Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Sept 15, 2022 14:11:29 GMT -5
The Woman King opens in theaters nationwide tonight. It has a whopping 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It tells the story of the legendary female army in the African kingdom of Dahomey and stars Viola Davis in an ass kicking role. I get the hype. In a time of superhero dominance at the cinema, it’s nice to get Tom Cruise and historical epics. Feels like the 1990’s again. But I can also understand the looming controversy. The movie is silly as hell. The story and characters are cliché as hell. There’s a laughable “plot twist” involving Viola Davis’ character and a comical “love story” involving the main side character. But none of that really matters because of the subject matter the filmmakers opted to adapt for the big screen. And no, I’m not referring to the all-girl army at the center of the story. No. I’m talking about John Boyega as King Ghezo. If you ever had a brave history teacher at school, you’d have learned that some African kingdoms were involved in the slave trade. King Ghezo and the kingdom of Dahomey were one of those slave traders and they were in business with the Brazilians. Does the movie accurately depict that? Not at all. It actually presents King Ghezo, Viola Davis and their army as successfully battling the Brazilians and ending the slave trade. lol. This movie is so dishonest and is gonna make heroes of people that have no right to be crowned as heroes. No matter how noble John Boyega comes across. No matter how badass Viola Davis comes across. King Ghezo and the Dahomey kingdom turned on their own people and profited on it. Yes, the Agojie army this movie is based on did oppose the slave trade and wanted to opt for trading palm oil instead, which the movie does allude to, but no such thing ever occurred. The Dahomey kingdom was very much in the slave trade until the start of the 1900’s. So this movie is very much a work of fiction and, dare I say, a problematic one. Is it a fun silly movie? Of course. Will you enjoy it? Probably. But it’ll still go down as one of the worst historical epics of early 21st century cinema. Anyway, now I wait for Dracula to pick a fight with me. |
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frankyt
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Post by frankyt on Sept 15, 2022 14:59:10 GMT -5
I figured this pg13 slave trade movie would be extremely nuanced.
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Sept 15, 2022 16:44:34 GMT -5
If you ever had a brave history teacher at school, you’d have learned that some African kingdoms were involved in the slave trade. King Ghezo and the kingdom of Dahomey were one of those slave traders and they were in business with the Brazilians. Does the movie accurately depict that? Not at all. It actually presents King Ghezo, Viola Davis and their army as successfully battling the Brazilians and ending the slave trade. lol. This movie is so dishonest and is gonna make heroes of people that have no right to be crowned as heroes. No matter how noble John Boyega comes across. No matter how badass Viola Davis comes across. King Ghezo and the Dahomey kingdom turned on their own people and profited on it. Yes, the Agojie army this movie is based on did oppose the slave trade and wanted to opt for trading palm oil instead, which the movie does allude to, but no such thing ever occurred. The Dahomey kingdom was very much in the slave trade until the start of the 1900’s. So this movie is very much a work of fiction and, dare I say, a problematic one. I read about that as well. Kind of surprised this aspect hasn't been getting more press. |
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thebtskink
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It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.
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Post by thebtskink on Sept 15, 2022 17:49:52 GMT -5
Attended a talk with Viola last month and saw clips of this. Really looking forward to it based on her interview.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Sept 16, 2022 0:28:29 GMT -5
I figured this pg13 slave trade movie would be extremely nuanced. It exists in the same universe as Inglorious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I read about that as well. Kind of surprised this aspect hasn't been getting more press. They could have made a movie inspired by the Agojie army, which Black Panther basically did, but they wanted that Based on a True Story label. No one in the entertainment media gonna challenge it cause they don’t wanna be called right-wing and canceled by Twitter. 1godzillafan’s homegirl Lindsey Ellis got kicked off the Internet for calling Raya and the Last Dragon derivative. |
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Sept 16, 2022 13:09:00 GMT -5
I only have time to fit in one movie this weekend, and I'm debating between this and Pearl. But I might be leaning more toward Pearl and saving this for later.
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 10, 2022 19:38:21 GMT -5
As a white guy, I'm obviously in no position to even attempt to dissect the reasoning behind the historical inaccuracies in The Woman King. So, instead, I'll just focus on its merits as an action film. And as such, this movie is mostly solid, if a little underwhelming. What's clear here is that director Gina Prince-Bythewood has a very strong instinct for staging and executing effective action sequences. When it comes to those scenes, this movie is at its best. And the cast all gives uniformly good performances, so there's that, too. Viola Davis, especially, continues to assert her overall clout and skill in that field, as she radiates power here. Buuuut, this movie is also filled with pretty cliched characters, two of whom share a connection that feels straight out of a soap opera. And that makes the movie kind of a frustrating experience at times, because the blueprint is here for a more compelling narrative, yet the film is slightly hindered by the fact that it falls back on stock characters and characterization, not to mention a love story involving one of the main characters that feels very basic. And yet at the same time, it's central themes like solidarity and sisterhood feel like valuable ones, so...this movie comes off as a pretty mixed bag. I can say that I admired and was entertained by the craft, the action scenes, the performances, etc., but the story left a bit to be desired. The Woman King functions fine as a historical epic, but it's also one that lives in the shadow of others like it.
**1/2 /****
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IanTheCool
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Post by IanTheCool on Oct 10, 2022 20:11:30 GMT -5
You're white???
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 10, 2022 21:45:02 GMT -5
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Oct 10, 2022 22:01:39 GMT -5
Wait, who all here is white? I want names.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Oct 12, 2022 18:07:17 GMT -5
Wait, who all here is white? I want names. is so white they cast him as Judge Reinhold’s son in Beverly Hills Cop 4. |
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Oct 12, 2022 18:12:32 GMT -5
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Oct 12, 2022 18:13:11 GMT -5
They have that in common too. |
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Oct 12, 2022 18:17:11 GMT -5
He's a man after my own heart.
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SnoBorderZero
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Post by SnoBorderZero on Oct 14, 2022 19:14:42 GMT -5
I feel the love.
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Feb 19, 2023 14:30:00 GMT -5
The Woman King(12/29/2022)
African history is unfortunately a topic that is beyond woefully under discussed in both cinema and in culture as a whole. The reasons for this are legion, but the fact that modern Africa has quite the death of films made above a certain budget level mixed with Hollywood disinterest have made movies like The Woman King something of a rare novelty. In some ways this works in The Woman King’s favor: this setting isn’t over exposed and it’s giving people a needed education. But in many ways this also gives The Woman King a bit of a burden I’m not sure it overcomes; there aren’t a bunch of other more serious minded movies about this subject matter so if this turns out to be Hollywood pabulum that can make it feel like it’s really doing a disservice to the subject matter. Unfortunately I would say this leans more towards “disservice to the subject matter.” The film is set in the Dahomey kingdom in West Africa circa 1832 and deals with the interaction between colonizers and local slavers in the area, which is a pretty complex and interesting story potentially, but the movie isn’t very interested in diving into that complexity. Rather, this seems to want to be the African version of Braveheart, which is not a good thing to aspire to because that movie is dumb and wildly over-rated to begin with. The one thing that Braveheart does have going for it though are large scale bloody battle scenes and this movie kind of lacks the bloodlust for that. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood is a talented filmmaker but it’s readily obvious that action scenes aren’t where her passions lie, in fact she seems to have regressed in that department since making The Old Guard, and what action that is here is rather bloodless and tame. It’s a movie that wants to be able to inspire kids but it’s about a time period that doesn’t really lend itself to that kind of treatment, I don’t think the movie really works.
**1/2 out of Five
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Feb 19, 2023 14:42:34 GMT -5
The director Gina Prince-Bythewood took out two pages in the Hollywood Reporter to basically say how it was bullshit and racist that the movie didn't receive any Oscar nominations. She brings up some points that I'm sure she feels are valid but unfortunately none of them can overcome the fact that the movie just isn't very good.
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Feb 20, 2023 4:30:18 GMT -5
I don’t think the movie really works. **1/2 out of Five
The director Gina Prince-Bythewood took out two pages in the Hollywood Reporter to basically say how it was bullshit and racist that the movie didn't receive any Oscar nominations. She brings up some points that I'm sure she feels are valid but unfortunately none of them can overcome the fact that the movie just isn't very good. This movie was forgotten 6 seconds after it came out. |
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IanTheCool
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Post by IanTheCool on Feb 20, 2023 10:10:20 GMT -5
Enough of this Braveheart slander!
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Aug 4, 2024 16:03:45 GMT -5
The Woman King (Gina Prince-Bythewood, 2022)- 7/10 Bro… |
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