Woman Walks Ahead
It is the story of Caroline Weldon, a New York widow and painter who heads west to paint the portrait of Sitting Bull. She is rebuffed by everyone, until she finally gets to meet him, earns his trust, and befriends him to the point that there is sexual tension. Meanwhile, she gets involved in a campaign to vote down a treaty that would further reduce the Indian lands.
Chastain, as usual, is very good as Weldon, a woman who wears corsets trying to cope with life on the prairie. Even better is Michael Greyeyes as Sitting Bull, who has learned that he can't beat the white man and spends his time tending potato patches. The arrival of Weldon reminds him who he is and he once again takes the mantle of leadership of his people.
There are a few problems here. One is that this is another film that smacks of the white savior--without Chastain, we are led to believe, Sitting Bull would have just rolled over--and there are some sharp historical inaccuracies. Weldon was a real person, but she was not a widow (she was a divorcee) and she brought her son with her to Dakota. She was also not present at Sitting Bull's assassination, as they had had a falling out over the Ghost Dance. Most importantly, Indians didn't vote on treaties, in fact they had no say about them whatsoever, so that whole plot thread wasn't feasible.
What's good about the film is the relationship of Weldon and Sitting Bull, two people who couldn't be more different but found a connection. Greyeyes is able to relate to us what it was like to have been a great chief, then a performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, to simply a farmer on a reservation.
The cast also includes Sam Rockwell as a colonel who tries to dissuade Chastain at all costs, and Ciaran Hinds as the Indian agent. Bill Camp lays General Crook with a kind of Zen attitude toward his longtime foe, Sitting Bull.
Woman Walks Ahead was directed ably by Susanna White, with some spectacular scenic cinematography.
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