Woman King

A rousing, exciting film! I loved it.

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The casting, the costumes, the way that we get to see the main characters as whole people, the visuals of the landscape, the fullness of different emotions, the various colors and shapes of women, and the way that the women kicked ass.

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This movie stirred up some controversy because it’s not historically accurate. But it isn’t a documentary about the slave trade in Western Africa! It’s the story of the Agojie women warriors, the only female army in modern history, a sisterhood that most of the world has never heard of.

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The producer of this film was initially offered 5M to make it. Not only did the producer turn it down, she left her job because of it. She and her team eventually got the 50M they needed, but this movie took nearly ten years to pull together.

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I read somewhere that, initially, Viola Davis pushed back on the offer to do this film because she felt she was too old, too out of shape, that she would feel awkward putting on an African accent.

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But having read Viola Davis’s autobiography, I have a sense that this movie might just feel like the pinnacle of her career. As a young girl, she wanted “to be somebody” and in this movie, she is the center of an empire. She is a 56-year-old general of a terrifying fighting force, one half of a ruling dynasty.

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Like Black Panther, I feel this movie is important for black people, for girls of color, and for dark women in particular, to see themselves as powerful, as agents of change, as leaders of their own destiny. Representation matters.

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I also feel that this movie is important for women in general. By now, we all know that middle-aged women can lead a successful film, but this is an action movie in which women are the action heroes. We hadn’t seen that before this film. I look forward to more movies like this!

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