Woman Walks Ahead (2017)
Sam Rockwell: Silas Groves
Photos
Quotes
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.