Intrada Soundtrack Forum

11/26/2017

Jeremy Renner, Taylor Sheridan, Elizabeth Olsen, Gil Birmingham, Graham Greene, the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming… all part of a powerful 2017 movie highly recommended for you to check out while waiting for our next batch of new releases to land on December 5. This batch includes a 4-CD set of classic music from one of the most esteemed “golden age” composers of all time, all mastered from previously unreleased actual soundtrack sessions surviving in the Warner Bros. and MGM studio vaults. Also coming is a long-awaited gem from yet another legendary composer, in this case an incredible action score oft-requested and finally made possible due newly restored elements and newly prepared tracks once considered lost to the ages.

Anyway, while taking a break from working on upcoming January albums, I watched the brand new Blu-ray release to Wind River, a terrific picture directed by Taylor Sheridan that’s remarkably topical to the current dialog regarding assaults on women. Sheridan is 3-for-3 now in my book, having written my favorite film for 2015, Sicario, and my favorite film for 2016, Hell Or High Water. Now he both writes and directs what is so far my favorite film of 2017, Wind River. This one’s for any movie fan who seeks something other than a sequel, prequel, reboot, remake, CGI-heavy superhero tale and whatnot. I like those things too but - geez! - there are just too many mega-budget superhero franchise tentpoles now and they’re all beginning to look awfully familiar to me.

So Wind River finds a U.S. Wildlife Service tracker (Jeremy Renner) teaming with an FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) to solve a murder that happened on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Renner is superb, as is Olsen. Ditto Birmingham and Greene. Character matters, people are three-dimensional, emotions factor heavily, the violence is intense and the story remains compelling to the end. (As with Sicario and Hell Or High Water, the action is happily free of any “stylish” slo-mo bullet-time editing gimmickry and simply hits with brutal realism.) The murder victim was a woman, assaulted and raped, whose body was discovered in the snow by the tracker. Details emerge about his character, the victim, the FBI agent who becomes assigned to the case, about familial tragedy, the politics of life on the poorest place in America and ultimately the disturbing situation of abused women on the reservation - a message of importance to Sheridan when filming the story earlier this year that has now become a hot topic today. And if the outdoor snowy blizzard setting doesn’t make for a chilling enough backdrop, unbeknownst to me until viewing last night was the entity behind the film: The Weinstein Company. But that’s just an awkward footnote. The movie is outstanding, superbly played, shot, written and directed. The haunting score by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis boasts a very transparent feel that impeccably supports both the snowy locale and the powerful emotional undercurrents. It’s always supportive, never overbearing. I recommend Wind River to anyone interested in dramatic story-telling on film devoid of heroic people flying about in capes… or at least in a pause mode from CGI-infused exploding buildings and so forth. (I'm not counting Renner also plays one of Marvel's Avengers.)

And I heartily recommend you checkout one or both of our December 5 new releases. There’s plenty of excitement to be had with these for sure! We’ll post artwork, contents and sound samples on Monday the 4th and begin shipping orders on Tuesday the 5th.