Not quite familiar with the story of Nat Turner, I found this film to be one of the most engaging and revealing visions of slavery-era America ever made. Flirting in turns with horror and with beauty, The Birth of a Nation captures the evils of slavery while providing a timely parallel for the horrors the black community still faces in America today. More importantly, it is yet another fine example of a recent surge of black film in mainstream cinema: movies made by black people about black people for black people. Of course, it's accessible to all of us, but it presents the rare tale of justice and empowerment specifically for the black man, and that alone deserves some applause right now.
The film concerns Nat Turner, the slave who led a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. It was one of -- if not the -- most violent (and, arguably, successful) uprising of any slave group in the South. The intriguing part is that Turner was literate and a preacher, depicted in the film as seeing divine visions, whose understanding of the Bible radically changed from one accepting and encouraging slavery to one of wrath and justice for his subjugated people. As such, he undermined the slaveowners' rhetorical claim on the Bible and was able to amass his soldiers into a force that murdered dozens before they were stopped and killed. After the insurrection had ended, white militia and mobs murdered hundreds of black people in retaliation, and state laws all over the South instituted prohibition of black education and black assembly, and required that white preacher be present at all religious services.
Nate Parker proves his acting mettle as Nat Turner, and more than once moved me to tears with his gutsy delivery. I could criticize his direction and writing, however: His film, formulaic and preachy, winds its unbalanced way to a climax that is anything but cathartic. The real joys of his film are in the smaller moments of the first two acts; by the time we reach the brutal third act, we know exactly what to expect, and it's nothing new. Parker does something interesting, too, in focusing so tightly to Nat Turner's figure; we see everything from Nat's perspective, which to my mind makes the film more a biography or character study than a universal story of empowerment and vengeance. We see horrors on screen, to be sure, but the story turns on the rape of Turner's wife (played by the amazing Aja Naomi King), an event we don't even see. Showing it might feel like exploitation, and frankly I'm good with showing less sexual violence on screen, but it's an intriguing directorial choice, and one that, again, focuses on the man's reaction to the event rather than the woman's experience of the event (consider, as counterpoint, The Accused's handling of the subject matter).
A rousing sense of conviction and a passion for black empowerment more than make up for Parker's directorial missteps here; whether if, as various scenes change their aesthetic, we view the film as biographical history, racial horror, action drama, or something else entirely, we are sure to leave the film changed, if only by the sheer urgency of the film's message. The Birth of a Nation is sure to provoke conversations about the morality of retaliatory violence and the religious motivations for bloodshed. It excellently provides examples of how the Bible can be used in defense of opposing ideologies, and opens the door wide for debate on biblical authority and rhetoric. Hopefully it will also spur empathetic conversations about the ongoing need for justice and equality in America.
IMDb: The Birth of a Nation
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