Screening at Palace Cinemas
By James Murphy
The Woman King’s producer, Maria Bello, conceived the Braveheart style revenge-against-the-oppressive coloniser epic upon visiting Benin, the West African home of the famed all-female warriors, the Agojie, in 2015. She was unable to convince studios to stump up the cash, though, for a big budget, mostly African action film depicting the Agojie’s 1823 battles against Portuguese slave traders, and their African co-conspirators. Then, in 2018, Marvel released Black Panther, which grossed $1.4 billion and the film industry was transformed.
The Woman King doesn’t have the pulling power of a Marvel or DC movie, but it has the next best thing: Suicide Squad and Black Adam’s Viola Davis, an Academy and Tony Award Winner, as well as Captain Marvel and first female 007 Lashana Lynch and break out star Thuso Mbedu from The Underground Railroad. All three are formidable; each survived four months of training five hours a day to prepare for the roles, and it shows. The action scenes are exhilaratingly choreographed, though perhaps the combat was a little more stylish than appropriate for a historical saga. While debates are raging regarding the degree of historical accuracy, truth abounds, in Viola Davis’ portrayal of the PTSD she experiences as a rape survivor, and in the examination of the brutality and culpability of the slave traders who built the empires whose legacies continue to matter today.
The relationships between Davis and Mbedu and Mbedu and Lynch matter deeply. Lynch is a bad ass; if you questioned whether she deserved the moniker of Bond, this should erase those doubts. She is deserving of her own franchise though, rather than taking on the name of an old British dude. If the film has a criticism, it’s that takes a narrow focus; the slave trade continued in Benin after the 1820s, there was no great victory.
History is written by the victors, though, and triumph can occur even when the battle is lost; sometimes triumph is not surrendering. History is now being told by those who were oppressed. It is their story to tell. The Woman King tells the story well.
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