The Woman King is one of those movie that is able to walk the perfect line between a roaring crowd pleaser and a faithful historic action epic. While there will certainly be talks about the film’s overall achievements in diversity and representation, it works wonders enough on it’s own as a well-made spectacle that everyone involved brought the A-game with. It’s able to portray the brutal realities of being involved with a war without losing the entertainment value. It’s able to showcase the gray line between a bleak conflict of good vs evil without being completely one-sided and shown in a very black and white light. It’s able to display it’s immensely talented cast of women as flawed, multiple layered people who have to make drastically difficult choices during a time of crisis and fear. Lastly, it’s able to put Gina Prince-Bythewood on the map as being the next big indie director to watch out for. Between this and The Irishman, it’s refreshing to see studios have confidence in giving bigger budgets to smaller directors to make the action-packed thriller they desire.
Taking place in the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century, an elite group of female warriors known as the Agojie are assembled to protect the kingdom. We see a young king known as Ghezo (John Boyega) who is attempting to make peace with his nation in a not-so peaceful time in Dahomey. The role that the kingdom plays in this story involves them operating slave trades with the Oyo Empire where African prisoners are slaves to Europeans in exchange for weapons. After a successful ambush by the Agojie to free their people who have been captured by a certain tribe, we eventually run into a young teenage girl (Thuso Mbedu) who is eventually accompanied by Izogie (Lashana Lynch) to train among the other strong women in Dahomey. When tension runs high when a mysterious new threat emerges, General Nanisca (Viola Davis) must put together a new generations of warriors to fight their opponents head on who want to destroy their very way of life.
The thing that makes The Woman King work as well as it does is how complete up and front it is on it’s title and it’s overall story it’s trying to tell. While there are definitely hints at trying to subvert tropes that is common with historic pieces, it never forgets it’s true central meaning on who the woman king is and what she is suppose to stand for with her tribe. There are plenty of subtext and commentary on war, slavery, and mortality but none of it is presented in a simplistic preachy “heros good, enemies bad” kind of way. It takes as much time as it needs to present it’s conflicts and have it be more than a mere good vs evil tale. Yes, the main characters we follow are undoubtedly the protagonists but can they really be the heroes to do what they can to survive and evolve with their own kind. The film never present an easy solution or way out for any of the main characters and each and every one of them are forced to discover within themselves what they are willing to do to destroy their enemies to live on.
The performances from the cast is nothing sort of extraordinary. Viola Davis as General Nanisca delivers a powerhouse performance as the commanding titan who is more than convincing of being able to display her true power and strength that she possesses. Lashana Lynch shines as the fierce (and even sometimes funny) warrior of Izogie who’s main task is to train and protect Nawi at all costs. Sheila Atim jells perfectly with everyone else as the right-hand woman to Nanisca who must counsel her superior through the tough decisions they are force to make. Hero Fiennes Tiffin’s Santo and Jimmy Odukoya’s Oba Ade make for intimating antagonists and legit threats to our protagonists even if they don’t get as much spotlight as our leading ladies. John Boyega’s Ghezo, while also not in the movie quite as much as he should, is always a great presence whenever he shows up as the young conflicted king who takes the carefully next steps needed to make his path towards mortality. However, it’s Thuso Mbedu as Nawi that really steals the show here. She’s the character we follow the most aside from Nanisca herself and Mbedu sells every scene she is in making her easily the most compelling and emotionally connected character in the entire movie. Nawi is the overall beating heart of the central story and the one that goes through the most intriguing arc in the film.
The production of the movie is off-the-charts terrific. There’s plenty of great location shooting, costume, make-up, and set designs presented throughout the whole movie making the time period it’s set in to be very believable. While not quite as well done as making the film’s setting it’s own distinct character in the same way that Black Panther did with Wakanda, it’s still a place that is interesting to explore in the amount of time we spent there. Polly Morgan’s cinematography is flawless with a huge emphasis on geographic authenticity and widescreen shooting that makes the movie more than worthy to see on the big screen and the extra bucks for IMAX. The score by Terence Blanchard is inspiring and perfectly matches the tone and mood that the film is going for. The make-up and editing, while at times can make it’s PG-13 rating noticeable, is good enough to make you overlook some iffy blood stains and lack of realistic gory moments. This was clearly a passionate project from everyone involved and there is not a single shot or scene of this movie that feels phoned-in.
The real stand-out thing on the movie are the action sequences and overall fight chorography. Gina Prince-Bythewood already proved herself of being capable to direct action a few years ago with The Old Guard and she shines even better with them here. The big highlights beating the fight by the Agojie in the opening prologue and the jaw dropping and emotionally intense battle displayed at the film’s official climax. It’s perfectly able to display the raw fierceness of our strong women leads while providing enough tension and brutality between each individual conflict that makes it believable and on the edge of your seat. It may be PG-13 but no doubt that Prince-Bythewood is able to make it as raw, brutal, and intense as humanly possible without needing to create a complete blood bath out of it to make it feel real. Also, who doesn’t wanna see Viola Davis swinging around a sword and killing people with it?
If there is a specific downside here, it’s that there definitely may be some folks that interpret things in a way that may or may not be intentional on part of the filmmakers. The main one being that the film itself glorifies a slave trading kingdom. While I don’t think the films quite delves into that as much as some are claiming, it is something that I believe would have been 100% better if it was glossed over completely without leaving things go noticed. Like with a certain minor subplot in Elvis, some things are better left unexplored. There’s also some pacing and structure issues in the middle and tail end of the film where it’s hard to tell at first viewing which sequence of events was supposed to act as the end of the second act or the beginning of the third one. I also think there might a been a scene or two missing with the antagonists as they do tend to disappear during a certain stretch of time and even takes a while before they are fully introduced.
Nevertheless, The Woman King is a strong work of art and entertainment from one of the more underrated action directors today. It’s work as it’s own compelling action-packed historic drama as well as an inspiring feminist empowerment piece. The cast is stellar, it looks amazing, the action is terrific, the characters are layered and very compelling, and the representation that is on display is fully earned and masterfully done. While it won’t shut up the alt-right trolls who have already review bombed the movie and even may raise an eyebrow or two from historic purists (I won’t pretend to be an expert on the events of this movie in real life), The Woman King excels at being a piece of entertainment for casual moviegoers along with a genuine work of art for casual movie experts. This time around, the women come together and they are indeed strong!
Other thoughts:
- Thuso Mbedu should be in more things!
- While it sucks that Gina Prince-Bythewood isn’t returning for The Old Guard sequel, the fact we were able to get this from her is more than fine by me.
- If you’re becoming a fan of John Boyega, I strongly recommend watching the first film he was in, Attack of the Block, which is basically the movie that helped land him the role for Star Wars.
- As for my thoughts on the review bombing, I honestly have stop trusting audience ratings all together from any review site because it’s nearly impossible to tell which ratings are genuine and which ones are coming from trolls. I’ll just stick with Letterboxd and call it a day.
- Seriously, for those that waste time review bombing s*it, grow the f*ck up already! Go waste your time doing something else!
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