In the 1880s, wealthy, widowed artist Catherine Weldon (Jessica Chastain) traveled by train from New York to the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the Dakota Territory to paint a portrait of Chief Sitting Bull, the last surviving Sioux warrior from the defeat of Lt. Col. George Custer almost 15 years earlier. Dubbed an “Eastern agitator,” Weldon’s unwelcome arrival on the frontier is mocked by Col. Silas Grave (Sam Rockwell), and she is ordered to leave by Fort Yates’s dismissive commanding officer (Ciarán Hinds). Helped by a sympathetic Lakota lawman (Chaske Spencer), defiant Weldon walks through the open prairie, finding depressed Chief Sitting Bull (Michael Greyeyes) digging potatoes in his garden. Although he demands compensation and the pair verbally spar for a while, proud Sitting Bull eventually agrees to pose, while Weldon becomes embroiled in his struggle to retain Lakota land rights. Surprisingly, they are assisted by the arrival of the U.S. Cavalry’s Gen. Cook (Bill Camp), who has insidious reasons to encourage the assembled tribes to oppose the proposed Allotment Act—a gesture of defiance that ultimately led to the 1890 Sioux massacre at Wounded Knee. Inspired by Eileen Pollack’s 2002 book Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull, this loosely adapted historical biographical film directed by Susanna White is recommended. (S. Granger)
Woman Walks Ahead
Lionsgate, 102 min., R, DVD: $19.99, Blu-ray: $21.99, Aug. 28 Volume 33, Issue 5
Woman Walks Ahead
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