There is so much sadness in the world, and none of it is the work of God.  He put us on this planet to experience the joy that comes from worshipping Him, but He also gave us free will.  Unfortunately, there are many who abuse that gift, ignoring the call to love one another as Scripture and tradition show us to do.  In short, people choose sin despite it being against their ultimate good.  Because of this brokenness, God also gave us the ability to cope with the ugliness.  He understands the predicament we are in and provides us the necessary tools weather life’s storms.  The only way it is possible to do so is with God.  Over the centuries and across all geographical locales, people have interpreted God in different ways.  When the Church sent out Her missionaries, they encountered those interpretations and explained them through the lens of Jesus and His teachings.  God is either the God of all as He says He is, or what is it that we are doing?  What am I doing?  Though religion does not factor into today’s film, Wind River (2017), we can see these themes at work.

What United States Fish and Wild Life Officer Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) is working at in the beginning of Wind River is keeping wolves away from his livestock.  For people who are employed by this branch of the federal government, their job is to maintain and protect the wilderness from various encroachments.  For Cory, living and roaming the hills of the eponymous Native American reservation, this basically means hunting predators that attack the livelihood of the native peoples in the area.  But being alone in the woods also gives him time to think, and what occupies his mind the most is the death of his daughter, Emily (not pictured).  Though this is not discussed until later, the teenager had died while he and his mother, Wilma Lambert (Julia Jones), were out together one night.  Instead of watching their younger son, Casey Lambert (Teo Briones), Emily had a party that got out of control and resulted in her death.  This caused a strain on Corey and Wilma leading to their separation.  There is also talk of Wilma going to Jackson, Wyoming, to find a job and taking Casey with her.  After spending some time with Casey, Corey is out patrolling when he comes across the frozen body of Natalie Hanson (Kelsey Asbille).  We had seen her running barefoot across the snow in some distress, but it is not until this moment that her fate is revealed.  The find is distressing for Corey because Natalie had been school friends with Emily.  Because it takes place on Native American land, and their local police force, led by Officer Ben Shoyo (Graham Greene), has precious few resources, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) is sent.  She is originally from Florida, and is of caucasian descent, and is thus doubly ill-prepared for working in Native American Wyoming.  As such, Corey is brought in as a sort of local resource for her.  Her lack of understanding is brought to the fore early in two separate moments.  First, when she meets with Natalie’s parents, Agent Banner insists on talking to the mother, Annie Hanson (Althea Sam), but is ill-prepared for the depth of sadness.  During the visit, Corey speaks separately to Martin Hanson (Gil Birmingham), Natalie’s father, and promises to hunt down the perpetrators.  The second incident is the coroner’s report for Natalie.  The examiner, Dr. Randy Whitehurst (Eric Lange), cannot legally list the cause of death as murder because she died due to her lungs essentially freezing her to death.  There is evidence of an attack, but this is not a-typical for this area.  To her credit, witnessing the problems makes Agent Banner all the more determined to help.  Thus, it is on to trying to identify suspects.  The first person they try to track down to question is Chip Hanson (Martin Sensmeier), Natalie’s brother.  They locate him in a notorious drug den, taking him into custody after a brief struggle.  He is unwilling to cooperate with Agent Banner, but Corey is able to learn that Natalie had a boyfriend that provided security for the nearby oil rigs, Matt Rayburn (Jon Bernthal).  This sounds like somebody who might have a reason to kill Natalie, but Agent Banner and Corey follow a trail into the mountains that lead to his corpse.  The fact that he is dead points to something fishy going on with the security detail at the oil rigs.  As such, Officer Shoyo gathers as many law enforcement officers as possible to head in that direction.  As they pull up to where the security personnel are housed, Corey is scouting on his own through the surrounding mountains.  He discovers more snowmobile tracks that lead away from the rig and in the direction Natalie would have run while trying to escape the area.  As Agent Banner is knocking on the door of the trailer in which Matt lived, we are shown what happened that night.  Natalie had visited Matt the evening of her death, having walked the six miles to get there.  After they had been intimate, his co-workers return in a drunken stupor despite expecting them to stay in town overnight.  One of their number, Pete Mickens (James Jordan), provokes a fight that results in Matt being nearly beat to death and Natalie being raped.  Matt struggles to give Natalie the opportunity to flee, and this is how they end up dead.  Before Corey can properly radio in his findings, Agent Banner is shot through the door by Pete, and a brief gun battle erupts.  Agent Banner is saved by her bullet proof vest and Corey’s marksmanship.  He eventually catches up to a critically wounded Pete, watching the criminal die in the same fashion as had Natalie.  With that, Corey visits the wounded Agent Banner in the hospital before going to console the Hansons.

With all that consoling, you can tell that there is a lot of brutality in Wind River.  The film presages this to a degree by saying that it is based on a true story.  That can sometimes be cryptic, so it clarifies it somewhat with a postscript by saying this is just one of many such stories.  It claims that there are no official statistics kept on missing women from Native American lands, and that it is an epidemic.  Therefore, dealing with moments like these is a necessity.  It is in the interactions between Corey and Martin that we see something that approximates how the Church teaches us to deal with grief and loss.  Because Corey has been through it, he has sage advice for Martin.  Corey recommends not turning away from the pain, but accepting it.  To this end, there are many non-Christian therapists whose techniques align with Church teaching.  Thus, what I am about to say will not sound too revelatory, unless you are unaware that Catholicism espouses the same values.  What Corey says is that Martin will never be whole again, which is true regardless of what is going on in your life.  We are supposed to grow, in our Faith and as a person.  Those who get stuck in the past, whether dwelling on a deceased love one or looking to some kind of golden era, are the ones who tend to suffer the most.  What such people are doing is not accepting reality.  The sadness one feels in such moments is a credit to you in that it demonstrates that you care.  It is not easy to witness the death of a loved one.  Corey adds that a person in such a situation has two choices, either to survive or surrender.  In this scenario, surrender means giving in to that sadness, being overwhelmed by it, and not allowing yourself to be any good to anyone.  To be sure, even the best of us can go through that process.  What I am here to tell you is that none of this means anything without God.  Only He can heal, and only He can reveal the true meaning of your suffering.  And He will be patiently waiting for you when you are ready to turn to Him.

Should you decide to turn on Wind River, know that there are some bloody parts, plus the scene of the rape.  At the same time, as detailed in the previous paragraph, there are some excellent words on dealing with loss.  This one is a recommendation, but I would proceed with some caution.