In the case of examples of iconic cinematic battle scenes, they don’t come a lot greater and higher than these of 1995’s William Wallace drama Braveheart (assume the Battle of Falkirk, with its flaming arrows and ferocious sword-fighting) or Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning Gladiator (assume the preliminary battle of the Romans towards the Germanic tribes, all clashing shields and rushing horses). The joys of seeing two rival armies sprinting in direction of one another throughout a battlefield is one we’ve seen time and time once more on the massive display screen.
With new historic epic The Girl King, director Gina Prince-Bythewood is bringing us a type of battle we’ve not often (if ever) seen earlier than, fought completely by the dark-skinned Black ladies that made up the Agojie, the real-life West African all-female navy drive – and classics like Gladiator and Braveheart are precisely the place she’s drawing inspiration from. “It felt like our Braveheart,” Prince-Bythewood says. “Braveheart is certainly one of my favorite films. However we don’t get to see ourselves like that.” However that’s about to alter.
Set in 1823, the movie brings to gentle the Agojie’s unimaginable story, and the way they defended the West African kingdom of Dahomey from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, with Viola Davis starring as chief Common Nanisca. As you’d anticipate – and as seen within the highly effective trailer just lately launched – there may be loads of motion to look ahead to, together with one huge battle between the Dahomey and Oyo Empires, shot over 11 days in South Africa. “I simply considered all these nice battles in Braveheart or Gladiator,” Prince-Bythewood remembers. “And now we get to do ours. On paper, it’s a ten-page sequence. We had 1000’s of extras closing with one another in an epic David versus Goliath battle that’s certainly one of my favorite sequences within the movie.”
Such an intense shoot takes it toll, as defined by star Lashana Lynch, who performs fearsome Agojie lieutenant Izogie. “Although I’ve finished stunts earlier than, I’ve by no means had the prospect to do my very own stunts utterly,” Lynch says. “From begin to end, I didn’t need my stunt double to have one breath. We lifted one another up on days after we fairly actually needed to vomit, however knew we weren’t allowed to. No person needed to let the facet down.” Judging by the unique picture above of Lynch in motion as Izogie, she did a reasonably good job with these stunts. We actually wouldn’t fancy our possibilities in a struggle…
Learn Empire’s full The Girl King characteristic within the upcoming Home Of The Dragon concern – on sale Thursday 4 August and out there to pre-order on-line right here. The Girl King involves UK cinemas from 4 October.
