The Woman King (2022)

The Woman King cleverly upends all the tropes of historical epic, inverting the gender and colonialist cliches and by doing so making something original. It does stick to many of these conventions but the juxtaposition of what we usually see in these sorts of films with the reversed position drawn here makes the audience examine these tools more closely and perhaps give us new perspective. 

One small and subtle example of this is the way the people of Dahomey speak the language of their audience (English) while the European and African foreigners speak subtitled languages. This connects us to the Dahomey in a way that is used in traditional historical epics to ground us in the side we are to identify with. But it is rare western audiences are asked to identify with an African kingdom, even when the Africans are painted as the good guys we are often still to see them as the other. The Woman King eschews that, ensuring we are part of this kingdom and we know who to root for. 

The film also plays a bit fast and loose with history, as most western histories do, to ensure that we can buy into our citizenship here. Okay maybe quite a bit fast and loose. Just like European historical dramas downplay the sins of their empires, The Woman King attempts to soften Dahomey's involvement in the slave trade to help us root for these characters and see them as our heroes. Again The Woman King isn't guilty of anything that scores of western films didn't do as well. Still, the film is guilty of adding in an anti-slavery fiction into the Agojie's actual pro-slavery history. But something that makes it stand out is in how it does connect the dots between their own involvement in the slave trade and the essential role of western colonialism in that trade existing at all. 

So in this way The Woman King is triumphant in using the tools of western movie making to tell a different sort of story. I'm not sure it is entirely successful. I found the lost daughter subplot a bit hokey and the film's narrative cuts some corners conveniently a few times. It remains entertaining and engaging all the way through and the strong cast lead by the always amazing Davis is breathtaking. But there were times I wish it was a bit stronger. 

And I do fault the film for ignoring any semblance of queerness. The story is about women warriors committed to rejecting relationships with men. Yet the film is very chaste with their connections with each other, never acknowledging the complex nature of their sisterhood. Any sexual or romantic feelings they have are directed towards the male characters. Watching The Woman King you'd never imagine two women could love each other more than friends. And in a film that is subverting our expectations about gender and race, to have it be rather heteronormative was disappointing. 

But it still remains and epic feeling historical drama. While its characters are mostly fictitious it speaks to a real time, a real place, and real people who existed and suffered and conquered and it pays them fairly worthy tribute. 

The Woman King

Starring: Viola Davis,  Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Shelia Atim, John Boyega, Jordon Bolger, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Adrienne Warren, Jayme Lawson,  Jimmy Odukoya

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Writers: Dana Stevens, Maria Bello