The Woman King complicates Good vs Evil
War itself is miserable and the excitement associated with war movies often can’t compete with their subject. The classic Technicolor used in The Woman King epics were usually dramatic events with stars winning in the heat of battle.
This is an epic movie with many well-choreographed and exciting moments. There is also thought-provoking content that somehow manages to pull the heartstrings without being overdone, such as depicting the Agojie, a warrior tribe of women who defend their African kingdom for generations.
Prince-Bythewood has consistently created films that are both sweet and bitter, irrespective of the genre. Her first film, Love & Basketball, gathered some of the romantic drama from a sports movie. Since then, she has produced The Secret Life of Bees, a gloomy period film, Beyond the Lights, a glamorous but heartfelt queen romance, and The Old Guard, a comic book adaptation coming in 2020, all of which have been successful enough for Netflix to approve a sequel.
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The Old Guard is an action film that appeals to pulp, while Woman King and Prince-Bythewood tells a more complex story. Despite this, there are thrilling fight scenes as well.
This story set in Dahomey which is situated in modern-day Benin, during the 1830s, follows the life of General Nanisca (portrayed by Davis), the chief of an expert Agojie fighting squad known to outsiders as the “Dahomey Amazons.” In addition to being respected as heroes in West Africa, the Agojie were also heavily involved in politics there.
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Dahomey’s primary defender, Nanisca, believes that king should quit Slave trade in the Atlantic as a way to increase profit.
Ghezo and other leaders in Dahomey sold seized prisoners of war from several tribes they conquered to work in the country’s cotton and sugarcane fields, but Nanisca pushed this practice and it was often regarded as an endeavour that won ground for her.
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Driven by fears for their own safety and the issue of dwindling resources, the Dahomey people are forced to rely on Nanisca, a woman with the power to craft objects from her soul. This part of history is taking place in a fictional way so that Nanisca can reflect the political influence of the Agojie in a way that she sees fit; they also choose to remove any mention of Ghezo.
The Woman King forces you to think about difficult issues rather than letting the story downplay them. The Agojie’s struggle has much more depth than just good versus evil, making it a brave novel that asks tough questions of morality.
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Davis portrays a character whose elegance conceals a great deal of concealed pain in a powerful, uncompromising, and steely performance that is reminiscent of her outstanding lead performance in Widows. Her partner is Thuso Mbedu, who gave an outstanding performance in last year’s The Underground Railroad.
Mbedu plays an introduction in the Agojie and their rules via Nawi, a fighter who also has passionate impulses and travels to break free from humanity, but it is not enough to be fleshed out.
The standout cast includes Lashana Lynch as the fierce warrior Izogie and Amenza, played by Sheila Atim, has a startling degree of empathy.
What makes the film such a success is that there’s no awkward expository dialogue. The script just builds up elaborate world with no awkward exposition, while still making it easy to understand what’s happening (by not having a lot of expositional dialogue in general). Ghezo is purposefully prickly and egotistical, with Nanisca firmly voicing her destruction of the trading in slaves principles, whereas Ghezo is more interested in how he can profit from slavery.
Battles of the real and figurative Nanisca center on Portuguese slavers and the adjacent kingdom. Because of those high stakes, Prince- Bythewood’s flashy, violent combat choreography is even more engaging. The Woman King is a great watch if you are just trying to find some vibrancy at the local theater.
Prince-Bythewood accomplished a great feat in grounding this film in a difficult dramatic text.
The Woman King- Production
The Woman King is co-produced by TriStar Pictures and Entertainment One, and was authored by Dana Stevens and Prince-Bythewood contributing, produced by Maria Bello and Cathy Schulman. Prince-Bythewood directed this film.
Bello visited Benin in West Africa in 2015 to study the Agojie’s history. She went back to Los Angeles after becoming certain that she had discovered a tale worth sharing and hired Schulman, to assist her in producing the movie who was then-head of the group Women in Film.
When awarding actress Viola Davis at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on September 19, 2015, Bello took the opportunity to propose her concept to the crowd in attendance.
In 2016, Jennifer Schulman tried to get her film made at STX Films and they initially offered $5 million. Those negotiations didn’t go well and she left the studio. The following year, Jennifer teamed up with Davis, Bello, and Julius Tennon, who was hired by JuVee Productions and is Davis’ spouse and business partner.
Studios turned down the offer to purchase the rights, but only after determining that it would not be profitable; other studios wanted light-skinned women, but Prince-Bythewood and Silver & Black refused to bargain. Without even a director or script, the producers convened in 2017 to discuss with Hannah Minghella and Nicole Brown of TriStar.
After two years, Brown succeeded Minghella and established The Woman King as a priority for TriStar. The superhero film Black Panther, which featured a fictionalised version of the Agojie, became a commercial hit in early 2018, helped the team to continue working on the project.
It was revealed that Lupita Nyong’o and Davis would star in the film; Thuso Mbedu finally took on Nyong’o’s post. The Woman King received green-lit status with a $50 million budget in 2020. Director Prince-Bythewood read entire movie script and joined the team.
Prince-Bythewood references movies like The Last of the Mohicans, Braveheart, Gladiator, and other epic films. Her sporting history has helped her with action scenes. She aimed to make the female characters in the novel diverse in both their combat skills, personalities and emotional reactions.
She studied the Agojie way of life with the aid of production designer Akin McKenzie. Books, out-of-print manuscripts, images, and articles by professor Leonard Wantchekon were all used in their investigation. The majority of their history, she claimed, was written from the perspective of the coloniser, which led to “the biggest eye-opener,” which was how much misinformation there is about these women and their culture.
So it was really about separating different voices and their perspectives, the ones that were derogatory, from the true text. For four months leading up to shooting, they exercised 90 minutes a day with Mike Mclain’s personal trainer, the next three and a half hours are spent in training regularly with Danny Hernandez. They practiced running, fighting styles, and weapons. Boxer Claressa Shields served as an inspiration for Davis.
