The Woman King 2022
After a long lull of good movies at the theaters, The Woman King got some very good reviews, so I picked it over See How They Run. It is pretty much a straight-up epic battle movie, but instead of Normans or Spartans, it is a kingdom in Africa called Dahomey in the 1820’s. Dahomey is defended by an army of women called the Agojie, commanded by Viola Davis as a tough general. After an opening battle they take in a class of new recruits, so it is kind of a boot camp movie as we learn along with the recruits, like in Mulan and meanwhile we get the scoop on the political situation involving rival kingdoms, the slave trade, and European colonial powers. The movie has a hard time. Since they battle mostly with knives, spears, and machetes, battles would be horribly gory, but they wanted a PG-13 rating, so it is mostly bloodless, but still pretty horrific. And while Dahomey was a real kingdom (now Benin) that history is just as contorted to try to be more acceptable as well. The kingdoms are run by warlords who profit by going to war and taking prisoners who they sell off as slaves. Some of the leaders of Dahomey (at least in the movie) want to stop the slave trade as well as fight off the rival kingdom. It isn’t particularly complex and a lot of this seems a little tired, including the gifted young recruit who disobeys orders to save her comrades. There are some neat wrinkles to the story and while the women warriors are not allowed to marry or have children, they are portrayed more as a sisterhood, without any lesbian angles, which I would have thought would be almost required in 2022. Despite the compromises, it is a neat story to watch unfold and while aspects of the plot have been done before, the setting is certainly unique and makes a nice jumping off point to do a little of your own resarch later on. The new recruit is played well by South Africa’s Thuso Mbedu, and of course Viola Davis is first rate, but some of the side characters are weaker. I didn’t recognize John Boyega as the young king. I feel like the movie ingenuously presents a happy ending when in reality, there was a lot more suffering ahead even if the slave trade was on the way out (already banned by the British and Americans). As a fictionalized story it is entertaining, but feels kind of predictable, so I can only give it a B.
Written: 22 Sep 2022
Owned on: Digital