''Woman Walks Ahead'' is a 2017 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by

Susanna White Susanna White (born 1960) is a British television and film director. Early life White was born in England in 1960. She first became interested in films at 8 years old, when she visited the set of the BBC children's TV show Crackerjack, and aske ...

and written by Steven Knight. The film is the story of

Caroline Weldon Caroline Weldon (born Susanna Karolina Faesch; December 4, 1844March 15, 1921) was a Swiss-American artist and activist with the National Indian Defense Association. Weldon became a confidante and the personal secretary to the Lakota Sioux Ind ...

( Jessica Chastain), a portrait painter who travels from New York City to the Dakotas in 1890 to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull (

Michael Greyeyes Michael Greyeyes (born June 4, 1967) (Muskeg Lake Cree Nation) is an Indigenous Canadian actor, dancer, choreographer, director, and educator. In 1996, Greyeyes portrayed Crazy Horse in the television film ''Crazy Horse''. In 2018, Greyeyes port ...

Chaske Spencer Chaske Spencer (pronounced ''Chess-Kay''; born March 9, 1975) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Sam Uley in '' The Twilight Saga'' film series (2009–2012), Teddo in the acclaimed film ''Wild Indian'', and for his r ...

and

Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in independent films and also as a character actor portraying a wide variety of roles both comedic and dramatic in films such as '' Lawn Dogs'' (19 ...

also star. The film premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

September 10, 2017. It was released through

DirecTV Cinema DirecTV Cinema (previously known as Direct Ticket, Blockbuster Ticket, Blockbuster Pay-Per-View Movies, and DirecTV Pay-Per-View) is DirecTV's video on demand and pay-per-view platform for film content. Films are released as is done on other pay- ...

on May 31, 2018, before being released in a limited release on June 29, 2018, by

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

Premise

Caroline Weldon, a Swiss-American portrait painter, travels from

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

the Dakotas The Dakotas is a collective term for the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota. It has been used historically to describe the Dakota Territory, and is still used for the collective heritage, culture, geography, fauna, sociology, econo ...

in the 1890s to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull. She becomes embroiled in the Lakota people's struggle over the rights to their land.

Cast

* Jessica Chastain as

, painter and confidante to Sitting Bull *

as Sitting Bull *

as Colonel Silas Grove *

Ciarán Hinds Ciarán Hinds (; born 9 February 1953) is an Irish actor. Born in Belfast, Hinds is known for a range of screen and stage roles. He has starred in feature films including '' The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover'' (1989), '' Persuasion'' (1 ...

as James McLaughlin, a US Indian agent *

Michael Nouri Michael Nouri (born December 9, 1945) is an American screen and stage actor. He is best known for his television roles, including Dr. Neil Roberts on ''The O.C.'', Phil Grey on ''Damages'', Caleb Cortlandt on '' All My Children'', Eli David in ...

as Karl Valentine *

as Chaska, a local lawman *

Bill Camp Bill Camp (born 1963/1964) is an American actor. He has played supporting roles in many films such as ''Lincoln'' (2012), ''Compliance'' (2012), '' 12 Years a Slave'' (2013), '' Love & Mercy'' (2015), ''Loving'' (2016), ''Molly's Game'' (2017), ...

as General Crook *Rulan Tangen as Susan McLaughlin *Rachel Singer as Dry Goods Assistant *

Louisa Krause Louisa Noel Krause (born May 20, 1986) is an American actress. After studying drama in college, Krause appeared in numerous off-Broadway productions while also appearing in episodes of New York-based network television series. Her first film role ...

as Loretta *Lyle Sandoval as Tracker

Production

On February 3, 2016, it was reported that Jessica Chastain was in talks to play Sitting Bull's confidante in ''Woman Walks Ahead'', directed by

. On September 14, 2016,

, and

joined the cast, with

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

having begun in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on September 10, 2017. Shortly after,

and

acquired distribution rights to the film. Its U.S. premiere was at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

on April 25, 2018. It was released through

on May 31, 2018, before being released in a limited release on June 29, 2018.

Reception

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website

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, the film holds an approval rating of 59% based on 44 reviews, and an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Woman Walks Ahead'' gets some extra mileage out of watchable work from Jessica Chastain and Michael Greyeyes, but uneven pacing and two-dimensional characters undermine their efforts." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Despite mixed reviews,

received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Sitting Bull. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' critic Jeannette Catsoulis called his performance "a miracle of intelligence and dignity". RogerEbert.com contributor Susan Wloszczyna raved about his performance, calling it "the most subtle, soulful, and believable". ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' and ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'' critics described his presence as captivating as “wry wit and quiet gravity”, while the latter described his performance as "stirring".

References

External links

* {{Steven Knight 2017 films American biographical drama films British biographical drama films 2017 biographical drama films 2010s English-language films Lakota-language films Films directed by Susanna White Films scored by George Fenton Films with screenplays by Steven Knight Films about Native Americans Cultural depictions of Sitting Bull Films shot in New Mexico A24 (company) films 2017 drama films Films set in the 1890s Films set in South Dakota Films set in North Dakota 2017 multilingual films American multilingual films British multilingual films 2018 Western (genre) films 2010s American films 2010s British films