The Woman King (2022)
A historical epic inspired by the true events that happened in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Cast and Information
Directed By: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Written By: Maria Bello, Dana Stevens
Starring: Viola Davis, John Boyega, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Lashana Lynch, Jordan Bolger, Sheila Atim, Thuso Mbedu, Shaina West
Genres: Drama, Action, History
Where to Stream
Loading...
The Woman King belongs to 8 collections
1. Female Directors (collaborative: moderated by djross - 90 stars)
2. #1 at the US Box Office (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub - 10 stars)
3. Best by different standards (public: sesito71 - 6 stars)
4. 19th century period film (collaborative: moderated by djross - 4 stars)
5. Inför 2022 (collaborative: moderated by caffe)
6. Filmekimi 2022 (collaborative: moderated by ozdemibr)
7. 80th Golden Globe Nominees (2022) (collaborative: moderated by elhenzo)
8. İzlenecek 2022 Filmleri (public: Ozancan)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 4 |  |
INDYATMN | 50 4th |
|
Imagine a 2022 film painting Confederate soldiers as badass heroes. Their leader's against slavery, but he never actually existed. Anyone who pitched such a film would be laughed out of the office, but set it in a black-ruled society that FOUGHT TO HOLD ONTO SLAVERY & H'wood will give you a giant budget & stars like Viola Davis. Mainstream critics will also love it. If anyone complains, Davis will assert they are "supporting a narrative". Any whites angered by such egregious hypocrisy? Racist.
|
|||
| 4 |  |
MontyCircus | 40 37th |
|
Watchable but never grabbed me. I've heard it called "African Braveheart", but "Braveheart" wasn't PG-13, had a lot more humour, and a much more involving story. Weird that this film celebrates women warriors whose entire purpose in real-life was capturing and selling their fellow Africans into slavery to "the white man"? WTF?
|
|||
| 3 |  |
Mentaculus | 75 62nd |
|
The title hints at a friction between understood and actual history, and with that a reclamation of identity, and there the film absolutely succeeds. Using the training/war/action template first seems like a misstep (the formula is tried and true down to at least one superfluous subplot and a battle that comes and goes too quickly), but giving us the space to not think too hard about the plot gives us more time to reflect on its themes of legacy - what we choose to pass on, and to embrace.
|
|||
| 3 |  |
RuruSmasher | 88 65th |
|
I don't know how to rate this, actually. As a movie, it freaking works, Davis is great, even if I loved Lashana Lynch more in this. Visually, it was vibrant and beautiful and full of ritual and culture. History-wise... Literally all historic epics are actually acts of myth-making. This is also that. It is meant to inspire and create mythical imagery and models. I don't have enough characters left for the very nuanced discussion it requires.
|
|||
| 2 | ericambler | 76 65th |
|
|
Marketed as a war picture, but in reality it's another of Prince-Bythewood's explorations of kinship and collaboration. Davis is excellent as usual, but it's fantastic support from the whole cast--particularly Lynch and Atim--that drives home the stakes of this historical moment, which the film argues could be OUR moment, given its universal concerns about the choices that are or are not afforded to people based on their imagined potential.
|
|||
| 2 | Reisender | 30 1st |
|
|
Here's an exercise for the viewer: 1) Watch the movie 2) Grab a history book and compare the depicted events with what actually happened 3) Ponder what would have to go through the head of everybody involved to make such a film 4) ??? 5) Profit
|
|||
| 1 |  |
moraesfelipe | 60 49th |
|
Mid section nearly destroys everything, but action material delivers and keep the wheels running.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
sproost | 20 4th |
|
A.I suspicion 2. This is a piece of soulless, artless, history-revising, Marvellized, virtue signaling hollywood studio entertainment. It takes 30 minutes to see the first (barely) logical human emotion. I could predict every line of dialog and plot twist without fault. I'm starting to develop a big problem with history revisionism to fit the current hyped narratives of feminism and anti patriarchy. It does the important cause of feminism no good.
|
|||
| 1 |  |
luord | 50 26th |
|
It would've been an entertaining, if conventional, hero's journey... Had it not been about the Dahomey. Making it about another culture, even a fictional one as a what if, would've avoided some of the worst historical whitewashing this side of "The Birth of a Nation" (and Griffith already didn't have an excuse for that one 100 years ago) I've seen.
|
|||
| 1 | The_Rveal | 35 56th |
|
|
The Woman King’s attempts to have it both ways by delving into the horrors of the slave trade without fully distancing Dahomey from it can make the movie feel a bit wobbly at times, but Davis, Mbedu and the supporting cast (particularly Lashana Lynch as Nanisca’s trusted lieutenant Izogie) let their characters’ personal drama take precedence — and with it a stirring sense of sisterly unity in the face of adversity — over the historical fuzziness.
|
|||
| Average Percentile 48.15% from 182 Ratings |  |