The Birth of a Nation is a hard movie for me to review. It’s a well-made film; that part is easy. Writing about how it made me feel is a more challenging task. I’ll lean on IMDb for its concise synopsis: Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher in the antebellum South, orchestrates an uprising. To that I’ll add that it’s based on a true story.
It’s based on a true story that I’ve never heard. (Please grant me some leeway here; I’m not a historian.) After witnessing the violent nature of this story, I wonder if there was a purpose in not including it in classes when I attended junior high and high school. Granted, that was many years ago, so perhaps it’s included in curriculum now (or I just don’t remember).
In an unfortunate age where black men seem to be gunned down by racist policemen on a regular basis, The Birth of a Nation alarms me. It reminds me that in some ways, we as a country have not changed in the last 185 years. Literal slavery no longer exists on our soil, but we can’t seem to shake the belief that some people are not equal to others.
In an age of technology where jobs continue to be automated, The Birth of a Nation disheartens me. It seems it’s always been a part of our history the notion that there’s an easier way to do anything so that we don’t have to do it ourselves. Picking cotton? Let’s abduct people from their home countries and pay them nothing to do it for us. Driving cars? We’re too lazy to do even that.
In a confounding age where a reality show millionaire can become a major political party’s candidate for President of the United States based largely on a large segment of our population that cheers his racist rants, The Birth of a Nation terrifies me. It causes me to take a hard look at the world we live in and I do not like what I see. It reminds me that I often keep my head in the sand so that I don’t have to see it.
Alarming, disheartening, terrifying… None of these are the most disturbing aspects of the movie. This is a movie about slavery and standing up for your own human rights. It should be uplifting, right? It’s not, because the way Nat Turner and other slaves stand up is with violence. Violence begets violence as the final image of the film reminds us. The thought that it must always come to violence is depressing.
Whew, the hard part is out of the way. Let’s talk about Nate Parker and how amazingly talented he is. Not only does he deliver an Oscar-worthy performance as Nat Turner, but he also wrote, produced and directed The Birth of a Nation. Aesthetically, it’s beautiful, with moments that transcend the narrative to become pure art. I say moments, because they’re never so frequent that they become pretentious.
Due to the subject matter, the movie is sometimes painful to watch. Even those scenes are sparing, though, so their impact is greater. The thing that’s different here than in most movies about slavery is that the events are seen almost entirely from the point of view of the slaves. We’re left to speculate about the motives of the slave owners, particularly Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer).
It’s not that there’s any motivation making slavery acceptable. Perhaps that’s its point. I would not call The Birth of a Nation “entertainment.” On one hand I see it as a call to action, though I hope no one sees it as a violent call to action. On the other, I see it as yet another wake-up call. If it stirs similar feelings in others, perhaps it will finally mark a turning point. After nearly 200 years, it’s about time.
