Cut

I don't think I can write this without "spoilers", so if you ever plan to watch a movie called "Wind River" 2017, maybe skip this text. We did, last night and, as I turned it off, I said "good movie". Since then, I've been trying to decide if it is

It is set on the eponymous Native American reservation in central Wyoming (though I think the credits said it was filmed in Utah), in bitter cold winter snow. Snowmobiles, tracks in the snow, the unforgiving harshness and isolation of the area, the need for personal resourcefulness, all feature large, It is beautifully filmed, perfectly the showcasing the landscape, the light, the scale, the silence

The plot is familiar from classic westerns, Scandi-noir, crime procedurals and Sherlock Holmes: a body, local law enforcement overwhelmed, an inexperienced and ineffective cop from out of town, a strong silent hero who can read the signs, understands the territory and gets the job done, notwithstanding their broken home life and a dark secret in their own past. Stir in the sensitive handling of the multi-generational injustice meeted out to Native Americans, paternal grief, male friendship, father-son bonding and an almost-romance - what's not to like? The oh-so-woke Guardian gave it 4/5 starts and said it is "satisfying"

Well, the hero is a gun-slinger - or, in the context, a hunter who kills rogue predators that are killing livestock (so ideally suited to... you guessed it), using a scope rifle for which he manufactures his own shells with meticulous care. The denouement features a gunfight in which he shoots the "baddies" from his camouflage hideout. His eventual showdown with the perpetrator who caused the victims death features a deliberate and cruel "execution" - cue the closing credits

At one level, this is not so different from The Magnificent Seven or Dirty Harry or any one of a hundred westerns where the hero rescues a frightened town from the guys in black hats. It's Hollywood myth making, the triumph of good over evil, the restoration of order after the chaos caused by transgression. At another level, it is gun lobby propaganda of the most effective kind ("it's a good movie") and licence for individuals who think that law enforcement does not represent their values, so it's down to them. It feels like not that big a step to Anders Breivik or Timothy McVeigh, which makes me very uncomfortable. My personal jury is out

No snow here, but mid-winter means marmalade. Our planned multi-batch production was deferred for a couple of hours, due to a diversion into our own bitter cold outdoors to help a friend with a flat battery (or fail to - new battery needed), but we managed to cut the job in half