The Woman King Movie(2023) Review

Movie: The Woman King

Cast: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, John Boyega, Jordan Bolger, Sheila Atim

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Produced by: Tristar Pictures

Release Date: 16 September 2023

OTT Platform: Netflix

Gina Prince-Bythewood was a director who has always been committed to telling love stories. Her films have showcased passionate stories of love on basketball courts, between generations, in the show business ladder, and between immortals, featuring Black women with power and interiority, finding strength within themselves, and often with other Black women. Her latest film, “The Woman King,” produced by Netflix, continues to center these themes on a grander scale. The movie tells a big-hearted action-epic story centered on Agojie warriors, an all-woman group of soldiers sworn to honor and sisterhood, hailing from the West African kingdom of Dahomey. While the film's task is to be sincere and historical while fulfilling its blockbuster requirements, Prince-Bythewood and screenwriter Dana Stevens approached it with gentle sensitivity and a fierce desire to show Black women as the charters of their destiny.

In the beginning, the film showcases a group of men lounging at the center of a field by a campfire, but then they are killed by Agojie general, nanisca , played by Viola Davis, and an entire platoon. The ensuing slaughter of the men is soaked in delirious gore, and it is part of this warrior ensemble’s mission to free their imprisoned kin. Nanisca decides to train a new batch of recruits as she loses many comrades in the process. The film's plot can feel convoluted after the opening battle scene, but its excesses serve the film’s blockbuster goals. The film features a defiant teenager, Nawi, who is offered as a gift to the young King Ghezo by her domineering father. Nawi, however, never makes it to the King, as the unflinching yet fun warrior Izogie sees Nawi’s resistance as strength and enlists her in Nanisca’s training.

The defeated are offered as tribute to the draconian Oyo Empire, who then deal their fellow Africans as slaves to Europeans in exchange for guns. It’s a circle of oppression that the guilt-ridden Nanisca wants the King to break. In the meantime, a dream haunts Nanisca, and the disobedient Nawa struggles to uphold some of Agojie clan’s strict requirements, particularly the "No Men" part.

Despite some clunky narrative beats and a twist halfway through that nearly causes the story to fall apart, the sheer pleasure of “The Woman King” resides in the bond shared by these Black women. They are the film’s love story as they commit to each other as much as they do to their grueling training. Vast compositions of Black women caring and nurturing each other proliferate “The Woman King,” and the rituals and songs they share add further layers to their deep devotion.

While “The Woman King” is quite messy with its overuse of VFX for landscapes, fake extras, and fire, Prince-Bythewood relies on emotional heft in an action movie. Sheila Atim, who along with Mbedu turned in a stellar performance in Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad,” is measured, aware, and giving as Nanisca’s trusted second-in-command Amenza. Boyega is commanding yet beguiling as a king projecting confidence while still learning what it means to lead.

The movie's costumes, production design, and the evocative score feel lived in and vibrant, especially in the vital rendering of the Dahomey Kingdom, which is teeming with scenes of color and community. Terilyn A. Shropshire’s slick, intelligent editing allows this grand epic to breathe.

The subplots in “The Woman King” might undo it for some. But the magnitude and the awe this movie inspires are what epics like “Gladiator” and “Braveheart” are all about. They’re meant for your heart to override your brain, to pull you toward a rousing splendor, to put a lump in your throat. In between the large, sprawling battles of "The Woman King," and in between the desire to not yield to white outside forces and the urge to topple oppressive and racist systems, the guide is sisterly love, Black love. Thrilling and enrapturing, emotionally beautiful and spiritually buoyant, “The Woman King” isn’t just an uplifting battle cry. It’s the movie Prince-Bythewood has been building toward throughout her entire career.

My Rating: 6.9/10