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In The Woman King, a new Gina Prince-Bythewood-directed epic in Braveheart (1995) mode, reliable chameleon Viola Davis transforms into an indomitable warrior. She plays Nanisca, the head of the all-women army — the Agojie — that in real life protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey from roughly the 17th through 20th centuries. We first meet Nanisca not in repose but at her most alert: in battle, stealthily and ferociously mowing down with her trusty machete an encampment holding captive a group of kidnapped Dahomens. Plenty of Davis’ roles have given her the chance to verbally cut someone down a few sizes. Here, the task transmutes into the physical. Davis so immediately embodies Nanisca’s unflinching combat skills that, post-battle cry, we need no time adjusting to the fact this is Davis’ first time in action heroine form. She has the force of someone who’s filled the archetype regularly. Davis has said in interviews that she considers this her magnum opus performance. By the time The Woman King — wherein she digs into her emotional range, too — is over, you’ll likely find it hard to disagree with her. 

Written by Dana Stevens, The Woman King is set in a richly realized recreation of West Africa in 1823; it’s forgivably visually cheapened only once in a while by flashes of CGI simulating big crowds and imposing vistas. The film features an excess of subplots — the primary one of which follows Dahomey efforts to shirk the influence and demands of the neighboring, far more powerful Oyo empire, which collaborates in the Western slave trade that has, in turn, also financially benefitted the Dahomey kingdom. Nanisca, who is fictional, is morally opposed to continuing to reap the advantages of what amounts to a deal with the devil. The new young Dahomey king, Ghezo (John Boyega), respects Nanisca so much more than anyone else in the kingdom that he greets her suggestions that they try financially relying instead on palm oil or gold sales with an open ear. 

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