Review of The Birth of a Nation (2016) by Dawdlingpoet — 27 Nov 2021

This is a sobering watch, with some nice cinematography. The irony of the houses being white and the house owners being white, while the slaves have to (for the most part) take care of themselves, didn't pass me by. The music played is quite subtle, which I liked.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are many uses of strong language, including racially offensive terms, so be aware of that. I suppose it wouldn't be entirely authentic to the time its set in etc. if that weren't the case. I thought some of the dialogue was quite thought provoking, somewhat poignant, while what others said left a lot to be desired.

There is a fair amount of violence displayed (often bloody violence) including scenes of torture, so its worth being aware of that, hence me saying its a sobering watch. I thought Nate Parker gives a pretty stirring performance as Nat Turner. It has somewhat of a feel of '12 Years a Slave', I suppose but its not quite got the same 'epic' feel to it that the other film had, from what I remember.

The plot pace is a little slow and so this may frustrate some but its certainly an ok film overall. I'm not sure anyone can much enjoy the sort of film that focusses on the injustices of slavery and that shows clearly how uncaring and brutal slave owners were. I also noticed some of the dialogue was said in rather hushed tones, which I suppose had to be so, due to the context of the situations but I did struggle a bit to follow some of the dialogue. There are subtitles included in the Blu-Ray though, which help but this issue may frustrate some never the less.

Yes, I'd say this is worth a watch overall, if the subject matter interests you, although I honestly (obviously) can't comment on how accurate, or not, it is. There is one scene towards the end which is particularly haunting and having seen it once, its not the sort of film I'd want to see again.