In 2008, an unknown actor ran a dragon suit in Hollywood for more than 20 years.
At the age of nearly 40, he realized that if he continued like this, he would not even be able to support his wife and children.
Forced to make a living, he had to change his career to become a screenwriter, planning to write some scripts to sell for money.
He has never received professional training, nor has he gone to a formal film university, and he has only relied on the experience of "running dragon sets" and some of his personal opinions on movies over the years, spending nearly half a year and writing three scripts.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the script came out, it shined, and the former dragon set also went to the peak of life.
And these three scripts are the famous "American Border Trilogy":
"Border Killer", "To the Soup and the Fire", "Hunting Wind River Valley".
2015's "Border Killer" was recognized by the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and 2016's "To the Soup" was directly nominated for an Oscar.
And the last screenplay, Taylor Sheridan kept it to himself, as his self-written and self-directed debut.
In 2017, once "Hunting Wind Valley" came out, it could only be described by the word "stunning".
The overall rhythm of the film is very similar to that of "Border Killer" and it was once again nominated for the "One Unit" Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Once again, the story is set by Taylor Sheridan in the place he is accustomed to— on the edge of the civilized world.
The story of "Border Killer" and "Go to the Soup" takes place in the burning texas, while "Wind Valley" is in the Wind Valley of Wyoming.
The Wind Valley is a reservation for the Indians, and the only impression of the outside world here is that it is wild, withered, and disorderly.
In fact, it is true that often under the vast white snow, evil always quietly breeds and spreads.
At the beginning of the story, a young woman is running desperately in the wilderness of minus tens of degrees, as if running for her life.
However, there is no one ahead, and there is no hope of survival at all...
The next day, the cow of the man's father-in-law Lambert's family was bitten to death, and he suspected that it was a lioness.
When he entered the mountain with a shotgun, he soon found the body of the girl who had escaped last night.
At stake, Lambert chose to call the police, and the police contacted the FBI.
As a result, after the official walked through a bunch of procedures, just a rookie agent Jane came.
Obviously, the upper echelons did not pay attention to this case at all, and the reason was simple: this was a reservation.
The Indian Reservation is a special existence in the American judiciary, retaining a great deal of autonomy in the area, implying that it will fend for itself.
Unless a very serious case occurs, the general FBI will not intervene, so it is good to send a rookie female agent over.
After forensic identification, the deceased died of inhaling too much cold air while running, causing the alveoli to rupture, the liquid that flowed out condensed into ice, and eventually the lungs were bleeding heavily, causing people to cough up blood and die.
This means that the case cannot be classified as murder based on the results of the appraisal, and the FBI will not deploy more police forces.
So Jane had to harden her scalp and start investigating alone.
Just when she had no clue, Lambert stepped forward to help her.
Because of this case, he reminded him of his dead daughter, which was almost the same as this case, but in the end, he did not find the murderer and did not solve it.
Later, after an investigation of the four visits, the two locked in the suspect:
One was the girl's younger brother and the other was a worker in a drilling plant.
The whole process of solving the case is very simple, there is no suspenseful chain of clues, but through the chat with the suspect, the clues were quickly discovered.
It turned out that the police only briefly reported the case, but did not disclose the details, including the name of the deceased.
To be precise, the murderer was not one person, but a group of people.
A shootout ensued between the two sides, and the entire action scene lasted only 30 seconds.
There are no slow motion and close-ups, and cool marksmanship displays, just a simple exchange of fire.
The two sides stood in the snow without any shelter, and the people basically fell to the ground after being shot.
In this regard, director Taylor Sheridan said: "What I want is a sense of reality! ”
In the past, I have seen a lot of real gunfight video data, and the longest one is no more than 30 seconds.
This is the biggest feeling of "Hunting Wind River Valley" to the audience.
Subsequently, the film stripped away the cocoon and gradually restored the entire incident through a clever flashback.
It turned out that the girl's name was Natalie, and on the night of the crime, she came to the drilling plant alone and found her boyfriend to live in the two-person world.
Unexpectedly, several other guards suddenly came back drunk in the middle of the night, just in time to bump into the picture of the two people.
Several big men were trapped in the ice and snow, and they hadn't seen women for a long time, so they would naturally move their minds.
In order to protect Natalie from escaping, the boyfriend and the crowd wrestled and were accidentally beaten to death.
The later story is the opening scene.
There is no doubt that the chaotic environment has caused a deformity of human nature.
Nominally, the United States created reservations for the Indians, giving them a certain degree of autonomy and great freedom.
In fact, the reservation is a remote and remote place, far from the law outside of urban civilization.
In the conflict-filled 93 minutes, the film discusses issues such as cowardice and courage, civilization and barbarism, humanity and bestiality, female survival, and the confrontation between American culture and Native American culture.
In addition to continuing director Taylor Sheridan's consistent cold and restrained style, the whole story also shows a fuller and more tense narrative skill.
And Jeremy Rayner and Elizabeth Orson's portrayal of the characters is extremely plump and energetic, which is very close to the story.
In terms of the reasoning setting of the case, the overall evolution is very reasonable, and the local geographical environment, cultural ecology and the case are very well combined, and the whole story is as natural as water.
There is a bridge section in the film, that is, the brother of the murdered girl, he is an addict, mistakenly believes that Agent Jane is here to catch himself, so he vows to resist to the end.
As a result, he was shot several times in the body and said his heart before dying.
The place is like a curse, with no "healthy" young man in sight, often teetering on the brink of crime.
At the end of the day, as the last criminal said:
"This damn icy snow, nothing but snow and silence."
No goal, no hope, no future is the dilemma faced by locals.
Although they are marginalized by society, human nature is also frozen numb in this ice and snow.
However, this is not a reason to sink.
At the beginning, the fleeing girl ran barefoot in the snow at minus tens of degrees, while the criminal who Lambert deliberately let go ran for hundreds of meters and fell to the ground.
Director Taylor Sheridan only used two people, a mirror, to reflect a lot of things.
Once people have faith, they will erupt with unimaginable forces, even if the environment is harsh, it will not stop you from moving forward.
When we are powerless to change our surroundings, we can choose to use the little energy we have left to change ourselves.