In the Kingdom of Dahomey in 1823, the king’s all-woman regiment, the Agojie, are the most formidable element of their army.
With a new, young king Ghezo (John Boyega), the kingdom is at a crossroads.
The general of the Agojie, Nanisca (Viola Davis), wants to end the kingdom’s involvement in the slave trade.
This puts her in conflict with members of the king’s retinue and Dahomey’s powerful neighbour, the Oyo Empire, who use the kingdom as a conduit and a source for enslaved people.
At the same time, new recruit Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) struggles to find her place as an Agojie.
Little does she know, but her fate, and Nanisca’s, are more intertwined than either of them can realise…
The ‘inspired by’ is big in this movie - there has been a lot of controversy about the historical context this movie is based on, and it is understandable (I will include some links to various pieces about the movie below).
As a historical drama, The Woman King is on shaky ground. As a historical epic, as a war movie, it is great.
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, this is a straight-up war movie with a lot of familiar elements.
We get some evocations of familiar archetypes:
VIola Davis is the flinty commander; Lashana Lynch is the veteran who serves as a fount of wisdom and humour; Thuso Mbedu is the new recruit with a rebellious spirit.
I point these out not to reduce the characters or the performers. It is a signifier of how this movie is not afraid to use genre conventions.
This is an earnest movie, in the best possible way. Prince-Bythewood’s previous works are all about characters trying to achieve goals and figure themselves out. As a filmmaker, no one is as invested in creating romances and handling melodrama.
There are aspects of the film which could come off as cliche or silly.
There is a subplot where two characters are revealed to be mother and daughter. It could be hokey, but this film invests real emotional stakes in this revelation.
There is no self-defeating humour or satire, no attempt to puncture or deflate any aspect of the film.
Davis is terrific as the titular woman king, but the rest of the cast arguably take centre stage.
Thuso Mbedu is also great as the audience surrogate, Nawi - it is a potentially thankless role, but Mbedu and the script give the character a real sense of agency and inner life.
But if the movie has a scene-stealer, it is Lashana Lynch as veteran warrior and Nawi’s mentor Izogie. This movie highlights how underutilised Lynch was in No Time To Die.
Izogie may be tough as nails but Lynch gives her a swagger and humor that enlivens every scene she is in. Lynch also invests Izogie with a sense of hardwon wisdom.
While the acting is good across the board, ultimately this is a full-bore action movie.
The violence is vivid but not dwelt upon; and Bythewood’s focus on character means that death matters; but it is also a movie where our heroes take a running leap over a column of musketeers and Viola Davis blocks a sword with her arm and then stabs her opponent with the blade still impaled through her arm.
I have seen comparisons made between The Woman King and The Patriot, another movie which cleans up its history behind its central character in favour of turning him into an action hero. I have not seen that movie so I cannot get too specific but from what I gather, The Patriot makes no attempt to portray its lead as a slave owner.
Aside from not starring Mel Gibson, to its credit, The Woman King does include Dahomey’s involvement in the slave trade and makes it part of the film’s central conflict.
The Woman King has a similar relationship with history with another 2000 movie, Gladiator:
at the end of the movie, our heroes defeat evil and destroy an established institution (Russell Crowe dissolves the Roman Empire and recreates the Roman Republic; the Agojie eject the slave traders and Dahomey is rid of the slave trade).
Neither of these endings are historically accurate, but within the context of their respective narratives, they make sense.
In The Woman King, one of the movie’s central clashes is between Nanisca and the king’s court over slavery, and weighing human life versus the economy of the state. It means Nanisca is restrained from what she can do, and ultimately has to disobey orders so that she can do what is right.
Another movie might have been able to thread the needle another way. And I hope those movies get made!
The catalyst for making The Woman King was the success of Black Panther, whose own warrior women, the Dora Milaje, were inspired by the Agojie.
While its returns have been modest so far, hopefully The Woman King will itself inspire more movies in a similar vein.
If The Woman King ends up being at the head of a trend of Agojie movies, its historical fidelity might be less of a subject of conversation. But for now, it is the only (Hollywood) game in town.
As an action drama, or a war movie, The Woman King is sturdy genre cinema with a great cast.
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