Woman Walks Ahead (2017)

Jessica Chastain: Catherine Weldon

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sitting Bull : She's from New York.

  Catherine Weldon : I thought you liked New York.

  Sitting Bull : Too many people with too much. Too many people with nothing at all. Your society values people by how much you have... ours by how much we give away.

• Catherine Weldon : It's darn hard being brave.

• 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 : The only battle I've ever fought against is insignificance.

• Chaska : When Lakota first meet, we don't speak for a while.

  Catherine Weldon : Oh.

  Chaska : Words get in the way of getting to know each other.

• 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.

• Catherine Weldon : You're not good at keeping still, are you?

  Sitting Bull : Shoot me, then I will be still.

  Catherine Weldon : What would be the point of shooting you? Bullets don't seem to have any effect.

• Catherine Weldon : I want to speak to him.

  Chaska : So, speak to him. He speaks English well enough. When he wants to.

  Catherine Weldon : [to Sitting Bull]  Excuse me. I have traveled many miles from the east...

  [clumsily pantomimes] 

  Catherine Weldon : across many... rivers and hills... for the honor of speaking with you.

  Sitting Bull : You got a train from New York, right? Did you get a Pullman?

  Catherine Weldon : [chagrined]  Yes.

  Sitting Bull : Nice. They gave me free cigars too.

• 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 : You'll never be free on the prairie if you don't ride.

  Catherine Weldon : Freedom's in the head.

  Sitting Bull : And in the feet.

  Catherine Weldon : Oh... my feet are just fine.

  Sitting Bull : Try these.

  [pulls out a pair of moccasins] 

  Sitting Bull : My old ones, soft buckskin.

  Catherine Weldon : [struggles to remove her heels]  Uh!

  Sitting Bull : You got big feet for a woman.

  Catherine Weldon : You got small feet for a man.

  Sitting Bull : [speaks Lakota]  Sihathánka, it means "big feet." Maybe that could be your Indian name.

  Catherine Weldon : They called George Catlin "Mystery Spirit Painter." Think of something like that.

• Catherine Weldon : [sketching passing landscape from pullman] 

  [knock at door] 

  Catherine Weldon : Hello?

  Waiter - Sleeping Car : [enters pullman]  Fresh linens, ma'am?

  Catherine Weldon : Oh, yes, please. How long till we get to Omaha?

  Waiter - Sleeping Car : Half a day.

  Catherine Weldon : You're an Indian, aren't you?

  Waiter - Sleeping Car : Yes, ma'am.

  Waiter - Sleeping Car : Which tribe?

  Waiter - Sleeping Car : [flatly]  Presbyterian.

• Catherine Weldon : [narrated excerpt from a letter]  'Recently, I visited an exhibition of George Catlin paintings of American Indians and my breath was taken away. It was the freedom that struck me. Even inside the paintings, the people were free.'

• Catherine Weldon : I'm heading to Standing Rock Reservation. I'm going to paint Sioux Indians. Have you ever been to Standing Rock?

  Waiter - Sleeping Car : The Sioux hunted my people like rabbits, cut out their hearts and fed 'em to the dogs.

  [opens door to exit pullman] 

  Waiter - Sleeping Car : You call if you need any more towels.

• Catherine Weldon : You think you could wear your feathers?

  [shakes his head] 

  Catherine Weldon : Why not?

  Sitting Bull : Same reason you don't wear your wedding dress.

• 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.