While Wind River is not based on a true story, the movie's plot is rooted in the very real, horrifying, and lesser-talked-about experiences of missing women and sexual violence throughout the female Indigenous American community. And none of his work is this more pronounced than in his debut directorial feature, Wind River. Such is what makes his pictures compelling, making some think that they are based on real stories. He could have the story of a real-life character like gunslinger Marshal Jim Courtright ( Billy Bob Thornton) in Yellowstone prequel 1883 or accommodate a real-life event like the show's battle scene featuring Tom Hanks based on the Civil War. To drive his point home, he often includes parallel elements from real life. Preferring the Wild West or neo-Western, Sheridan's works are also allegorical. His point seems to be that violence is devastating and, also, that the solution to some orderliness is violence, albeit with some tag of honor. Whether it is his TV series such as Yellowstone, 1883, and 1923, or his feature screenplay for Sicario which explores the dark side of American justice regarding drug cartels in Mexico, or even his screenplay for the Oscar-nominated film Hell or High Water, you are left questioning your moral compass about pertinent issues either historically or contemporarily. It is fair to say that Taylor Sheridanis obsessed with violence in his artistry but in a way that questions the purpose of the violence itself.
