Directed by: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Starring: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, John Boyega, Jordan Bolger
Rated PG-13, 135 minutes
History is written by the victors; absolute power corrupts absolutely; those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We are all, by now, well acquainted with these maxims. Even if you never opened a history book, you would still encounter these truisms in Tolkien’s Middle Earth, or in a galaxy far, far away, or indeed in any story; few things are as universally repeated in human history as power wielded and abused.
The great novelty of “The Woman King,” a challenging new historical epic, is that it traces these ideas in a setting most American audiences likely have never seen in a mainstream movie. Set in the 1820s in the Kingdom of Dahomey (in the present-day nation of Benin), the film revolves around an elite military force composed of women warriors whose fighting prowess proves the deciding factor in the struggles for power in West Africa. This military force, called the Agojie, was a real and mighty army of women who held a place of honor in Dahomey; to Europeans, they were known as the “Dahomey Amazons.” In the alternate history of “The Woman King,” the Agojie wage a thrilling fight against the neighboring Oyo Empire and against European slavers encroaching on the continent, thus preserving the sovereignty of Dahomey and the freedom of its people.
At the center of this epic are two women, the stoic general Nanisca (Viola Davis, “Fences”), leader of the Agojie, known to her subordinates for both her wisdom and her stubbornness, and the young Nawi (Thuso Mbedu, “The Underground Railroad”), a young girl who joins the Agojie and quickly draws Nanisca’s attention. Nawi, impertinent and impulsive, perhaps reminds Nanisca of her younger self, or perhaps the older warrior simply sees the girl as a harbinger of changing times.
As the relationship between these two women evolves, so does a wide web of supporting characters and subplots. Chief among the highlights in the cast are Lashana Lynch (“No Time to Die”) as Izogie, an affable Agojie warrior who becomes a big sister figure to Nawi, and Thuso Mbedu, who imbues Nawi with a striking mixture of irreverence and quiet cunning. In one subplot, a Brazilian trader, Malik (Jordan Bolger, “Tom and Jerry”), tries to court Nawi, but Mbedu’s enigmatic performance holds the romance at bay, suggesting either girlish naïveté or wary suspicion; she is content to let us, and Malik, wonder which it is.
Then there are the battle scenes, large-scale and flashy, and yet, strangely unsatisfying. The actresses playing Agojie warriors largely did their own stunt work, and knowing this makes the complicated fight choreography all the more impressive. But Gina Prince-Bythewood (whose last film, “The Old Guard,” featured many captivating fight scenes) treats these scenes like an audition to direct the next Marvel Cinematic Universe installment, dwelling on fancy footwork and many twirling swords until the action blends together into a muddy morass. The true history of the Agojie—in theory the film’s raison d’être—ends up taking a backseat to a decidedly modern lust for camera-ready superheroes.
That same need for heroics may also explain why “The Woman King” tweaks some details to present a nobler view of Dahomey than history warrants. In reality, Dahomey raided neighboring regions and took their people as slaves, keeping some and selling many to Europeans and becoming, in effect, a business partner to European slavers for many years. “The Woman King,” however, hints at this only in passing, instead portraying Dahomey as the great defender of West Africa, and the Agojie the heroes of a purely defensive mission.
Of course, the job of historical fiction is not to recite history as it happened, but rather to provoke a reflection on history as we think we know it. Even if “The Woman King” ignores Dahomey’s involvement in the slave trade, it’s nevertheless a unique movie in its depiction of the historical self-governance of African nations, as opposed to merely their subjugation. Heroic posturing and tricky choreography aside, the film’s greatest accomplishment is its refusal to submit to the same tired clichés that have often compounded Africans into one monolithic cultural identity. It stops short of offering any bold new insights into humankind’s journey through time, but like its winking title, “The Woman King” subverts the old traditions just enough for us to get a glimpse of something different on the horizon.
Originally published in The Harvard Press on 9/30/22.