This is a movie Adaptation of Wole Soyinka’s book – Death and the King’s Horseman. The king is dead, and tradition dictates that the Elesin Oba must follow his ruler into the afterlife. This movie tells the story of a Yoruba chief (Elesin Oba) on the day he is supposed to commit ritual suicide.
I took the time to read the book before writing this review so as to ensure that I was coming from an informed perspective. After reading the book, I deleted my initial review and started again. I did not hate the movie but I did not like it either. I was not disappointed, I was not angry, I just thought it was not a good use of my time.
Let’s talk about the positives. One of the qualities of a good movie adaptation is it’s ability to stay true to the actual book and in this case, I must say that Elesin Oba honours the source material. The sequence of events, the characters, the dialogues, plot progression and the eventual conclusion reflects the book. Anyone who has read the book would easily see this.
I liked the camera quality, it was really sharp and clean. I liked the soundtrack.
However, for a movie adaptation to be considered good, it needs to do more than a copy and paste of the book. A good adaptation should have the ability to bring the story to a larger audience, it should be able to translate the story such that it can be enjoyed by people who have not read the book and people who will never read the book.
Elesin Oba unfortunately alienates people who have not read the book.
The storytelling is not compelling enough to draw in casual viewers seeking nothing more than a satisfying night of Netflix and chill. The movie was quite boring. No layers, no dramatic depth, the screenplay had nothing new or insightful to say about the subjects and the events that occurred.
Acting and casting did not work for me. The cast tried but they did not become one with their characters. Odunlade Adekola is an amazing actor on a normal day but I felt like he could have done more with better script and directing.
Many may argue with me on this but I must say that while it was refreshing to see Shaffy Bello play a very different character, I don’t think she was the perfect person for the role. She was unable to convincingly deliver the role of a local Oyo Iyaloja in the 90s. The way she spoke was very fierce but still, everything was just too bougie.
Meanwhile, Omowumi Dada did not say anything in this movie, and Joke Silva was a waka pass. Madam Taiwo Ajai-Lycett was also a waka pass but for some reason, they thought it was okay to give her an outfit that was too revealing (I cringed; nobody asked for that and there was absolutely no reason for me to see that). Why was that necessary? This woman is matriarch material for Godsake!
Moving on, the very first scene in this movie was very distasteful. Please note that while Elesin Oba liked women and spoke about being surrounded by them, there was no scene where it actually happened in the book. Ebony Life added this by themselves. It is sad that the only time they took initiative in this movie was to introduce nudity that was unwarranted, I don’t know what is going on with Nollywood. Meanwhile, who were those women? How about Elesin’s wives and other children?
The movie setting, makeup, and costume did not work! Their movie set looked like a set, it did not look real. It did not scream original or authentic, the set pieces were very unimpressive, even their lanterns looked too new🤦🏽♀️
I did not see those tiny details that would speak to the historical period the movie was set in, they just covered the entire place with adire like it was a school drama or stage play. We did not get to experience the community because 70% of the movie took place in one place, we could only see tall palm trees everywhere. What happened to the houses?
Elesin Oba’s wedding ceremony happened in the market, they prepared the bride in that same place, he consummated the marriage in the same place, he was arrested in the same place. This might have worked in the book but it made no sense in the movie. I did not appreciate the white master’s residence either, it looked too modern.
Why was Iyaloja wearing foundation and lipstick? Olounde’s suit, tie and haircut (with the fade) looked too modern. He looked like a Yoruba guy in 2022, wearing a trendy suit rather than someone from the 1940s. Elesin had white beards to show his old age but they did not age his skin/body and his fingers, we could easily tell that he was a young man with fake white beards. The tiny details matter.
The language was another issue; the accents did not match, the actors went out of character so many times by speaking with different accents at different times. I don’t get how the white man understood the Yoruba that Elesin Oba and Iyaloja spoke without an interpreter, I don’t know why Joseph (the houseboy) was sounding like an Igbo man. Too many inconsistencies in the language department.
For something as serious as the death of Elesin Oba, one would have expected to see the spiritual elements of the Yoruba culture, the ritual should have probably taken place somewhere sacred, these things would have added depth to the movie. Instead, they all surrounded a palm tree with burning fire in the middle like ‘Kegites’. As he mimicked a trance, i was just wondering, what is going on? What am I watching?
How did Olounde die? Did he use a charm or he stabbed himself? There were local dignitaries at the white man’s party, were they unaware of the significance of that day and the implications for their dead king? Why were they not involved in the ritual? Was the whole thing just for commoners? Where were the other chiefs? What was the point of the whole movie? Why were they angry with Elesin? There was no ticking clock, there was no cut off time, he just had to die that night. He was greedy and he loved women to a fault but can we really blame him for wanting to enjoy his last minutes to the fullest? I did not get the faux outrage.
Overall, some people will appreciate this movie but so many people will not. I am ‘so many people’ and ‘so many people’ is me because I did not enjoy it. It manages to convert the pages of Wole Soyinka’s book to images and colours but as far as movies go, Elesin Oba does not offer much in terms of entertainment, it is devoid of chills, thrills and excitement, it is forgettable and underwhelming.
Our rating: 4/10
Have you seen the movie? Thoughts?
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