Review of The Birth of a Nation (2016) by James R — 25 Sep 2016

First off this movie is not a reboot to Birth of a Nation (1915) it uses the same title in a somewhat ironic way. The film is based on the true story of Nat Turner (played by director and writer Nate Parker).

Nat is a slave and growing up was taught to read by the lady of the plantation he grew up on. Many years later after doing years of back breaking labor his master Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer) is persuaded by Reverend Walthall (Mark Boone Junior) to use Nat to persuade other restless slaves on other plantations to not rise against their masters and to be peaceful and allow the atrocities of slavery to continue.

Samuel is reluctant at first he has a almost somewhat strong connection with Nat (since they grew up as boys yet he technically "owns" him, so what a friendship that is), but since the death of his own father Samuel decides to use Nat and make extra money to help his struggling plantation.

While traveling plantation to plantation Nat sees the brutality that his fellow brothers and sisters are experiencing ultimately leading him to a revolution of his own. There's a big controversy with this film involving the director, but I came in not thinking about it and instead focusing on the movie as an artistic representation.

The director BS is not too cool and if you're really worried about it google it. The film is shot beautifully and well written. I will say the last 20 minutes do get slightly preachy. It puts a lot of blame on people and almost kind of instructs the slaves to kill all whites when we know this wasn't exactly every single white persons fault back in the day.

Overall, it's well done has some fantastic acting and I highly recommend giving this one a look. I would say it's close to 12 Years a Slave (2013) by which I mean its beautiful and absolutely great, but so horrific it may be a film you can only watch once!