Thank you Pidge. I had planned to see it as I am a Judy Dench fan, but instead will see Stronger. I always read & appreciate your movie reviews. Did you see Wind River? I'd like to know your thoughts on it. Spoiler - I have seen it & have very definite opinion.

I saw Wind River and thought it was an excellent film. I heard some criticism that faulted the film because Jeremy Renner, a white man, is the guy who finds the killer of a Native American girl. I didn't buy the criticism for the following reasons: he was formerly married to a native woman, his daughter was thus biracial, he was hired by the tribe, he was close to many natives through shared experiences, esp. Gil Birminham, and every native role was played by a native and not a white person in redface. The Elizabeth Olsen character was also appropriately cast, IMO, because she represented the indifference of the American gov't. to Native Americans--the FBI sends a neophyte, a pretty blond woman, to do a job for which she is not well-suited and which she could not do without Renner..If Renner stands for anything, it's that whites and natives can overcome the indifference and general racism that exists at the heart of white/native relationship represented by the US gov't. The news at the end that statistics for deaths and disappearances does not include any stats for Native woman makes that clear.

That said, I thought the film was beautiful filmed and that the landscape was almost literally a character in the film. I always like when a story is so thoroughly placed within its context that the two are seen as inseparable. Context is always crucial to me in terms of storytelling, but not always so laid bare as in this film. The ways in which the landscape was so forbidding--the cold, the snow, the time it took to traverse it-- and yet provided (ETA to add that the word I should use here is "revealed"--time and place is everything in art) the clues by which the murder could be solved really worked for me.

The denouement was breathtaking--that gunfight had my head spinning. I had seen Gil Birmingham in Hell or High Water last year and was pleased to see his performance in this film.

Okay, your turn--what's the "definite opinion" you have?

Pidge: you have articulated my thoughts on the movie. I also was appalled by the government's indifference to the poverty, drugs and don't care attitude to sexual assault. Which character was Gil Birmingham? Everyone in the movie did an excellent job.

Whew, I thought you might join the crowd that criticizes the Jeremy Renner choice. Gil Birmngham is the man whose daughter is raped and runs away to her death. He was so good at the end with his face painted and sharing his grief wih the Renner character. They were so loving and funny together.

Birmingham was Jeff BRidges' Native American/Hispanic deputy in Hell or High Water.

Thanks Pidge. I agree he was excellent. I thought Jeremy Renner was great. Also really liked the actor who played the tribal police chief.

This film needed the white snow. Blood shows up better. Blue sky and pure white snow shows as very big contrast to the ugly gunfight. Dead frozen bodies discovered are almost, but not quite as white as the snow.

I don't know what I think about the plot - on the surface it's about men being stupid over and over.

I'll pass on the choice for the leads. Renner and Olsen were both good. I liked their characters which rang true. They were the interface to the NA community, so that it was less about that community and more about old wounds seeking revenge.

Stunning ending. Both men take deep breaths and the ending sentence is that no missing person statistics are kept on NA women. How bizarre, how awful.

Pure, I thought the film needed white snow for a lot more than visiual effects. The setting for this film had so much to do with how the landscape governss human behavior and how humans ineract with it. The Native American girl ran 6-7miles barefoot in the snow and the creepy white guy couldn't last more than a few hundred feet.

I didn't think the plot was about revenge and I'd like to know why you think it was.

As for the leads, I thought Gil Birmingham was one of them The relationship between him and Renner was not about revenge, at least to me, but about a shared loss, an old friendship, and a sense that although white Americans and Native Americans are almost always at odds, that the chasm can be overcome.

I also thought it was ALL about the NA community and the ways in which white Americans screw over NAs.

I hope that you will explain the revenge angle, which seems too simplistic for me. But I do want to know what you mean by that.

I don't add as much to what I write compared to what I'm thinking because I'm not sure how to word it. Not having written about movies since Film 101 in college. Not a stellar student in that course either.

I also think the landscape was a big part of the plot. Cory finds solace in Natalie running six miles barefoot in the snow. It is a balm to his own grief and anger at his daughter's rape and death - similar age to Natalie. Revenge happened when the last of the gang died. Cory didn't have to kill him - he knew that nature would do it for him. Although, he admits to his friend that (and I know this to be true) he has learned to give in to grief in order to keep memories alive. The lesson is to live with the grief instead of fighting it.

Both Cory and Martin are sharing their loss at the end. Their sighs are sadness replacing the anger.

I get you, pure, and I like what you say about the two men at the end. Yes. This was such a good film.