Wind River [DVD] [2017]

Great film delivered swiftly

Good scenery and a good storyline. Jeremy Renner and Elisabeth Olsen pair up to solve a murder of a native American girl.

I had seen this film on a stream, really enjoyed it and had no issues with the sound. I always read reviews on Amazon and was concerned about the negative reviews of the sound. Now having seen the movie on blu ray, I fully understand them. If you are using the sound on most TVs you will find the voices mumbling and it will be frustrating. I have a brand new Panasonic 4K blu ray player. A KEF 5.1 surround system with sub woofer, with Q Acoustics floor standing speakers at the front and an old 130 watt Yamaha amplifier. Normally I would watch the average film with the sound at -30. But had to watch this at -20. A third higher than normal. This made the gunfire and surround effects quite loud, which isn't ideal but generally I could hear what they were saying. It is a shame and clearly a very poor job has been done in the sound studio by the company who released this in the UK/Europe. The film for me is good, with a decent plot and story, set in a cold, harsh landscape on an Indian Reservation. The writer/director Taylor Sheridan has written the screenplays for two excellent films in Sicario and Hell Or High Water and clearly he is a talented guy. Jeremy Renner has one of his better roles, not quite up there with The Town, where he had an oscar nomination, but the film deals with many themes, such as death, loss, lust and ultimately justice. The action scenes are impressively gritty and when the answers come it shows the talent in the writing. In summary, if you have a good sound system and like a slightly slow burning thriller, this could be for you, but if you are watching this on a TV you could feel short changed on the dialogue and a very low budget film like this is unlikely to be brought out again for an anniversary edition sadly.

I would thoroughly recommend Wind River as a complex twisting thriller with compassion and pathos. All actors are excellent but lead actors are superb.

This is undoubtedly Renner's best film performance. The story is excellent and it succeeds in being compelling even as it unfolds with a steady pace, by using well flushed out characters to keep the audience fully engaged; Graham green as the Indian Police sergeant gives an especially effective nuanced performance. The only weakness is the level of naivety that is written into the part of the rookie FBI agent. The fact that the agent is a women and has no experience outside of a city scape are both essential to the plot, but the level of ignorance in how to deal with potentially violent situations is a stretch to far for an agent deemed suitable to be sent out alone. That said, Elizabeth Olsen does a fine job with the material she has ben given.The production quality is good but unfortunately at times of subdued dialogue it can be very difficult to make out all that is being said. If it was not for this flaw I would possibly have given this a five stare rating.I have already watched this film twice in the first week and expect to view it many more times over the years; I expect it to age well, as all the best films do.

Gritty and realistic, a welcome addiction to my Jeremy Renner collection. Feels very much like an episode of the layer xfiles seasons. Highly recommended

Olsen plays an FBI agent called to investigate a brutal rape and murder of a female native American in the wilderness of a reservation in Wyoming. She calls on the help of a local hunter (Renner) to help aid her in her quest and subsequently finds out that he has also lost a daughter in a similarly tragic way. They soon discover that the girl's boyfriend has also been murdered and body dumped out in the woods. As he worked for a local company, they go there separately to look for answers as Renner decides to check the outskirts of the encampment first. I don't really want to give anymore away as it would spoil what happens next. In short, Olsen and Renner put in excellent performances alongside a decent supporting cast even though the story-line is slightly flawed in terms of the ending sequences but even so, still a recommended watch.

As other reviewers have already commented, there is a slight issue with the sound on this Blu-ray, in that the dialogue is quite low in the audio mix. I have a high quality, but fairly old Arcam AV receiver, and in DTS 5.1, the dialogue is comfortably audible only at a higher volume level than I would normally have, and then the action sequences are overly loud. This sort of sound balance issue was evident in many early DVDs but should not be the case in modern films.That aside, this is a very enjoyable film, with good acting, a good story, and wonderful scenery throughout. For those with surround sound systems, one solution for the dialogue issue, is to turn off your centre speaker, so that the dialogue comes out of the main front speakers, and is then much clearer.