Sadly Over-hyped

Admirable film.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

I absolutely loved Michael Greyeyes portrayal of one of the most iconic Native people in history. It was refreshing to see a Native person being seen as a 3 dimensional person with a sense of humor, intelligence, humility, etc. I am a native woman and was delighted to see our people seen as people. The story wasn't word for word accurate but the heart of the story was captured with grace & dignity. Thank you for making this film and respecting the person & people it represents.

Knowing nothing of the story upon which this film centres, I have since viewing same been led to learn more about the treatment of Sitting Bull and his people leading up to the human tragedy of the massacre at Wounded Knee. Obviously this beautifully shot movie with its understated wonderful music score and very strong performances of lead characters, has left a deep impression. Justifiably, some reviews here have found fault with the story's historical inaccuracy such as the age of the two major characters. It seems that dramatic licence is always a component of movies based on real events. But this should not detract from all too real emotions engendered, not only between the artist and her subject but by the embittered townsfolk who see Sitting Bull and his people as true savages. A film of beauty to be recommended.

Catherine Weldon, a portrait painter from 1890s Brooklyn, travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull and becomes embroiled in the Lakota peoples' struggle over the rights to their land. Even with Jessica Chastain and Sam Rockwell in specific roles 'Woman Walks Ahead' can't do what it's meant to do which is to entertain and tell a full story. The film at times feels kind of comedic and at others a bit dramatic, the acting was really good but the script did lacked alot. The story as it is was kind of interesting but the execution wasn't that well and it's disappointing to say the least cause Ms. Chastain is a terrific and talented actress and this movie didn't gave her what she needed.

Jessica Chastain turns in another thoughtful, nomination-worthy performance as Catherine Weldon, a 19th-century East Coast painter who journeyed West for new subjects and struck up a friendship with legendary Native leader Sitting Bull (with some dangerous consequences), adopting the tribal name 'Woman Walking Ahead.' Michael Greyhorse gives a soulful, defiant portrayal of Sitting Bull, with typically welcome flinty counterpoint from Sam Rockwell as calvary man Silas Groves. Though the real Weldon and Sitting Bull were older than the actors portraying them (as often happens in Hollywood; the gunslingers the film Young Guns was based on were not the dashing hunks like Emilio Estevez, Lou Diamond Phillips, etc. that portrayed them), Woman Walks Ahead is a fine addition to the cinema of the lost American West and the people that once roamed there, and as America swings ever right-ward against women's rights, a reminder that the feminine spirit that can never be entirely quashed by retrograde conservative forces.