Is ‘Wind River’ Based on a True Story? – Armessa Movie News

Trigger Warning: The following article references sexual violence.

It is fair to say that Taylor Sheridan is obsessed with violence in his artistry but in a way that questions the purpose of the violence itself. Whether it is his TV series such as Yellowstone, 1883, and 1923, or his feature screenplay for Sicario which explores the dark side of American justice regarding drug cartels in Mexico, or even his screenplay for the Oscar-nominated film Hell or High Water, you are left questioning your moral compass about pertinent issues either historically or contemporarily. His point seems to be that violence is devastating and, also, that the solution to some orderliness is violence, albeit with some tag of honor. Preferring the Wild West or neo-Western, Sheridan’s works are also allegorical. To drive his point home, he often includes parallel elements from real life. He could have the story of a real-life character like gunslinger Marshal Jim Courtright (Billy Bob Thornton) in Yellowstone prequel 1883 or accommodate a real-life event like the show’s battle scene featuring Tom Hanks based on the Civil War. Such is what makes his pictures compelling, making some think that they are based on real stories. And none of his work is this more pronounced than in his debut directorial feature, Wind River. While Wind River is not based on a true story, the movie’s plot is rooted in the very real, horrifying, and lesser-talked-about experiences of missing women and sexual violence throughout the female Indigenous American community.

Wind River is one of the few if any, films set on an Indigenous American reservation. Wind River is a story about a rookie FBI agent, Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) trying to solve the gruesome murder of Natalie (Kelsey Asbille), a teenage Indigenous American. Jane is not familiar with the ways of the reservation, and she needs help, which she gets from her fellow Avengers star, Jeremy Renner‘s Cory Lambert. Cory is an officer of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service living and working within the reservation. While there are Indigenous Americans in prominent roles in the film, both the lead characters Jane and Cory are white, a criticism that Sheridan has received. However, the story itself is based on loose facts about the disproportionate violence that Indigenous American women face.

In an interview reported by The Guardian, Taylor Sheridan says that he visited the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and got acquainted with the Indigenous communities there and their challenges. Remarkably, the community around the reservation was hostile toward their neighbors. Sheridan experienced this firsthand when he was turned away at a gas station because he was “hanging out with Indians.” He also observed the way state police and FBI officers who were unable to legally carry out arrests on the reservation, would wait on the fringes for anyone with an active warrant. Sheridan adds that he was asked by the Indigenous community to use his Hollywood position to highlight their story and, “Tell the worst of it,” because that, “ain’t our fault.”

In the film, you can see how Sheridan’s personal experiences are reflected. When the FBI’s Jane investigating the murder is given a report that states that the dead teenager died as a result of freezing, she asks the pathologist to change the cause to show that it was a homicide so that she can be allowed to pursue the case as federal officers can only take part in homicide cases. Sheridan is driving a message home that something has to be done about the bickering for responsibility. Through the film, he subtly asks the pertinent question, “Who do these laws serve?”

But it is the worst of these stories encompassing rape and murder that is at the core of Wind River. And like the many real-life stories about Indigenous American women that go unresolved, Sheridan highlights the obstacles that make them hard to crack. From systemic to inadequate resources to sheer jadedness, Wind River brings the issues to the fore, and how common sense can help alleviate part of the mess. Jane Banner doesn’t just choose the letter of the law to abandon the homicide case just because the medical expert has listed it otherwise, she stays on to get to the bottom of the matter. This juxtaposition between fiction and reality is a convincing tale of realism.

‘Wind River’ Crew and Cast Experienced Firsthand Some of Indigenous Americans’ Challenges

While rape, disappearance without a trace, and unresolved homicides rank highly in Wind River‘s challenges facing Indigenous American communities, one less prominent problem the film highlights is the tricky landscape that the community inhabits and the inadequate resources allocated to deal with it. Through Jane, we see that living on the reservation is far from buzzard’s luck, it’s a place where you have to “survive or surrender.” From the moment Jane arrives, she quickly realizes that she is ill-equipped to deal with the crazy weather, and the resources available to her are nowhere near ideal. She relies on the locals’ know-how of the reservation’s way of life. It is Cory’s snowmobile that she uses for transportation around the scene of the crime. When she is shot by the perpetrators, she realizes that her only hope of surviving is to get a helicopter airlift as local amenities cannot serve her.

The crew and cast of Wind River experienced the Indigenous Americans’ world firsthand during filming. In an interview, Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner said that it was a challenge for the crew especially moving equipment. They relied on snow tracks and the terrain wasn’t always forgiving. Elizabeth Olsen also decried the cold weather, although they differed with Sheridan who thought that the weather wasn’t that cold. Sheridan has said that “shooting in the snow was a ridiculous proposition”, and he doesn’t wish to do it again. But they also had some wild experiences filming alongside coyotes and buffalos.

Taylor Sheridan Had More Artistic Freedom Making ‘Wind River’

Being an indie film, Wind River provided Sheridan with more artistic freedom. As a writer-director, it was a welcome challenge to tell his story. Sheridan has said that he had total control over the script, the structure of the film which slow-burns to its explosion toward the end, and the choices of the scenes in the film. One scene that was cut out of Wind River has Jane booking a hotel room in a town within the reservation. In the scene, she has a dialogue with the hotel receptionist whom she asks whether she can be given a “government discount” as she works for the federal government (FBI), to which the receptionist replies “Governments never given me one.” Then the receptionist scornfully asks her whether she is there because of the teenage murder, adding that she is sure it is another Indigenous American girl. In this scene, the message is the emphasis on just how dangerous it is for Indigenous women to live. Sheridan has said that he decided to cut out some scenes that he thought were repetitive of the message already delivered elsewhere. On the other hand, his decision to stick to some scenes in the film made studios that were interested in producing the film back off. Being his directorial debut, Sheridan was open-minded about incorporating ideas from actors in a collaborative way. In some instances, some parts of dialogue that were in the script were replaced by actors’ mere gestures that communicate the same. The screenplay, he adds, did not undergo any rewrites before filming as the investors in the film liked it as it was.

With this artistic freedom, Sheridan’s Wind River also subverts the Western genre. First, it is the way it does the big reveal of what happened to Natalie coming toward the end of the film in a flashback. While the build-up of the film feels slow, this reveal is explosive and sets a new pace for the film that is satisfying at the end. It is a case of keeping the best for last that works in film. Secondly, it has a woman in charge of keeping the law in a society that is de facto lawless, a rarity in a Western. Thirdly, it gives significant roles to Indigenous Americans, although it has been criticized for still having the two leads as whites, reminiscent of the white savior narrative.

Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River is a phenomenal film highlighting one of America’s least talked about crises. By talking about the disproportionate violence that Indigenous American women face, the film brings the issue to the forefront, providing an avenue for a nationwide and even a global conversation about not only Indigenous American women but also minority communities that have been left out of mainstream protection. Wind River does this boldly, even subverting the traditional Western genre. Taylor Sheridan’s visit to a reservation and his application of his observations in the script is a testament to the fact that the film is not just another fictional project meant to entertain, but one that leaves you thinking more seriously about issues you may or may not have known about before. No, Wind River is not based on a real story, but it is based on real experiences that indigenous Americans go through that few speak about.

Wind River is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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