Wind River (2017)

This film is upsetting, disturbing and depressing. But it nevertheless manages to pack a powerful punch.
Cory (Jeremy Renner) works for the Fish and Wildlife Committee and while he is on the job at the Native American Reservation, he finds a dead body. It is Natalie Hansen, his deceased daughter's best friend. She was raped and then ran in the frigid temperatures for six miles. It might be cold here, currently, but there it is always cold.
The FBI is called in and rookie agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) is on the job and she is inexperienced and not dressed for the weather. At first, there are few leads and it isn't until a second body is found, the body of a white man who worked at the drilling site near-by. Turns out that guy was Natalie's much older boyfriend and things get interesting and deadly very quickly.
Turns out Natalie goes to visit her boyfriend and his roommates show up, drunk and horny. She is raped and runs away and Matt (Jon Bernthal), the boyfriend, is beaten up to the point of death to defend her. And then once the FBI and tribal police show up, a shoot up begins and in the end, everyone ends up dead, except for Jane and Cory. Cory lets the guy who raped Natalie out in the cold without shoes so he can die in the exact same way as her as he just watches. Now, while that guy is a complete creep, he should have slowly rotted in prison as I took no pleasure in watching him die either.
Now, death is close to Cory as his own daughter died a few years earlier under somewhat murky circumstances. So perhaps he takes some comfort in watching that jerk pass away.
The punch comes as the film dwindles away. There are no statistics for how many Native American women are missing. They are the only demographic where statistics do not exist. It doesn't list a reason and it doesn't matter, that needs to change and it needs to change now.
Though this was a good, chilling film, it wasn't what I expected. I believed that this is where Native Americans were being killed for the land rights and that was not the case. Instead, men are just being awful human beings, which is unacceptable. It doesn't matter how cold, lonely and drunk you are, your behavior is wrong and disrespectful.
The film is well acted and well written and gives the most underused minority in Hollywood a few good roles, namely for Graham Greene as the tribal police chief. It is a shame that this plot doesn't add up to something more life altering and more respectful for the Native American culture. Grade: B