Wind River Needs to be an Oscar Contender, Despite Weinstein Scandal

Rating System

1 star= well below average, did not meet standards

2 stars= below average, still disappointing

3 stars= average, satisfactory

4 stars= above average, exceeded expectations

5 stars= exceptional, sets a new standard

 

Title: Wind River

Studio: Acacia Filmed Entertainment

Director: Taylor Sheridan

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen

Run Time: 111 minutes

Rating: R

Taylor Sheridan, known for his screenplays in “Hell or High Water” and “Sicario” maintained his success in his major motion picture directorial debut. Sheridan’s crime thriller “Wind River” follows a local game tracker and FBI agent as they try to solve the mysterious death of a local woman on a Native American reservation. Both “Hell or High Water” and “Sicario,” Sheridan’s screenplay successes, are also crime thrillers. For his debut, the director stuck with what he knew while successfully shedding light on a real-life epidemic.  Although “Wind River” was a suspected Oscar nominee, it’s former association with the Weinstein Company has made those talks go silent. This powerful movie exposes a problem that involves victims of sexual abuse, and absolutely deserves to be on the Oscar ballot.

The murder mystery, loosely based on true events, opens in the middle of the night with a young woman running barefoot in the snow who we later find out is Natalie, a Native American woman living on Wyoming’s Wind River reservation. The woman’s frozen corpse is later discovered by Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), a quiet game tracker, who calls in the body. When the conditions of the woman’s death become suspicious, FBI rookie Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) flies in from Las Vegas and rules the woman’s death a homicide. An autopsy confirms that the woman was raped and physically abused leaving Jane to assume she was running from her assailant, although her actual cause of death was from the movies ever-present villain, the cold. The storyline is similar to that of “Thunderheart,” another movie about an FBI agent solving a murder on a Native America reservation, however, the focal point of “Thunderheart” is the agent’s revelation of his heritage while “Wind River” focuses on the disappearance of women on the reservation. Although both movies are loosely based on true events, they have different themes.

Similar to Oscar-winning “The Revenant,” Sheridan successfully paints the environment as an omnipresent enemy to its human counterparts, sparing no one. The cold, desolate reservation has everyone within its grip leaving the small community more susceptible to depression, suicide and drugs. Sheridan paints the reality of reservation life that’s often forgotten. He highlights all the social issues of being a part of a forgotten population forced into isolation. However, the central theme remains about the injustice of Native American women mysteriously disappearing. Native American women are raped or sexually assaulted four times more than the national average as well as 10 times more likely to be murdered. Once the movie ends, it displays an even more alarming statistic, “While missing person statistics are compiled for every other demographic, none exist for Native American women.”

Sheridan also uses strong symbolism by casting a young, female FBI agent to help solve Natalie’s death. It’s very fitting that a woman in a male dominated field is sent to find justice for a woman raped and murdered under mysterious circumstances. Like Natalie and all the other women born on the reservation, Jane is thrown into a situation in which she is extremely disadvantaged. This approach is very successful and has you rooting for the underdog throughout demanding justice for the women on the reservation. While some may argue this is another “white savior” film, I think the more important aspect it that of gender roles. Whether the FBI agent who comes to the rescue was white or of a minority, it’s still a powerful statement that they were a female.

After teaming up with Jane, we learn that solving Natalie’s murder is also very personal to Cory. Natalie was his daughter’s best friend, whose mysterious death years earlier was never solved. Cory and Jane work together to solve the mystery of Natalie’s death which, consequently, leaves Cory with some closure on his own daughter’s death and even some vigilante justice.

Sheridan also shows the importance of men breaking from their own toxic masculinity. Both Cory and Martin, Natalie’s father, have their moments in which they break down leaving the viewer heartbroken. You can empathize with the grieving fathers doing everything they can to be strong and display hyper masculinity which may be the very reason for their daughter’s deaths. The script was very powerful even in the character’s silence. This silence is important given the unfavorable circumstances. The characters are forced to exert only the bare minimum to survive in order to conserve resources. Sheridan even teased some romantic chemistry between Cory and Jane, never making it a focal point, but just enough for there to be an incentive to help each other survive.

The movie was the perfect amount of drama and thrills with small plot twists that may shock the audience, but not confuse them. Sheridan accurately depicts the bleak outlook of life on reservations while bringing to light the tragedy of what’s happening to Native American women. “Wind River” is an exposé disguised as a crime drama who deserves to be on the Oscar ballot this year not just because of the effectiveness of the screenplay, but what it uncovers about real life. Leaving this movie out of the Oscar talks because of the Weinstein scandal only perpetuates the idea that sexual assault victims should remain silent and is a disservice to those victims, especially on Native American reservations.

Rating: 4.5