Woman Walks Ahead (2017)

Sam Rockwell: Silas Groves

Photos 

Quotes 

• Silas Groves : Would you mind if I gave you some practical advice?

  Catherine Weldon : I don't really care for practical advice from someone who's such a poor judge of character.

• Catherine Weldon : I met you two minutes ago, and already you have accused me of being a spy and a liar.

  Silas Groves : I work for the War Department, darling. I didn't mean to be presumptuous, but you do have that certain look.

  Catherine Weldon : What look is that?

  Silas Groves : The look of someone filled with good intentions.

  Catherine Weldon : Oh! And that's bad?

  Silas Groves : West of Missouri, it can be lethal.

• Silas Groves : General Crook. We have a problem at Standing Rock. Mrs. Weldon is buying food for the Indians, thereby... thereby undermining the ration system. I recommend we arrest her, keep her locked up until after the vote.

  General Crook : Thought you said I didn't need to worry about Sitting Bull.

  Silas Groves : I was wrong. She's agitating him. She has him wearing buckskins and feathers.

  General Crook : You can't arrest someone for spending their own money.

  Silas Groves : Sir, with all due respect, our job here is to deliver a ratification of the Allotment Act.

  General Crook : I bet my old friend Sitting Bull feels about potatoes the way I feel about you, Mr. Groves.

  Silas Groves : She's agitating the Bull, sir. She's agitating him to act.

  General Crook : No, she's a painter painting what she sees. When she sees the Bull, she sees a warrior. I, too, am a warrior. Our destinies appear to be entwined.

  Silas Groves : Sir, I fear that for some among your regiment, this return to Dakota is about revenge.

  General Crook : Vengeance is for the Lord to take. But maybe our good Lord sent us Mrs. Weldon.

  Silas Groves : Sir...

  General Crook : Permission to issue an arrest warrant is denied.

• Old Man at Train Station : Colonel.

  Silas Groves : This lady here, she came all the way from New York to paint Indians.

  Old Man at Train Station : Is that a fact?

  [walks toward Weldon and spits in her face] 

  Catherine Weldon : Oh!

  Old Man at Train Station : I hope they fuck you. Cut the baby out, like they did the Robinson girls. Indian-loving bitch.

  [turns and walks away] 

  Old Man at Train Station : I'm sorry, Colonel. My blood boils.

• Sitting Bull : I would like to speak.

  Silas Groves : No, no... he got... No, you won't.

  James McLaughlin : [quietly to General Crook]  He's not a registered member of any tribal council. We have the power to say no.

  General Crook : [quietly in response]  Power?

  [laughs] 

  General Crook : You wanna speak, Bull? You go ahead.

  James McLaughlin : General...

  General Crook : [interrupts]  Let the man speak, for Christ's sake. This is a free land.

  General Crook : [to Sitting Bull]  What do you have to say, my old friend?

  [Sitting Bull speaks Lakota] 

  Susan McLaughlin : [translates Sitting Bull's words]  Since the white man came... and broke up the grassland... with his ploughs... the earth has turned to dust.

  Susan McLaughlin : In this dust, there is the body of Crazy Horse...

  Susan McLaughlin : American Horse...

  Susan McLaughlin : Spotted Tail...

  Susan McLaughlin : Black Kettle...

  Susan McLaughlin : Sword...

  Susan McLaughlin : Two Moons...

  Susan McLaughlin : Rain in the Face.

  Susan McLaughlin : When the wind blows...

  Susan McLaughlin : it blows our heroes in our faces.

  Susan McLaughlin : our diplomats...

  Susan McLaughlin : our doctors...

  Susan McLaughlin : our priests...

  Susan McLaughlin : our dead children.

  Susan McLaughlin : [Sitting Bull pauses]  The Great Spirit speaks to us in clouds of dust.

  Susan McLaughlin : [Sitting Bull rises]  You cannot sell...

  Susan McLaughlin : pieces of the earth...

  Susan McLaughlin : because the earth belongs to God.

  Susan McLaughlin : [Sitting Bull in Lakota and Susan overlap]  We must tell these people to go home...

  Susan McLaughlin : back to Washington, and not hurt the earth any more.

  Susan McLaughlin : [overlapping speech ceases]  Enough. Enough.

  [Sitting Bull grasps a fistful of soil and allows it to run through his fingers] 

  Susan McLaughlin : We will give no more of our land away.

  Susan McLaughlin : [holds a speck of dust between his thumb and forefinger]  Not even this much.

• Silas Groves : [enters and shuts door]  Good afternoon. Agent McLaughlin? Colonel Groves. War Department. Special Envoy for General Crook. Where's the rest of it? Yeah, General Crook's ordered a 50% cut in rations of flour, bacon and sugar to take effect immediately. When a new treaty needs to be ratified, it's our experience that hunger concentrates the Indian mind. This is my wife Susan. Susan? Do you find that hunger concentrates your mind?

  [SPEAKS LAKOTA] 

  Silas Groves : We don't encourage the use of the old language on the reservation. Thank you, dear.

  James McLaughlin : Where's the rest of it?

  Silas Groves : Yeah, General Crook's ordered a 50% cut in rations of flour, bacon and sugar to take effect immediately. When a new treaty needs to be ratified, it's our experience that hunger concentrates the Indian mind.

  James McLaughlin : [woman enters carrying tea service]  This is my wife Susan. Susan? Do you find that hunger concentrates your mind?

  [Groves doffs his hat and speaks Lakota] 

  Susan McLaughlin : We don't encourage the use of the old language on the reservation.

  James McLaughlin : Thank you, dear.

• Silas Groves : You're an admirer of George Catlin.

  Catherine Weldon : You know his work?

  Silas Groves : You bet. I can't look at these the way most people do, though. The scalp dance. Saw my first scalp dance in the Black Hills back in '75, but when I saw it, there were little blonde scalps. The warriors had stumbled across some Swedish immigrant children walking to school. The little girls had blue ribbons tied up in their hair.