WIND RIVER
Haunted by Tragic Crimes
What You Need To Know
WIND RIVER is an exceptional, unique thriller about an intense fictional investigation into the rape and death of a young American Indian woman who apparently died from exposure, while running away from her unknown attacker or attackers on an Indian reservation in Wyoming. The story in WIND RIVER is totally absorbing, the acting is superb and the character development is often profoundly moving, but extreme caution is advised because of a violent gunfight and a gratuitously violent rape scene, plus lots of strong foul language.
WIND RIVER stars Jeremy Renner as Cory Lambert as a Wyoming game and wildlife ranger whose territory includes the Wind River Indian Reservation for the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes. Cory is called on to kill a mountain lion and her cubs who have attacked and killed one Native American’s beef cattle. While hunting them, he finds the body of a young Native American woman named Natalie. It looks like the woman has been repeatedly raped but died of exposure while running away from her unknown assailant or assailants.
The FBI sends an inexperienced female agent from Las Vegas, Jane Banner (played by Elisabeth Olsen), to investigate the crime. However, the medical examiner refuses to label the girl’s death a homicide because he can only list the cause of death as exposure. Jane and Cory encourage him to lay aside his ruling for a few days so Jane can investigate the woman’s death. Jane asks Cory’s help to navigate the social and physical landscape.
As Jane and Cory investigate what happened, the movie reveals that Cory married an Indian woman but that they divorced after their own daughter was raped and murdered. Of course, Cory and his ex-wife never got over her death, which leads to several extremely poignant scenes between Cory and Natalie’s parents, especially her father, a proud Indian who’s only son has been in and out of jail.
Eventually, Jane and Cory learn that Natalie was seeing a young white man working on one of the local oil rigs in the area. The mystery surrounding Natalie’s death deepens when it’s discovered that the man hasn’t been seen since the night Natalie died.
Before the final credits roll, WIND RIVER ends with a title card saying that there are no national missing persons stats for Native American women in the United States. In fact, there seems to be no national database for how many American Indian women are raped or murdered, much less go missing, each year. So, WIND RIVER is admittedly a social issue movie that’s trying to expose an apparent problem that should concern American citizens. Even so, however, other reports from the Wind River Indian Reservation say that the situation on the reservation isn’t quite as bad as the media sometimes makes out (see “The reservation reacts to new, troubling press coverage,” http://www.wyofile.com/blog/the-reservation-reacts-to-new-troubling-press-coverage/, Feb. 19, 2013.).
Leaving this social issue aside, however, WIND RIVER is a really good movie – period. Renner and Olsen turn in one of their most effective performances ever. So, however, do the Native American members of the cast, which include the always reliable Graham Greene as the tribal police chief and Gil Birmingham as the rape victim’s father. There are many emotionally powerful scenes in WIND RIVER involving these characters.
Viewers need to be aware, however, that the movie contains some extreme violence, especially in a lengthy gunfight near the end. There’s also an intense fight scene near the end as well as a rape scene depicting who the culprits were behind the young woman’s death that opens the movie. One shot during the rape scene was particularly gratuitous. The movie would lose nothing by totally eliminating that one shot. Finally, the movie contains a lot of strong foul language.
Because of this content, and the story’s subject matter, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for WIND RIVER. This movie is only for older adults.
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Strong moral worldview, with a strong positive view of American law enforcement, which also exposes some injustices involving Native American citizens that need redressing (but not in a politically correct way) and argues for compassion toward crime victims and their families and bringing criminals to justice, plus man talks about a happy Christmas experience he had where he heard a church choir singing; 41 obscenities (including plenty of “f” words), six strong profanities and four light exclamatory profanities; some extreme violence includes a depicted and implied rape scene, intense fight scene occurs during rape scene between woman’s boyfriend and rapists, FBI agent kills one man in a small shootout, raped body of a woman is found with blood in the snow, the dead body of a man is found in the snow, intense group gunfight occurs with about 10 men dead, woman shot point blank through a door, man leaves a villain to die in the snow, images of dead bodies, and man contemplates suicide; depicted and implied rape scene, but explicit details not shown, implied fornication; a shot of rear female nudity and some shots of upper male nudity; brief alcohol use; no smoking but mention of drugs and going to jail for drugs; and, some lying.
