Cory both continue to survive for the sake of their son, her and Cory's marriage was surrendered during the grieving process. Similarly, in the struggle to survive, many characters surrender parts of themselves to get there. Natalie's brother, Chip, is seen to have given up his sobriety and seemingly his future, while their mother, Annie (Althea Sam), in her grief, nearly loses grip on her sanity.

If Sheridan's film reveals the struggle of Reservation life, then the ending brings this theme home. As Cory sits there to comfort her, Jane breaks down at the thought that Natalie ran for six whole miles, barefoot, in the snow. She didn't give up, even in her final breaths. While she didn't survive bodily, Wind River makes careful note not to show her death on camera, though we see her dash through the snow in the beginning. Instead, Natalie's resistance proved that she was a survivor, even if just in spirit, which is more than many of the still-breathing characters can say by the end of the film.

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'Wind River's Final Moments Are a Reminder That This Is Not All Fiction

While the last two scenes are powerful on their own, the very final moments of Wind River may be the most meaningful. Early on, Sheridan establishes that Cory is close friends with Martin Hanson (Gil Birmingham), Natalie's father. It's then that he swears that, as a father, he'll "take care" of whoever hurt Martin's daughter in the first place. After making good on his promise, Cory finds his friend outside in the melting snow, but not before first being confronted by an old photo of Natalie and his own daughter Emily. After a few exchanges, Cory and Martin just sit there silent as a title card appears on-screen: "While missing person statistics are compiled for every other demographic, none exist for Native American women. No one knows how many are missing."

According to an interview with NPR, Sheridan wrote Wind River after reading thousands of stories just like it. In his words, the film is about "an epidemic of violence on the reservation that needs attention and needs addressing." No doubt, this final message could easily have come across as preachy, but given the respect towards the subject matter, the well-crafted story, and those final performances by Jeremy Renner and Gil Birmingham, it only serves to strengthen the message. In truth, this is exactly the way a film like Wind River should end, reminding us that this shouldn't just be entertainment, but a call to action to see the world for how it is, so that, God willing, we can do something about it.

As Cory and Martin — the latter wearing his own version of a painted "death mask" — sit in the snow, they console one another in their grief. Though justice has been served, though they've continued to survive, the painful reminders of photographs, birthday cards, and jewelry will always be there to highlight their loss, serving as yet another echo of the plights facing Indigenous peoples. By deconstructing these distinctly Indigenous issues down to a very real and raw human experience (i.e. grief), Taylor Sheridan's Wind River proves that storytelling can be used for more than pure, thoughtless entertainment. Rather, it should be used as an introspective look at our own struggles and those of others.

Wind River is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

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