Netflix The Woman King

The Lonious Monk said:
Yeah, I don't take anything that comes out of Hollywood personally whether it has a black face on it or not, so maybe that is the difference.

I guess my issue is that I want to see more African and Black culture highlighted through movies and other media. There are a lot of good stories that can be told that have been largely ignored because Hollywood doesn't believe stories about Black people are profitable. I don't want companies to start shying away trying to tell those stories because they feel like everytime you touch anything Black outside of slave or white savior stories that there will be some huge controversy that makes the effort not worth it.
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Totally agree.

That isn't what I meant by "more personal," however. What I meant was that the problem many black people have with this particular "re-writing," if you will, is that it involves their actual bloodlines and is a reason that many of us don't have a place in Africa that we can say for sure is our ancestral home.

I think I'm going to go watch it today.

Personally, I'm no fan of Dahomey, but I do think the story needs to be told, and I do think those warriors, while not necessarily heroic, should be recognized for being the formidable group of warriors that they were.

I can also appreciate the need to see black woman as heroes. Thing is, there are plenty of African queens and women warriors who are worthy of having their stories told and being celebrated.

  • Queen Nzinga
  • Amina (there is a pretty good Nollywood movie about her on Netflix now)
  • Amanirenas from Kush, arguably the greatest of all of them. Read about her dealings with Rome during perhaps its apex as an empire. Augustus didn't want no parts of her.
  • Ashanti's Yaa Asantewaa is worthy too
  • Ndaté Yalla Mbodj
And so many others who are truly heroes who protected their people and stood valiantly against foreign invaders.
 
Winning Women

PRAISE: I wasn't going to see this film for multiple reasons, especially after listening to a couple of podcasts and doing my own research and thinking that the facts about the Agojie and Dahomey were completely removed from the film. Well that thinking was partially wrong and I'm glad I went to see the film for myself. The facts are not merely touched on but mentioned often plus I'm glad the film displays that most likely not all fell in line with the actions and thinking of the majority when it came to trading captives from rival tribes to slave traders.

As for the movie itself it's pretty good. The story ofViola Davis as a general who trains the next generation of warriors to fight their enemies is a strong one. It's mainly the performances that give it a very strong foundation. Davis and the rest of the cast including: ; Thuso Mbedu ,Lashana Lynch ,Sheila Atim,John Boyega,and Jayme Lawson turn in strong and believable performances. The action sequences are thrilling and intense,even the training sequences were great. The film does offer some celebrations of African culture which I loved.There is a twist in the film that shouldn't work but it worked for me.

PROBLEMS: The film definitely backs away from some facts and turns some around I'm guessing to make it more palatable for some.This is Hollywood and they have likely done this a million times by now.
I didn't completely get on board with parts of the subplot.The story goes down a couple of predictable paths.

Scale of 1 to 10 an 8

********
I encourage all to do their own research about what happened between the Dahomey and the Kingdom of Oyo
 
ThaManMythLegnd said:
Dahmoney's whole rise and fall was based on the slave trade. So what are we celebrating? Profiteers on the back of slaves? Does having an all-female regime of their military somehow negate that? So we should just celebrate warriors who did raids on villages, burned them to the ground, and enslaved their people. Because female power wins out?.....
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Y'all acting like they getting royalties off the shit. 😂😂😂😂😂😂
 
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King of GA said:
Totally agree.

That isn't what I meant by "more personal," however. What I meant was that the problem many black people have with this particular "re-writing," if you will, is that it involves their actual bloodlines and is a reason that many of us don't have a place in Africa that we can say for sure is our ancestral home.

I think I'm going to go watch it today.

Personally, I'm no fan of Dahomey, but I do think the story needs to be told, and I do think those warriors, while not necessarily heroic, should be recognized for being the formidable group of warriors that they were.

I can also appreciate the need to see black woman as heroes. Thing is, there are plenty of African queens and women warriors who are worthy of having their stories told and being celebrated.

  • Queen Nzinga
  • Amina (there is a pretty good Nollywood movie about her on Netflix now)
  • Amanirenas from Kush, arguably the greatest of all of them. Read about her dealings with Rome during perhaps its apex as an empire. Augustus didn't want no parts of her.
  • Ashanti's Yaa Asantewaa is worthy too
  • Ndaté Yalla Mbodj
And so many others who are truly heroes who protected their people and stood valiantly against foreign invaders.
Click to expand...

Queen Amina definitely dealt in slave trading though.
 
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