The Woman King

The Woman King became pretty infamous after the reaction to the film was heavily spotlighted. Announced and later advertised in 2021, The Woman King looked like a cool film that took inspiration from a real tribe of an all-female African warrior unit who protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey during the 17th to 19th century. Considered to be the Western European version of The Amazons of Greek mythology, they looked like they would be a cool fit for a movie that would almost act as a black equivalent to other semi-historical based action epics, and when the film came out in 2022, most people who saw it seemed to like it quite a bit. However, the controversy that has surrounded this film is so severe that it killed any chances this film had at being a major success. Set within the Dahomey Kingdom in 1823, General Nanisca (played by Viola Davis) leads her all-female group of warriors known as the Agojie, to liberate Dahomean women who have been abducted by slavers from the Oyo Empire. This finally convinces the new king of Dahomey, Ghezo (played by John Boyega) to prepare for war with the Oyo empire, and Nanisca prepares a new generation of warriors to join the Agojie. Among these new recruits is Nawi (played by Thuso Mbedu), a young girl sold off to the Agojie as punishment by her father for not marrying an older man. She is looked after by veteran Agojie soldier, Izogie (played by Lashana Lynch) and her stubborn attitude conflicts with Nanisca’s militant and unemotional fighting style. This training will soon have to evolve into proper combat after Nawi is informed by half-Dahomean Malik (played by Jordan Bolger), that the General of the Oyo Empire, Oba Ade (played by Jimmy Odukoya), has joined forces with the Portuguese slave trade led by Santo Ferreira (played by Hero Fiennes Tiffin) and plan to invade, leaving it up to the Agojie (both old and new generations) to stop this threat and save their kingdom. Though the film did well from a critical standpoint, it wasn’t able to make its money back and was completely shut out of the Academy Awards with zero nominations (despite being built up as an Oscar favourite) and a lot of this stems from the controversial historical changes made to the story and how it shapes this group to maybe be more heroic than they actually were. Regardless of that, the film is a very well-constructed movie with several strong elements that make it a worthy film to search out.

This movie received a lot of comparisons to other historical action epics like Gladiator, Braveheart, and The Last of the Mohicans (which were all inspirations for this film), and it appears to tick all the right boxes to work within that genre, yet it wasn’t able to reach the same level of success as those films did. Outside of an obvious factor that is sadly still prevalent in today’s society with regards to race and gender, a big and much less appalling reason is that many people didn’t like how the film grossly fabricated a good majority of this tribe and reshaped them to seem more welcoming and positive. In truth, Dahomey was not the peaceful slave-hating kingdom that it is presented as in this film, but rather one of the highest slave trading areas in all of Africa, earning a lot of its wealth, status, and effective trading partners in other countries through selling slaves of their own. It is true that this particular time period and ruler was trying to fix these issue and stop slave trading, but it does hit a sour note when the audience realizes that these warrior women also took part in slave raiding for their king (literally what they are fighting against in the first scene of the movie). Upon further research, it appears that the Agojie didn’t like what they did and wished to find a different option for trade deals, but it’s a pretty massive pill to swallow when the context is known. It’s a shame as everybody who worked on this film clearly has a love for African culture, strong women in positions of power, and a clear desire to tell a story containing these elements in an effective, memorable fashion, yet many saw it as only manageable by sugar-coating the darker aspects of this kingdom, which some people just couldn’t get behind and that is honestly perfectly valid. With that pushed aside, the story written by Dana Stevens and Maria Bello is rather straightforward but uses that familiarity alongside the passionate storytelling, engaging characters and blood-pumping atmosphere to create something akin to those previously listed historical epics. The directing by Gina Prince-Bythewood is quite strong, showing her roots as a director of sports films not only in her respect and love for stories about women of color, but also in her natural ability to handle this kind of aggressive narrative that features a lot of physicality and situations where women are positioned as taking part in normally masculine-dominated roles. The actors are directed well, the visuals and atmosphere feel appropriate for the time period and culture, and it takes an otherwise basic story and makes it feel fresh through the inclusion and presentation of a different part of the world rarely ever seen in mainstream media. The script in parts leaves some things to be desired, with a screenplay written by Stevens that is relatively light on dramatic twists, unique scenarios or even that much of a connective plot for the characters (outside of a throwaway revenge plot with the lead that deserved a lot more focus than it got), but it is the directing, acting and physicality of the performers that holds the film together.

The casting choices for this film was predominantly to get black women of darker skin to portray these roles authentically (something that apparently a lot of studios fought against and insisted on lighter-skinned actress in order for it to be more profitable). Upon closer inspection on the Agojie, there are definitely attributes about them that appear cold and even extremely brutal, but there is an element that could very easily be seen as inspiring. Seeing an entire military led and run by women of many different ages who were brought in as a means of succeeding in rank or as a punishment from disapproving fathers or husbands, the Agojie were given status and privilege even within the King’s council, something that couldn’t be said for most women within the 19th century. Despite some problematic issues, they would make for an interesting film. The power in which all the actors portray these women is truly impressive, and each one is so convincing in both attitude and physical as a proper warrior women that it’s pretty cool to witness in action, also helped out by very talented actors portraying these parts in both the physical and emotional moments. Viola Davis has always been a crowd favourite and proven to be incredibly talented in several roles prior, but the character of General Nanisca not only feels completely different from her usual roles, but also strangely perfect as she nails the delivery, presence, and gruffness of a battle-worn war hero effortlessly. Lashana Lynch as the second-in-command is allowed several moments of being a cool lieutenant as well as a friendly ally to the lead (all of which she pulls off effortlessly), Sheila Atim brings a lot of warmth and a believable connection with any cast member she interacts with, and Thuso Mbedu as the lead is very effective, capturing the youthful innocence and rebellious edge of a regular teenager, as well as a sense of maturity and growth as the film progresses. It’s a very strong cast of women which is always great to see (especially a cast of darker-skin black women), but the same can’t be said for the male cast members. It is a film about women, but the male characters in this aren’t very interesting to watch in comparison to their female counterparts. Jimmy Odukoya as the villain is very generic and only feels like a force to defeat rather than an actual personality for the hero to work off of (something that these kinds of epics should have), John Boyega as the king is fine from an acting standpoint, but isn’t given much to work with despite feeling like a figure from history that should be given more attention, and Jordan Bolger as Nawi’s love interest really only seems to exist to be support and nothing more.

This movie was credited as having outstanding action, but it may be for more than just the surface level reasons. As a whole, the action is well done as it’s well filmed, the physicality is there and apparent, and all the actors (both male and female) really look like they are doing these moves without that much sign of struggle or issue. But on the other hand, it’s nothing that unique or different for this kind of film, with the only real change being that the majority of the action goes to women of color, which is still cool, but not enough to make it distinct. Through Gina Prince-Bythewood’s directing, you feel a visceral sturdiness in a lot of this film which is not commonly seen elsewhere, especially when these women are just practicing or hanging around each other. The choreography doesn’t feel that special, the way it impacts the story doesn’t feel that dramatically resonant, and it’s not very ground-breaking from a visual or cinematography level done by Polly Morgan (it’s still nice, but nothing out of the ordinary), but it’s still done well. What is nice to see is the dedication that went into the production design and costume design (handled by Akin McKenzie and Gersha Phillips) to make this environment look live-in and authentic to the period of time and region of the world. It looks impressively gritty, yet still has a general pleasing look to it by being earthy and softly lit, but also very vibrant and extremely cultural. The main location for the film becomes a pretty cool place to spend the movie in, looking like a training camp, but also a community house where these women can interact during and after battle, it feels oddly comforting.

The Woman King had to put up with a lot of stuff when it came out. Some of it was just the typical dumb stuff you’d expect for a movie predominantly featuring black women (it’s sad to see that it is still an issue), but some was also people who were just genuinely turned off by the reworking of history to make this kingdom and this tribe not as morally grey as they were in real life. It’s not that the movie ignores these problems, but it knows that if it were to properly feature them, they wouldn’t be able to make the movie they eventually made. It’s sad because the film probably would’ve handled better if they scrapped basing it on real events and just told their own story inspired by this tribe, as they would’ve avoided the controversy and people wouldn’t have had an easy excuse to not support it, because as it stands, this film is pretty good. The directing is strong, the cast is very impressive, the visuals are authentic and great looking, the action is not phenomenal but certainly good, and it’s still cool seeing a new part of history that isn’t commonly known about. The film still has general flaws like most of the male characters aren’t very good, and the script could’ve used a few more touches to make it feel newer and more unique, but as it is, it still feels like it’s at least worth a check out in spite of the obvious elephant in the room.