Wind River (Part III): “A Meadow in my Perfect World” (2017)

Every time that I see Wind River, it breaks my heart. It’s such a powerful story that even the passage of time doesn’t lessen its intensity. In fact, each time I see it, I notice more details and see more images that make the story moving in different ways. It gives me more sympathy for the grief that the fathers in this film, Cory Lambert and Martin Hanson, share over the murder of their daughters.

I saw Wind River a couple of times about three years ago, and I wrote about it twice then because I wanted to devote an entire post to the writing and to the poem, “A Meadow in my Perfect World.” The poem was written by Emily Lambert, Cory Lambert’s daughter, both of whom are characters in the film. The poem is central to the story. This time, I want to write about lines of the poem because of comments and questions left on each of my previous blog posts.

Click here and here for my first and second blog posts, respectively, about Wind River.

Someone left a comment, a question, on my second blog post about Wind River that prompted me to see the film again, to write about it again, so I will start with that one. The comment included the following question: “Is the poem in question what is being whispered when Cory is approaching the young woman's body at the beginning and during the oil guy’s death scene?”

(This blog post about Wind River contains spoilers.)

The poem is not recited when Cory Lambert, the Fish and Wildlife Service agent, approaches and discovers Natalie Hanson’s body in the snow. But it is recited, in a woman’s voice, at the start of the film, when Natalie Hanson is running across the moonlit snow in her blue parka. It is a beautiful shot, but she is running to her death. The woman’s voice (I don’t know who it is) recites two and a half stanzas of the poem (see the full text of the poem at the end of this post):

There’s a meadow in my perfect world

where wind dances the branches of a tree,

casting leopard spots of light across the face of a pond . . .

The tree stands tall and grand and alone,

shading the world beneath it.

 

. . . It is here, in the cradle of all I hold dear,

I guard every memory of you.

 

And when I find myself frozen in the mind of the real—

far from your loving eyes, I will return to this place,

close mine, and take solace in the simple perfection

of knowing you.

When I compared these lines to the version written by Emily Lambert, Cory’s daughter, I realized that these spoken lines are not consecutive, at least not as written by Emily Lambert.

Later in the film, Cory Lambert follows tracks from the Littlefeathers’ residence to an outcropping on a mountain. From this vantage point, he can see the oil rig, where Natalie’s boyfriend Matt Rayburn worked, in the distance. Shots of Cory Lambert’s tracking are interwoven with shots of Jane Banner, the federal agent; Ben Shoyo, the tribal police chief; and three tribal police officers on their way to the oil rig to search Matt Rayburn’s trailer. At this point, they still consider Rayburn a suspect. On the soundtrack, a male voice whispers several lines from Emily’s poem and an extra line that was difficult to hear:

Far from your loving eyes,

In a place where winter never comes.

Far from your loving eyes,

Along the mountain, the wind I run.

Far from your loving eyes,

I return to a place . . .

The fourth line is the only one that is not part of Emily Lambert’s original poem. The repeated lines and the second and sixth lines are recited out of sequence compared to the original. When I wrote my first blog post about Wind River, I thought the fourth line read “All along the wind I run.” Someone left a comment with a different interpretation: “All alone in the wind I ran.” I have decided that both of us were wrong on this, my third viewing of the film. I still hope that I heard it and transcribed it correctly, and I think it accentuates even more the mystical and spiritual elements of the poem.

I wonder now if all the lines of poetry, however they are recited or altered, are meant to represent the spirits of Emily and Natalie and the resilience of their fathers in dealing with, in their separate ways, the deaths of their daughters.

I’m not sure exactly which oil man the commenter was referring to when they wrote, “Is the poem in question what is being whispered when Cory is approaching the young woman's body at the beginning and during the oil guy’s death scene?” I’ll make two guesses about the identity of the “oil guy”: Matt Rayburn, who is Natalie’s boyfriend and who cared about her, and Pete Mickens, who raped her and was one of the group who killed Rayburn.

Lines from the poem are not recited when Cory Lambert and Jane Banner find Matt Rayburn’s naked body frozen in the snow. At this point in the film, they don’t know the identity of the body, and Matt Rayburn is a suspect in Natalie’s death. He was her boyfriend, and suspicion naturally falls on him. This suspicion is underscored when Natalie’s brother Chip tells Lambert and Banner that he disapproved of Natalie’s relationship with Rayburn.

At the end of the film, Cory Lambert confronts Pete Mickens, a rapist and a murderer, at the top of Gannett Peak, the highest point in Wyoming. He gets a confession from Mickens and then sets him free to run barefoot through the frigid snow, just as Natalie did. He knows that Mickens won’t make it. Mickens would know it, too, if he had ever taken any interest in his surroundings and learned about the area where he was living and working. But he dies trying to get away, and a male voice repeats the same lines, plus the new one, that I transcribed above.

When Jane Banner, the FBI agent investigating Natalie Hanson’s murder, visits Cory Lambert to discuss their investigation, Cory tells her that his daughter Emily died three years earlier, under mysterious circumstances. He and his wife still don’t know how or why. Her body was found twenty miles from their home, but no one has any idea how she got there. Her body had already been picked over by coyotes. Jane Banner goes to the bathroom to leave Cory alone for a moment with his grief, and when she comes out of the bathroom, she finds Emily’s poem, “A Meadow in my Perfect World,” framed on the wall. Jane asks about the poem:

• Cory Lambert: “Emily wrote that. It’s what got her accepted into the summer writing program at Colorado State.”

• Jane Banner: “Did she write it to you?”

• Cory Lambert: “Doesn’t matter who it’s to. Just matters who it’s from.”

From this conversation, Jane Banner now knows why Cory Lambert is helping her with her investigation of Natalie Hanson’s murder. But I also think that Cory’s statement about the poem, that it only matters who it is from, is significant. The writer and each person speaking different lines from the poem throughout the film are important because each one offers strength, love, and hope, intangible qualities that can be relied upon in times of great stress. Perhaps the poem was intended to represent a spiritual quality, something that the intended recipients of the words would understand completely.

Cory Lambert calls Natalie Hanson a warrior. She ran six miles in the snow and frigid temperatures. She left a trail for others to find in her death. The same could be said of crime victims who fight tooth and nail, even more important today because technology can make use of the trace DNA left behind. I think the poem functions in the same way in Wind River. Emily Lambert wrote it; she left her mark in this life. A female and a male recite lines from it; they honor her words in their own and different ways to extend Emily’s original power, her creativity, to prove that the love she inspired continues, even conquers what was done to try to squelch that power.

Like I said, Wind River is a powerful story.

May 5 is National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native American Women. For more information about murdered and missing indigenous people, click on the following links:

◊ Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women

◊ It Starts with Us

◊ Native Women’s Wilderness

(Thanks to Patrick Willie for this list. You can see Patrick Willie’s YouTube channel by clicking here.)

Here is the complete text of Emily Lambert’s poem from Wind River.

“A Meadow in my Perfect World”

by Emily Lambert

(or Taylor Sheridan? I couldn’t find anything online to indicate otherwise)

There’s a meadow in my perfect world

where wind dances the branches of a tree,

casting leopard spots of light across the face of a pond . . .

The tree stands tall and grand and alone,

shading the world beneath it.

 

There will come a day when I rest

against its spine and look out over a valley

where the sun warms, but never burns . . .

 

I will watch leaves turn.

Green, then amber, then crimson.

Then no leaves at all . . .

 

But the tree will not die

For in this place, winter never comes . . .

It is here, in the cradle of all I hold dear,

I guard every memory of you.

 

And when I find myself frozen in the mind of the real—

far from your loving eyes, I will return to this place,

close mine, and take solace in the simple perfection

of knowing you.

January 21, 2017 (Sundance Film Festival), August 4, 2017 (United States), release dates  •  Directed by Taylor Sheridan  •  Screenplay by Taylor Sheridan  •  Music by Nick Cave, Warren Ellis  •  Edited by Gary D. Roach  •  Cinematography by Ben Richardson

Jeremy Renner as Cory Lambert, a Fish and Wildlife Service agent  •  Julia Jones as Wilma Lambert  •  Teo Briones as Casey Lambert  •  Graham Greene as Ben Shoyo, the tribal police chief  •  Elizabeth Olsen as FBI agent Jane Banner  •  Gil Birmingham as Martin Hanson, Natalie’s father  •  Kelsey Chow as Natalie Hanson  •  Jon Bernthal as Matt Rayburn  •  Martin Sensmeier as Chip Hanson, Natalie’s brother  •  Tyler Laracca as Frank Walker  •  Gerald Tokala Clifford as Sam Littlefeather  •  James Jordan as Pete Mickens  •  Eric Lange as Dr. Whitehurst  •  Ian Bohen as Evan, deputy officer  •  Hugh Dillon as Curtis  •  Matthew Del Negro as Dillon  •  Tantoo Cardinal as Alice Crowheart, Wilma’s mother  •  Apesanahkwat as Dan Crowheart, Wilma’s father  •  Althea Sam as Annie Hanson, Natalie’s mother

Distributed by Acacia Entertainment  •  Produced by Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, Savvy Media Holding, Thunder Road Pictures, Film 44

Johnny O’Clock (1947)

Johnny O’Clock is a bit odd for a film noir because the title character is something of a good guy for a gangster with a reputation bad enough to keep him on the radar of the local police force. He’s generous with his associates; he doesn’t hold a grudge, at least not very often; and he’s kind to women, although he does slap Nancy Hobson once across the face when she argues with him. This is noir and this is 1947, after all, and Johnny O’Clock is not perfect.

(This blog post about Johnny O’Clock contains some spoilers.)

Another detail that sets Johnny O’Clock apart from other films noir is the romance between Johnny and Nancy Hobson. When Nancy and Johnny meet, it’s love at first sight. The only femme fatale in this noir is a supporting character, Nelle Marchettis, but the only one completely smitten with her is her husband Guido. Nelle is smitten with Johnny, but her attraction is not reciprocated. She inspires murderous jealousy in her husband, however, and that eventually becomes a problem for Johnny.

The film may not be a typical noir, but the cinematography is beautiful and very noir, with its chiaroscuro lighting. I had plenty of screenshots to choose from by the time I was finished watching. And the film’s opening makes it clear that life isn’t always easy for everyone in this world, which is exactly what one expects from a noir. The story starts with Inspector Koch staring up at a clock outside on the street at night. The camera pans down to him at street level. He buys a newspaper from a newsboy who proclaims the main headline: that a local gambler was shot while resisting arrest. Koch enters the hotel behind the clock, and the hotel doorman walks into the frame and tells the newsboy to beat it. Inside the hotel, when Koch reads the article further, viewers learn from the shot of the newspaper that Officer Chuck Blayden shot the gangster.

The killing of criminals resisting arrest is becoming common news in the city, and the police are beginning to suspect internal corruption. Officer Blayden has become friendly with gangsters around the city, and Inspector Koch is asking questions. He wants to talk specifically to Johnny O’Clock. Johnny and Guido Marchettis own a casino together. They and their associates have dubious reputations, but Inspector Koch has a good feeling about Johnny O’Clock. Johnny served four years in the army, which is one of the reasons Inspector Koch is an admirer. He is hoping that Johnny will have some information for him.

Johnny O’Clock lives in the hotel, in a large luxury suite. His business dealings have obviously made him a wealthy man. Charlie, his attendant, wakes Johnny up at 9 o’clock. It’s only later that viewers learn that Johnny sleeps all day and wakes at 9 o’clock at night to work in the casino. Charlie gives Johnny a package that arrived while he was sleeping. It is an expensive handmade watch from a woman, and it is inscribed with “To My Darling with Unending Love.” Johnny is not happy about receiving the gift. The way that subsequent scenes are shot, viewers are led to believe that Harriet Hobson gave the watch to Johnny. The film later reveals that the gift came from Nelle Marchettis, the wife of Johnny’s business partner.

Inspector Koch waits for Johnny O’Clock and stops him in the hotel lobby when Johnny is on his way to the casino. Harriet Hobson is also waiting for Johnny, and she is desperate to talk to him. Koch interrupts them and introduces himself, then asks for Johnny’s help. Johnny asks Harriet to wait for him outside the hotel. The conversation between Johnny and Koch, like many in the film, is filled with snappy one-liners. Here is a brief excerpt:

• O’Clock: “All right. Shoot. Question number one.”

• Koch: “No questions. Proposition.”

• O’Clock: [sarcastically] “I wonder what it could be.”

• Koch: “Simple. In return for certain information—”

• O’Clock: “You’ll do what?”

• Koch: “I’ll give you a break.”

• O’Clock: “My arms or my legs?”

Koch needs information about Blayden. He implies that Blayden is corrupt when he says that he doubts that Blayden will be a cop for much longer. But Johnny refuses to help him. When he returns to Harriet Hobson outside on the sidewalk and they walk away from the hotel entrance, Harriet tells Johnny that Blayden hit her. Harriet is in a relationship with Blayden, but she is still in love with Johnny. Johnny tells her that it’s over between them, but he still offers to help her with Blayden. Harriet works the hat check in the casino, so self-interest may be partly responsible for Johnny’s willingness to help Harriet. Keeping his employees safe and happy is probably good for business, even one owned by Johnny.

Later that evening, when Johnny meets with Blayden in the alley behind the casino, Blayden tells him that he is now Marchettis’s business partner, not Johnny. Blayden threatens to kill Johnny if he gets in his way. Johnny is not concerned: He simply returns the threat. The meeting turned out to be productive for Harriet and Johnny because Johnny was able to learn some business information.

Inspector Koch investigates the discovery of a bloodstained jacket and learns that Harriet Hobson tried to have it dry-cleaned. When he goes to her boardinghouse room to question her, he finds her dead, an apparent suicide by gas. When he questions Johnny O’Clock about Harriet’s death, Johnny knows nothing about it and is visibly upset. Inspector Koch is still a little suspicious because he knows that Johnny and Harriet were close. Nancy Hobson, Harriet’s sister and nearest relative, arrives in town with some questions of her own. Inspector Koch tells Nancy to ask Johnny O’Clock what he knows.

The narrative gets complicated from this point onward with double-crosses, another murder, betrayals by close personal and business associates. Nancy and Johnny fall in love, and Nelle Marchettis makes Johnny’s life difficult by refusing to let go. It’s unclear if Nelle and Johnny ever had a relationship because Nelle is so eager to make trouble. It doesn’t hurt to see Johnny O’Clock more than once to keep track of it all.

Johnny O’Clock is one of my favorite films noir. Dick Powell, another of my noir favorites, shines in the title role. He has the snappiest dialogue of all the characters in the film, but other characters can often match him, which makes the film even more fun to watch. I had seen Johnny O’Clock before on television, when it was cut up by editing and interrupted by commercials. It was a real treat to see it on DVD without any distractions. Johnny may not be perfect, but I was rooting for him and Nancy Hobson.

January 23, 1947, release date  •  Directed by Robert Rossen  •  Screenplay by Robert Rossen  •  Based on a story by Milton Holmes  •  Music by George Duning  •  Edited by Al Clark, Warren Low  •  Cinematography by Burnett Guffey

Dick Powell as Johnny O’Clock  •  Evelyn Keyes as Nancy Hobson  •  Lee J. Cobb as Inspector Koch  •  Ellen Drew as Nelle Marchettis  •  Nina Foch as Harriet Hobson  •  Thomas Gomez as Guido Marchettis  •  John Kellogg as Charlie  •  Jim Bannon as Chuck Blayden  •  Mabel Paige as the boardinghouse tenant  •  Phil Brown as Phil, the hotel clerk  •  Jeff Chandler as Turk

Distributed by Columbia Pictures  •  Produced by J.E.M. Productions