This week saw the release of the trailer for Gina Prince-Bythewood‘s “The Woman King.” I wasn’t going to write anything about it until I read people actually talking Oscar buzz for the Viola Davis-starring epic.
It’s not like Sony has that much faith in the film. The release date for it is September 16th, which is a semi dumping ground before the contenders get unleashed from October to December. Expect a TIFF berth for this one.
“The Woman King” is basically a gung-ho depiction of black tribeswomen kicking the asses of evil white men. It’s based on the true story of the Dahomey women, a tribe who fought to PROTECT their own slave trade. I bet the film won’t tackle that.
Fact of the matter is that the Dahomey were a notorious slave kingdom, and NOT Pan-African freedom fighters such as how the film seems to be depicting them. They enslaved and murdered hundreds of thousands.
The film’s trailer alone is historically illiterate. It’s also blatantly trying to adhere to film twitter by presenting black women violently driving off white men as the ultimate form of entertainment. It’s the only logical endpoint for Hollywood, and this kind of filmmaking is starting to feel like strenuous propaganda.