The Woman King opened to a respectable $19 million debut this past weekend and faced some Twitter fury over how the movie glorifies African slave traders.
In this case, the slave traders were members of the Dahomey Kingdown, a highly militarized and powerful western African state during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The movie is set in 1823, and the hook is based on fact. At this time, the kingdom had an all-female military. Then the movie goes sideways, portraying the Dahomey kingdom as anti-slavery liberators. Well, the historical truth is that this kingdom was almost constantly warring with other Africans and either enslaved their conquered enemies or sold them into slavery. The kingdom also engaged in “large-scale” human sacrifices.
Put bluntly; The Woman King is a lie in service to box office profits, entertainment, and this obnoxious and condescending trend of empowering black women.
Watch the trailer:
Over the weekend, and almost exclusively due to leftists, #BoycottWomanKing trended on the Twitterzz. I would summarize the backlash this way: The Woman King was written by two white women who glorified people who put their fellow Africans in chains.
Here’s a good example…
The rulers of Dahomey performed magic rituals against the other Black ppl they enslaved, by making them walk around "The Tree of Forgetfulness".This was supposed to erase their ancestral memories so their spirits would not return back to Dahomey to seek revenge
#BoycottWomanKing pic.twitter.com/xFnpNSqE7O— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) September 16, 2022
The controversy was enough that the film’s star, Viola Davis, responded to her critics this week:
[VARIETY]: #BoycottWomanKing popped up over the weekend with people who felt it doesn’t address the Dahomey Kingdom’s involvement in slavery. We don’t see that type of complaint when a Christopher Columbus movie is released that doesn’t cover cultural genocide – what do you have to say to those that feel it leaves out those parts of history?
Davis: First of all, I agree with Gina Prince-Bythewood’s saying is you’re not going to win an argument on Twitter. We entered the story where the kingdom was in flux, at a crossroads. They were looking to find some way to keep their civilization and kingdom alive. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that they were decimated. Most of the story is fictionalized. It has to be.
[Producer Julius] Tennon: We are now what we call “edu-tainment.” It’s history but we have to take license. We have to entertain people. If we just told a history lesson, which we very well could have, that would be a documentary. Unfortunately, people wouldn’t be in the theaters doing the same thing we saw this weekend. We didn’t want to shy away from the truth. The history is massive, and there are truths on that that are there. If people want to learn more, they can investigate more.
Let’s start with Variety’s ignorant question. Has this Variety liar seen Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise? First off, the controversy around that movie was fierce, and asked plenty of those questions. Secondly, even if you haven’t seen it, the movie’s title — Conquest of Paradise — is kind of a giveaway, no? But as someone who has seen the movie, let me assure the fake news addicts at Variety that this Columbus movie didn’t flinch away from “cultural genocide.”
Anyway, the answers from Davis and Tennon (who is also Davis’s husband) are perfect. They both acknowledge the truth and admit to the reality of movie-making.
Rather than this Variety idiot inventing an Earth 2 where — unlike our Earth — there has never been a controversy about Christopher Columbus movies, why not just point out that movies have been whitewashing history for — ohhhh….. — about a hundred years now?
In many ways, The Woman King feels like a big troll, as the Woke Gestapo’s way of saying: We have created a culture where historical white men will only be identified as slavers and colonialists, but haha, we’re not holding ourselves to that standard. So in your stupid face, Trumptards!
Nevertheless, boycotting a Hollywood movie for twisting history into something uplifting and entertaining is like yelling at the sky for being blue.
Anyone who gets their history from movies deserves to remain ignorant.
It’s a movie, morons.
Try picking up a book.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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