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WIND RIVER

"Haunted by Tragic Crimes"

NoneLightModerateHeavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

WIND RIVER is an exceptional, unique thriller. Jeremy Renner stars as Cory Lambert, a Wyoming game and wildlife expert, who helps an inexperienced FBI agent named Jane Banner investigate a rape/murder of a young American Indian woman on the Wind River Indian Reservation. 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 one awful night. Cory is still haunted by that tragic crime. The mystery surrounding the woman’s death deepens when Cory and Jane uncover some new revelations.

WIND RIVER is partly an issue-oriented movie trying to call attention to the number of missing Native American women in the United States. Apart from that, however, WIND RIVER is a really good thriller with emotionally powerful performances by the main players in the cast. The performances add great depth to the story and its drama. That said, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for WIND RIVER because of some extreme, intense violence in two lengthy violent scenes near the end and lots of strong foul language.

HEADLINE: ** Haunted by Tragic Crimes **

Title: WIND RIVER

Quality: * * * * Acceptability: -2

SUBTITLES: None

WARNING CODES:

Language: LLL

Violence: VVV

Sex: SS

Nudity: N

MPAA RATING: R

RELEASE: August 4, 2017

TIME: 107 minutes

STARRING: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Graham Greene, Gil Birmingham, Kelsey Asbille, Martin Sensmeier, Jon Bernthal

DIRECTOR: Taylor Sheridan

PRODUCERS: Basil Iwanyk, Peter Berg, Matthew George, Wayne Rogers

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Erica Lee, Jonathan Fuhrman, Braden Aftergood, Tim White, Trevor White, Christopher H. Warner, Wayne Marc Godfrey, Robert Jones, Nik Bower, Deepak Taylor, Nicholas Chartier, Jonathan Deckter, Joni Sighvatsson, Vincent Maraval, Brahim Chioua, Agnes Mentré

WRITER: Taylor Sheridan

BASED ON THE NOVEL/PLAY BY: N/A

DISTRIBUTOR: The Weinstein Company

CONTENT: (BB, PP, C, LLL, VVV, SS, N, A, DD, M) 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.

GENRE: Thriller

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Adults

REVIEWER: Dr. Tom Snyder

REVIEW: 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.

Please send your thanks or concerns, and copy us, to:

Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Co-Chairmen, The Weinstein Company (Radius-TWC/Dimension Films)

345 Hudson Street, 13th Floor

New York, NY 10014

Phone: (646) 862-3400; Fax: (917) 368-7000

Website: www.weinsteinco.com

SUMMARY: 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.

IN BRIEF:

WIND RIVER is an exceptional, unique thriller. Jeremy Renner stars as Cory Lambert, a Wyoming game and wildlife expert, who helps an inexperienced FBI agent named Jane Banner investigate a rape/murder of a young American Indian woman on the Wind River Indian Reservation. 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 one awful night. Cory is still haunted by that tragic crime. The mystery surrounding the woman’s death deepens when Cory and Jane uncover some new revelations.

WIND RIVER is partly an issue-oriented movie trying to call attention to the number of missing Native American women in the United States. Apart from that, however, WIND RIVER is a really good thriller with emotionally powerful performances by the main players in the cast. The performances add great depth to the story and its drama. That said, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for WIND RIVER because of some extreme, intense violence in two lengthy violent scenes near the end and lots of strong foul language.

Content:

(BB, PP, C, LLL, VVV, SS, N, A, DD, M) 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.

More Detail:

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.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


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