Honestly, this is one of those movies that makes you sit up properly.... Not because it is perfect, but because it carries a kind of energy that many historical movies don't have.
The movie follows General Nanisca, played by Viola Davis, the leader of the Agojie... an all-female warrior unit protecting the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin and these women are not playing around..
From the opening scene, the movie makes it clear that the Agojie are trained, disciplined and extremely dangerous.. They fight with confidence, move like a proper military unit and have that kind of presence that makes you understand why their enemies feared them but what I really liked is that the movie doesn't present them as just warriors..
It also shows them as women with painful histories, personal struggles, fears and dreams and that made the story more interesting...
General Nanisca is not just a strong woman shouting orders. She is carrying trauma from her past, and you can see how much of her leadership is shaped by the things she has survived. .
Viola Davis was honestly excellent in this role... She has this ability to say very little and still make the scene feel heavy. Her face alone can communicate anger, pain, authority and exhaustion and when she enters battle?... You already know somebody is about to have a terrible day..
Thuso also deserves serious credit for her performance as Nawi.... Nawi is young, stubborn and unwilling to accept the future that has been planned for her. She doesn't want to simply become somebody's wife and live quietly. She wants to become something more.
Her journey from a rebellious young woman to a trained warrior is one of the strongest parts of the film... At first, she is inexperienced and emotional. But gradually, she learns discipline, teamwork and courage and I liked that the movie allowed her to make mistakes... She wasn't immediately perfect just because she was the chosen young character. She had to learn.
Lashana Lynch as Izogie was another standout for me.... Izogie brings humour, confidence and warmth into the story. She is tough, but she also knows how to encourage the younger warriors. Her relationship with Nawi gives the movie one of its most emotional connections.
The sisterhood between the women is probably what makes The Woman King special... These women fight together, train together, argue together and protect one another. It is not just about individual strength. It is about what happens when people who have suffered different things find a family in one another.
And the action?... The action is beautiful.... The fight scenes are energetic, brutal and well choreographed. The Agojie don't fight like random people swinging weapons around... Their movements feel coordinated, and the movie does a good job making their training look meaningful... There are moments where I was genuinely impressed by how physical the performances were.
The movie also looks great. The costumes, landscapes, village settings and battle sequences give it a strong sense of place. It feels like a proper historical epic, even though some parts of the story are heavily fictionalised and that brings me to the biggest issue...
The movie is inspired by real history, but it takes quite a lot of creative freedom..
The Agojie really existed and King Ghezo was a real historical figure.. However, many of the main characters and much of the personal story are fictional... More importantly, Dahomey was deeply involved in the slave trade and the film softens or reshapes that part of the kingdom's history, but that doesn't automatically make the movie bad, though it is something worth remembering because while the film presents Nanisca as someone fighting against slavery, the real historical situation was much more complicated and honestly, I think the movie could have been even stronger if it had embraced that complexity instead of making the moral lines so clear..
Still, as a piece of cinema, The Woman King works because It is emotional, exciting and inspiring... It gives Black women the centre of a major historical action story, and it does so without needing a white saviour to lead the way because the film is not just about fighting enemies. It is about survival, freedom, identity, trauma and the desire to choose your own future.
Rating: 88/100
