Woman Walks Ahead

Brooklyn, 1890. Catherine Weldon, a widowed painter, travels to Dakota to paint Sitting Bull's portrait. The army does not want her there, nor does the local administration, and the journey itself is treated as a provocation. Sitting Bull is less interested in the portrait than in land: the government is collecting signatures to break up the Sioux territory. Susanna White directs. Jessica Chastain plays Weldon and Michael Greyeyes plays Sitting Bull. Catherine Weldon was real. A member of the National Indian Defense Association, she corresponded with Sitting Bull, went to Dakota, painted him, and worked alongside him against the land agreement. The film pulls the relationship toward romance, and the historical record does not support that. That is also what got it criticised most. The narrative tells an indigenous struggle through the eyes of a white woman and Sitting Bull recedes; many critics named it as the white saviour template. Michael Greyeyes's performance was set apart and identified as the strongest thing in it. The story ends in late 1890 with Sitting Bull's killing and the Wounded Knee massacre that followed. Who it is for: viewers who like period drama about American history and Chastain's work. Who it is not for: anyone who wants historical accuracy, or who cares whose eyes the story is told through.