The Agoji, the so-called Dahomean Amazons, are part of the myth that preceded them, even in their film version. Something that director Gina Prince-Bythewood takes into account from the first scenes woman kingwhich can be seen in theaters from 14 October.
With stylized visual fidelity, the film’s opening sequences explore the backstory of a story legendary for its exceptional nature. The camera closely follows its characters and observes them from a respectful distance. In addition to his skills, pure physical strength and will turned into an attribute displayed with the same pride as scars on the skin.
But, unlike other productions in which women demonstrate their strength and physical abilities, this time it’s not just about skill. The fearsome warriors are ruthless, but they also profess deep territorial loyalty, which is unusual in such stories. Director and screenplay Dana Stevens emphasize that this well-organized army with extraordinary abilities is not a stereotype. And this is not an idealization of female power.
woman king This is a difficult scenario for analyzing great stories.
With the express intention of creating its own message of its character’s moral greatness, the film takes an interest in his gray morals. AT woman king there are no heroes or villains. At least not as obvious, clear or notorious as any historical epic usually shows.
In this case, This is a battle of ideal interests that intersect with other, more pragmatic ones.. Naniska (Viola Davis) is an acting general with all the knowledge and experience to understand the significance of the dangerous fractures surrounding the throne. Something he notices as the power holds on becomes more violent, approaching a complex perception of cruelty.
On the other hand, Amenza (Sheila Atim), Izogi (Lashana Lynch) and Navi (Tuso Mbedu) all represent the perception of the same connotation of physical strength and loyalty. They all have their place, the 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 things about the script is how obvious the contrast is. It is in this contrast woman king falls into Manichaeism and collides with the central idea.
The argument tries to show that Dahomey could—should have—played a more active role in abolishing slavery. But history does not seem to carry as much weight as the opinions of secondary parties to the production. The result is a confused version of a fragile and complex paragraph that threatens an elegant narrative. woman king.
The power of the throne and its dark places
Actually, woman king it is a conscious search for an element that combines historical legend with complex notions of race. As well as identity and cultural affiliation. All the questions that currently run into many others, especially delicate ones.
Perhaps for this reason, the epic has raised an uncomfortable controversy about its historical rigor. Accused of justifying the involvement of the kingdom of Dahomey in slavery, or at best of justifying it, woman king go through difficult places.
Both on screen and in the context that surrounds it, the film celebrates Agojie as a kind of skillful force that breaks down obvious prejudice. But can this argument be credible, being a free version of historical fact? How to support a production that tries to reconstruct ideas and doesn’t seem to include the dark spots that could make them three-dimensional?
woman king stands up to scrutiny and scrutiny as a look at the structural oddity in cinematography associated with real events.. To what extent can fiction reinvent history? On the other hand, do you need to do this in order to maintain your greatest strengths? What is the thread that separates the severity of chronicle from cinematic fiction?
woman king and the dilemma of truth
The film answers the above questions with a solid production and a brilliant execution of an intricate script. The plot is not limited to the story of the strength of the territory besieged by contradictions. This incomplete version of the kingdom of Dahomey and its female regiment is not just an abstraction meant to glorify anthropological oddity. In fact, this is a study of the symbol that was the kingdom in West Africa between the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Regiment of Warrior Women is analyzed in terms of a number of complex issues that almost inevitably make it border on the polemic. From female power (in particular, the military power of women, an almost non-existent cinematic theme), to the manipulation of political influence.
woman king has sufficient narrative intelligence to suggest several scenarios that converge on the possibility of an exception in the future of History. Apart from the dazzling possibility of an African empire beyond the reach of the white man, Dahomey is in a confined space. Also, the exact construction of the possibilities of an unusual scenario in ordinary historical dramas.
But he lacks justification for his errors and contradictions, and for the fact that his attachment to the historical is circumstantial. woman king it hangs on a delicate balance that eventually falls on the final stretch. Again, the pertinent question here is whether film fiction can necessarily be considered rigorous. Moreover, with the film’s apparent need to maintain a brilliant state of time, good and evil as a rapidly changing setting.
As a result, all messages are mixed with each other.
Is it manipulative and untruthful woman king? To the extent that it doesn’t 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 plausible and much less convincing than it could be.
In the final part, The Terrible Female Army is a tribute to the cinematic woman who rarely makes it to the big screen. Despite this, woman king it loses its symbolic meaning in the midst of inconsistent messages on complex topics. Perhaps the most difficult to grasp.
