The Agojie, the so-called Dahomey Amazons, are part of a myth that precedes them, even in their film version. Something that the director Gina Prince-Bythewood takes into account from the first scenes of the king womanwhich can be seen in theaters from October 14.
With stylized visual precision, the opening sequences of the film explore the background of a story that is legendary for its exceptional nature. The camera follows its characters closely and watches them from a respectful distance. Also, to his skills, sheer physical power and will turned into an attribute displayed with the same pride as scars on the skin.
But, unlike other productions in which women show their strength and physical ability, this time it is not just about skill. The formidable warriors are ruthless, but they also profess a deep territorial loyalty, unusual in such narratives. The director and the screenplay, by Dana Stevens, emphasize that this well-organized army, with extraordinary abilities, is not a stereotype. Nor is it an idealization of feminine power.
the king woman
The Woman King faces harsh and careful scrutiny for her quality as a look at a structural oddity within cinema related to real events. To what extent can fiction reinvent history? On the other hand, do you need to do it to support your strongest points? What is the thread that separates the rigor of the chronicle from the cinematographic fiction? The film meets the above challenges with solid staging and brilliant execution of a sophisticated script. The plot is not limited to telling the notion about the strength of a territory besieged by contradictions.
the king woman It is a complex scenario to analyze great stories
With an evident intention to create its own message about the moral greatness of his character, the film is interested in his gray morals. In the king woman there are no heroes or villains. At least, not as obvious, clear or notorious as any historical epic usually shows.
On this occasion, It is a battle of ideal interests that intersect with other more pragmatic ones.. Nanisca (Viola Davis) is an acting general, with all the knowledge and experience to know the meaning of the dangerous fractures that surround the throne. Something that she notices as the way in which power is held becomes more violent, closer to a complicated perception of cruelty.
On the other hand, Amenza (Sheila Atim), Izogie (Lashana Lynch), and Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) are perceptions of the same connotation of physical power and loyalty. They all have their own places, a space that the argument allows itself to carefully develop in all its unique perception of time.
John Boyega represents the weight of heredity, inevitably corrupted. King Ghezo is no match for the regiment that supports and protects him, and one of the most interesting points of the script is the way the contrast is evident. It is precisely in this contrast where the king woman falls into Manichaeism and is confronted with the central idea.
The argument attempts to show that Dahomey could — should have — played a more active role in rejecting slavery. But history does not seem to carry as much weight as opinion on the fringes of the production. The result is a confused version of a fragile and complicated point that threatens the elegant narration of the king woman.
The power of the throne and its dark places
In fact, the king woman it is a conscious search for the element that unites historical legend with complex perceptions about race. Also, of identity and cultural belonging. All issues that currently rub against so many others that are especially sensitive.
Perhaps, for this reason, the epic touched an uncomfortable controversy about its historical rigor. Accused of justifying the kingdom of Dahomey’s involvement with slavery or, at best, excusing it, the king woman go through complicated places.
Both on screen and in the context that surrounds it, the film celebrates the Agojie as a kind of elaborate power that destroys obvious prejudices. But is the argument credible being, as it is, a free version of a historical fact? How to prop up a production that tries to reconstruct ideas and that doesn’t seem to include the dark spots that could make them three-dimensional?
the king woman stands up to tough and careful scrutiny as a look at a structural oddity within cinema related to real events. To what extent can fiction reinvent history? On the other hand, do you need to do it to support your strongest points? What is the thread that separates the rigor of the chronicle from the cinematographic fiction?
the king woman and the dilemma of truth
The film meets the above challenges with solid staging and brilliant execution of a sophisticated script. The plot is not limited to telling the notion about the strength of a territory besieged by contradictions. This incomplete version of the Dahomey kingdom and its female regiment is not just an abstraction meant to celebrate an anthropological oddity. Actually, it is an exploration of the symbol that was the kingdom in West Africa between the 18th and 19th centuries.
The regiment of warrior women is analyzed from a look at a series of complex issues that, almost inevitably, make it border on controversy. From the feminine strength (in particular, the military power of women, an almost non-existent cinematographic topic), to the manipulations of political influence.
the king woman has sufficient narrative intelligence to propose several scenarios that converge in the possibility of an exception in the future of History. Beyond the dazzling possibility of an African empire beyond the reach of the white man, Dahomey’s condition is insular. Also, a precise construction on the possibilities of an unusual scenario in the usual historical dramas.
But he fails in his need to justify his errors and contradictions and in the fact that his attachment to the historical is circumstantial. the king woman it hangs on a delicate balance that ends up declining in its last stretch. Again, the question of whether film fiction can of necessity be considered rigorous is pertinent here. Much more so, with the film’s obvious need to sustain the brilliant condition of time, good and evil as a rapidly changing setting.
In the end, all the messages are mixed with each other
Is it manipulative and untruthful the king woman? It is to the extent that it does not delve into controversial points and turns the film into a series of crossed views on critical issues. Perhaps it is its ambiguity that makes it less believable and much less forceful than it could be.
For its final installment, the formidable female army is a celebration of a type of cinematographic woman who rarely makes it to the big screen. Even so, the king woman it loses its symbolic significance in the midst of inconsistent messages on complex topics. Perhaps its hardest point to assimilate.