The Woman King

In West Africa in the 1800s, a fierce group of skilled all-female warriors has long protected the kingdom of Dahomey, but a new foreign enemy has arrived on their shores, allying themselves with a rival kingdon, both determined to destroy the Dahomey way of life, and wipe them from existence.

The Woman King is the “true” story of the historical group of women soldiers that fought for Dahomey in precolonial Africa, as the slave masters of Europe ravage their country. The word “true” does a lot of heavy lifting there, but that’s not that big of a deal. This certainly is not the first “historical” drama to play fast and loose with the actual time and people that inspired the film, and it’s certainly not the first to perhaps pay little or no concern to the accuracy of the events they are “dramatizing” for the sake of an exciting movie. In fact, it’s basically Hollywood tradition at this point. This is just one of the reasons why I say that The Woman King is a lot like Braveheart.

One of many reasons.

It’s also a fun and loud film. It’s full of rousing and wild battle scenes. It’s loaded with dramatic hero shots, a charming core group of ass-kickers, and buckets of battle gore. It’s sincere. It’s big-hearted. It’s definitely epic, and full of stunning vistas. It loves to do the inspiring speeches. It’s a little bombastic, and a bit overwrought too. It’s also pretty messy story-wise, especially when it comes to the cliches.

Also, much like Braveheart, it’s a little long.

The Woman King is every inch a blockbuster in the old school Hollywood way, with its swelling orchestral scores as the heroes and villains glare at each other through the smoke hazing the battlefield. The only thing that really sets this film apart from those other well-known and beloved films is that it was written and directed by women, it focuses on black women, and it’s set in Africa. It’s probably a fair bet that this will be the root reason for why a lot of critcs (white guys) shit on this film too, probably while citing the same sins that it shares with those old school Hollywood blockbusters too, films that they loudly claim to be classics.

The Woman Kong is definitely not a perfect movie. In fact, it’s downright silly in parts, but in the end… it’s fine. It’s better than fine, honestly, it’s pretty fun, and in all of the ways that this type of sweeping historical battle-filled epic action films are supposed to be too, because the Woman King is really nothing more than a big, dumb, obvious movie, one that really thinks it’s saying something but actually isn’t, and thats not necessarily a bad thing, because it’s a good time.

The bad thing is…

If this film had starred Mel Gibson, it would have swept the Oscars. I can say this, because that’s exactly what happened with Braveheart. If you doubt the impact that systemic racism had on this film, I would merely point to the fact that Avatar 2 and Top Gun: Maverick both got Best Picture nominations that year, and this film didn’t.

Understand me now… I’m not saying that The Woman King deserved a nomination, I’m saying that all three of these films are the same kind of big dumb idiot Hollywood Blockbuster, the same Glamorous Glitterati of Vapid Spectacle lumbering about up on the screen while sincerely believing itself to be the deepest of still waters.

So ask yourself… if none of these films were worthy of even the acknowledgement of a nomination, what was different about The Woman King?