Taylor Sheridan pioneers the Neo-Western Genre

Rating: 9/10 (23 September 2018)

Taylor Sheridan is a very promising up-and-coming director whose works have helped breath life into the genre of the neo-western. A neo-western is a western style film which takes place in a contemporary setting. Wind River takes a look at how the law has failed the desolate society of those living on the Wind River Native American Reservation. Wind River follows Jane Banner, an FBI agent way out of her element in the harsh and unforgiving lands of Wyoming, and Cory Lambert, a local game tracker with a moral code rooted in the law of nature, on their hunt to investigate the murder of a girl on a Native American Reservation. Cory's character has lost his daughter in one of the worst ways possible. She simply vanished and never came back. The pain that Cory went through with the loss of his daughter is what cements his belief in the raw and cruel law of nature and is what drives him to help Jane and the family of the murdered girl find their own closure. Jane, however, comes from a world in which the law has worked for her and she trusts in its system. In order for Jane to survive in this new world, Jane has to let go of her old trust in the system, which she sees has failed those on the reservation, and eventually accept Cory's sense of justice.
In Wind River, the reservation is far from any metropolitan influences which are a common locale in most Hollywood films; the audience instead looks at America through the lens of those forgotten by the safety and security of the government's law and how people have become influenced by the law of nature. The lawlessness of Wind River reflects the raw heart of old western's which Taylor Sheridan draws his inspiration from, but by putting it into a modern setting and focusing on the individual characters, their actions, and decisions; he makes it a much more real and convincing film. The audience starts off relating to the drive that Jane has to bring justice to the girl, but as the film progresses, it becomes clear that Jane's law cannot exist in this cold and uncaring world. Taylor Sheridan's adds transitional shots of the vast, cold, and sharp landscape of Wyoming to emphasize how small and outnumbered the people on the reservation are against the enormity of Mother Nature.
After the brutal shootout between the Wind River law enforcement and the private security guards, Cory tells Jane that he's going after Pete and that he doesn't plan on bringing him back. At this point, Jane accepts the way of law in this land and instead of trying to uphold her past view of justice she lets Cory deal with Pete in his own way. Cory kills Pete by giving him the same chance that he gave the girl, in the middle of nowhere, barefoot, and afraid. The audience views the death of Pete as a closing of the loop and is more satisfied with the result because in this world's law, he got what he deserved, even though his death would have been seen as unjust in the law's eye. This film highlights how when the law fails those who need protection, it is up to those individuals to step up and uphold their own sense of justice. The law makes sense for the audience that lives in a society where this law would protect them and keep them safe; however, for the people of the Wind River reservation, this law has failed them and in order to survive in their cold world, the law has to be abandoned and the rule of Nature accepted.