The Birth of a Nation

Both broader and deeper than the relentless and monotonous “12 Years a Slave,” it’s one of the few important movies to hit cinemas this year.

When I say that Parker is a master manipulator, that’s meant as a compliment of the highest order. He gets us into this story and puts us unequivocally behind Nat.

The Birth of a Nation most definitely has its finger on the pulse of our times.

It’s a complicated movie about a complex man that courts controversy, both intentional and not. If that doesn’t make it a great movie, it makes it a necessary one, now more than ever.

Parts of The Birth of a Nation are bluntly effective and beautifully acted, though one of the drawbacks, ironically, is Parker's own performance. Even the rape victims of the screenplay have a hard time getting their fair share of the screen time; everything in the story, by design, keeps the focus and the anguished close-ups strictly on Parker.

What you will find is a film that toggles between impressive fury and a kind of made-for-TV blandness that does Nat Turner’s 1831 uprising — still controversial — no favors.

The director’s pedestrian tactics are most evident in his command, or lack thereof, over his cast. While Parker knows how to expertly play to the camera – he all but winks at the audience, so confident is he in his admittedly captivating lead performance – he abandons his fellow actors, allowing them to exploit their worst instincts: hammy accents, wild gesticulating, uneasy line readings.

The movie is a powerful narrative of the acne of hate on the face of U.S. History. The scares are deep and are clearly seen from a far today. This is quite evident in the negative comments written in this post about the movie, one can clearly see the ignorance associated in their response.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Mediocre film that had potential. Basically the directing and storytelling were just sub-par and left the film a bit slow and boring (I fell asleep at least once and had to finish watching it again.) A better director could have actually made this film into something Oscar worthy, but...that it is not. It has many shot selections that are out of a lifetime movie, and even worse...Nate Parker added in events that did NOT actually happen that portray his character in a more favorable light and then leaves OUT aspects that would make his character look "worse"...even though it **** truth. Seems like the conduct **** who is a rapist who discards the truth for the convenience of whatever it is he is seeking. Sub-par film, made by an even worse, and creepier human being. Overall, not very good, and mostly ruined potential.

It's such a painfully overrated movie. The acting is OK but annoyingly takes a brilliant piece of history and turns it into an awkward movie-going experience. It feels fake and it lacks heart.

Nat Parker doesn't want you too know something that is very important about his movie. Many of the people that were killed by Nat Turner and the Rebellion WERE INNOCENT WOMEN AND CHILDREN!!! He knows that if you knew this you wouldn't want to see this movie and that you would know that the main character was a mass murderer of the most horrific kind! He was not a hero of any kind, nor was he any better than the slave owners themselves, since he murdered so many women and children. Do not bother seeing this movie unless you want to see a complete work of fiction.