An interview with a couple of the culprits: Vanity Fair interviews re: The Woman King
If you are slow on the uptake, this is about (B)lack (W)omen. Just so you know. The promo materials for the film speak of "inspired by" and "based on" a true story. Well, the Dahomey Amazons were real. But then again, space is a real place to which men have boldly gone. That doesn't qualify Star Trek as an historical epic.
I am violating my own rule here. Sorry about that. A primary purpose in beginning the movie ping list was to nudge our discussions away from pure negativism and to encourage some sharing of the GOOD stuff that the film industry does manage to turn out. A secondary purpose, however, is to step our game in the culture wars. Highlighting good movies and shows is part of that. But so is criticizing the bad ones -- effectively criticizing, not just ranting. If the trailer is a fair indication, The Woman King is deep in "jump the shark" territory. Ridicule is the appropriate response. But swinging at air usually misses the target. We should know what we're talking about. I don't intend to pay to watch this movie, but if it gets any traction at all, I probably will watch it as an exercise in opposition research, if and when I can get it for free. In the meantime, I'll read reviews.
Point of emphasis: The Woman King hasn't been released. It will premier at TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival) in September and will stream shortly thereafter. The professional critics haven't weighed in yet, at least that I've seen. I imagine some have seen private screenings but are under an embargo. Most probably haven't seen it yet.
The ruckus now is over the concept, pre-release interviews, and trailers. For what it's worth, the movie is getting slammed on Letterboxd and Reddit. Here and there, a few leftist morons speak up to say that Hollywood shouldn't be held to standards of historical accuracy. If leftists want to treat the Dahomey slave kingdom as Wakanda level fantasy wish fulfillment, they can. But I suspect the serious critics won't sign off so easily.
By the way, the film industry absolutely loves movies about slavery as long the slaves aren't (B)lack and the slaveowners aren't English or American southerners. In fact, there is a great love affair with slavers on just about every streaming platform right now. I refer, of course, to the Vikings, who were many things, including world-class slavers and slave traders. The film industry has no problem with that. Nor does it have a problem with viewing slavery in historical and cultural context when the setting is the Muslim world, or India, or China. That's all ok, just so long as there's not a confederate flag to be seen. Treating Dahomey slave catchers and slave merchants as sympathetic figures fits right in.
That said, if this film sees the light of day, Hollywood libs can STFU about Gone with the Wind.
A caution: the trailer may be misleading. Trailers often are. Note that the trailer shows Europeans in 18th century garb and a flotilla of 18th century European ships offshore, and then, much later, Europeans in perhaps late 19th century attire being assassinated by the Amazons. (This happened in the late endgame against the French.) The film also shows King Ghezo, played by John Boyega, who died in 1859. The battle scenes are mostly black on black, presumably depicting inter-tribal warfare. (Dahomey made its living via annual military campaigns to sweep up slaves from surrounding tribes; you might almost think they were Muslims, but they weren't. They had a native religion that was big on mass human sacrifice, which may or may not make it into the movie.) There are a couple of hundred years of very colorful history and a turbulent endgame compressed into the trailer.
My guess is that the movie will try to thread the needle on this "problematic" history, treating native customs with respect, mentioning a few details in passing, but magnifying the misdeeds of Dahomey's customers (European slave traders) to the nth degree. The British finally forced a treaty on Ghezo in 1852 to end the slave trade. Ghezo reneged on the agreement and resumed slave raiding just before his death (which may or may not have been an assassination.) Dahomey then blundered into slave raiding wars with neighboring French protectorates, and the French put a speedy end to that. The Dahomey Amazons were basically massacred when they ran into regular French troops.
The Dahomey Amazons could make a spectacular movie if it were done honestly. Their origins are a bit uncertain, but they eventually formed the King's bodyguard. They were recruited at a young age. They were highly professional (by African standards). They were well trained, disciplined, and highly indoctrinated. They became part of the regular Dahomey army fairly late, mainly because Dahomey's constant slave raiding wars had killed so many of the young men. By the 1840's, a third of Dahomey's army might have been female. By all reports, they were quite formidable in tribal wars, partly because of their discipline and training and partly because Dahomey traded slaves for modern weaponry and ammunition as well as luxury products, so the Dahomeys had a firepower edge against their upcountry neighbors.
This story could make a fantastic movie. Or it could be a clown show. The trailer suggests the latter, but we need to pay attention to the details when the movie is released.
A question for discussion: what in your opinion are the best movies about Africa during the Age of Imperialism? Since I get to go first, I get the low hanging fruit.
Zulu is a great movie. It treats the Zulus with great respect. But since Hollywood loves remakes, Zulu could certainly be revisited with a treatment more oriented to the Zulu perspective -- and, while we're at it, the perspective of the Boers and non-Zulu African tribes, who knew perfectly well that the Zulus would exterminate them if they got the chance. A lot of Africans died at Isandlwana fighting for the British.
I respect more than like Khartoum. The 1966 movie was designed around a personal contest between Charlton Heston (Chinese Gordon) and Laurence Olivier (in dark makeup, horrors!!!) as the Mahdi. If I did a remake, I'd fill in the backstory. The British had turned Egypt into a nominally independent client state, primarily in order to control the Suez Canal. Under British pressure, Egypt halted the slave trade down the Nile, which had been the primary sport and profit center for the Muslim tribes upriver since antiquity. A lot of sheiks were suddenly on Food Stamps. A Mahdi promptly appeared, preaching jihad against the infidel. The whole episode was, in truth, an incident in the suppression of the slave trade. That would be a useful perspective for a contemporary movie to tackle.
Other suggestions? The Ashanti stung the British a couple of times, enough for the British to recognize them as one of the warrior peoples of the Empire. And Ethiopia is full of potential legitimate dramatic potential. But I don't have enough detailed knowledge to suggest anything specific.
P.S. I do have some more suggestions for good/excellent non-woke movies to pass along, but I'll do that in a separate ping in the next week or so, since it doesn't really fit here. But as always, if you've seen a good movie or show recently that you would like to recommend to your fellow freepers, don't be shy. Not everything is woke. We should be supporting the good stuff as well as ranting about the bad.
Movie ping. Enjoy.
Ya know, the Brits handled those Amazons very roughly with fire and bayonet. I doubt the movie will show that...
It’s so stupid now
ENSLAVED RATHER THAN SLAVE
the woke haters of western civilization always play word games
NEITHER RACISM NOR CAUCASIAN ENSLAVEMENT OF THE SOME OF THE NEGROID RACE IS THE ORIGINAL SIN OF HUMANITY SO MANY LEFT OR RIGHT WISH IT WAS
I have better ways to spend my time. Like watching the Grit Channel. Sure, they have a lot of commercials for trip-and-slip lawyers but I enjoy the scenery. And it is free since I cut the cable.
Dahomey...isn’t that near Wakanda, ancestral home of the Dindu Nuffin tribe?
So we can sue the hell out of the movie producers for hurting our feelings like Alex Jones got sued? Or does getting sued into oblivion for saying something offensive only apply to Alex, who’s been a target ever since the shrew Hillary started targeting him and big tech kicked him off their platforms?
So sick and tired of what these clueless perverts, freaks, prostitutes, etc have tobthink or say about anything
Dahomey don’t ya know me?
Its idiotic.
A woman cannot be a king.
Juxt like a man cannot be a queen.
I cut the Cable and watch DVD’S only,1200 at last count.
‘Cold Mountain’
‘Saving Private Ryan’
And
‘Idiocracy’ with ‘Seinfeld’
Are my Faves.
At a buck or two each I have my Sanity.
.
I’ll keep an eye out for
‘AMAZONS!’
Thanks for the ping.
5.56mm
Kingdom of Dahomey was major supplier of slaves for the slave trade. Traded the slaves for ‘stuff”.
But, that’s OK, because they were Black.
It were the French who finally conquered the kingdom in the name of ending slavery.
See even Wiki here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahomey
A remake of Zulu? Not mentioned in the article is the 1979 prequel meant to at least address the prowess of the Zulus and showcase their win against the British in the larger battle of Isandlwana: Zulu Dawn.
An excellent film dealing with African history is SHAKA ZULU, adapted from the book of the same name by E.A.RITTER (the book is better but the film is very good). I think the film was originally a TV mini-series. Very good, very high production values.
Then there’s any version of THE FOUR FEATHERS. Some spectacular battle scenes.
These are both PRE-WOKE films, so there are no axes being ground.
That’s typical of them. The woke actually support slavery.
Any time I hear the word “Dahomey” it is usually in the phrase “Dahomey slave trade”.