Oscar warrior
THE WOMAN KING
Cert 15 ★★★★★ In cinemas now
There are sweeping battle scenes, flinty warriors and rousing speeches. The Woman King is the type of old-fashioned blockbuster they used to make before the Marvel juggernaut rolled into the multiplexes.
Yet there’s something refreshingly modern about director Gina Princebythewood’s action-packed historical epic.
In Gladiator and Braveheart, the heroes were white men. Now, buff Black women are getting a chance to slice and dice their way to glory.
This crowd-pleaser focuses on the Agojie, an elite all-female army of warriors from the West African kingdom of Dahomey (now part of Benin).
It’s 1823 and Dahomey has a new king ( John Boyega) who is mulling over breaking with his powerful neighbours, the Oyo empire.
While he seeks advice from the Agojie’s battle-scarred General Nanisca (a magnificent Viola Davis), headstrong 16-year-old villager Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) is led to the gates of the king’s palace.
As Nawi refuses to be sold to a husband, she will dedicate her life to fighting for her king. Her training sessions introduce us to the acrobatic Izogie (a charismatic Lashana Lynch) and lithe javelin specialist Amenza (an acrobatic Sheila Atim).
Crucially, the film doesn’t shy away from
Dahomey’s less-than-heroic history. Like the Oyo, Dahomey has prospered from selling its war captives to white slavers, but the noble Nanisca wants her king to move into the palm oil business.
First, she will have to mastermind an against-the-odds victory against the Oyo who have superior numbers and more advanced weapons.
The battle scenes, which eschew soulless CGI for slick fight choreography, are far more spectacular than anything we’ve seen in a Marvel movie.
But the film’s writers and directors don’t let the action swamp the human drama. This tense, provocative, and unusually soulful epic could be the most entertaining Oscar winner we’ve had in years.
Battle scenes are more spectacular than anything we’ve seen in Marvel movies