Movie Review—The Birth of a Nation

by Peter J. O'Connell

The Birth of a Nation. Released: Oct. 2016. Runtime: 120 mins. MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violent content, and some brief nudity.

D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, released in 1915, is a landmark in cinema history. Watching this three-hour-long epic, we can see many of the basic techniques of motion pictures being used for the first time. The film is also a landmark in American history. Its depiction of the Reconstruction period after the Civil War as one in which rapacious blacks threatened white womanhood fed into the racism of the early 20^th century and played a role in the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, which became a powerful force nationally in the 1920s. The film's racism was so intense that many of the roles of blacks were played by white actors in blackface.   

Now African-American filmmaker Nate Parker has directed and co-written a film with the same title as Griffith's. As Parker says: “I've reclaimed this title and repurposed it as a tool to challenge racism and white supremacy in America., to inspire a riotous disposition toward any and all injustice in this country (and abroad) and to promote the kind of honest confrontation that will galvanize our society toward healing and sustained systemic change.”

Parker seeks to achieve this ambitious goal through a portrayal of the life of Nat Turner, a slave who led a rebellion in Virginia in 1831. We first see Nat as a highly intelligent child whose seemingly innate ability to read is fostered by Elizabeth Turner (Penelope Ann Miller), wife of the owner of the plantation where Nat lives and where he plays with Elizabeth's son, Samuel. 

Time passes, and adult Nat (now played by Nate Parker himself) is working in the cotton fields. One day adult Samuel (now played by Armie Hammer) and Nat witness a slave auction. Nat persuades Samuel to buy Cherry (Aja Naomi King), who becomes Nat's wife.

Nat's knowledge of the Bible from his reading leads to his being allowed to preach to the slaves of the plantation, provided that he preaches the sections of the Bible that counsel slaves to obey their masters. Eventually, a minister (Mark Boone, Jr.) suggests that the financially constrained Samuel take Nat around to neighboring plantations to preach the gospel of submission for a fee that Samuel will collect. Samuel agrees.

In his travels around the area, Nat sees the many cruelties that slaves are routinely subjected to. Atrocity strikes home when Cherry is gang-raped by some white men. Nat becomes more and more defiant and begins to preach from the parts of the Bible that call for struggle against oppression. For this Samuel has Nat flogged.

Nat decides that the time has come for the slaves to strike back, and he organizes a bloody revolt in which a number of white women, children and men (including Samuel) are killed. The retaliation by whites is even bloodier than the violence perpetrated by the slaves. Yet Nat Turner's rebellion sends shock waves around the country and becomes an inspiration to later black efforts for liberation.

Parker's Birth accurately shows that most plantations were relatively small-scale operations rather than lavish estates a la Gone With the Wind. It also depicts well the complex relationships that existed between masters and slaves and among different generations and groupings of slaves. The severe production constraints that Parker operated under—a minuscule (by Hollywood standards) budget of $10 million and a shooting schedule of only 27 days—prevent his film from being an epic such as Griffith's film. But Parker makes the most of what he has.

As an actor, Parker's portrayal of Nat is always adequate, sometimes compelling. The supporting performances range from merely “generic” ones to fine ones. Does Parker fully achieve the goal stated earlier? Each viewer will have to decide that for himself or herself. But Parker deserves much credit for bringing a momentous, though often neglected, episode of American history to light.

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) Griffith's Birth featured the attempted rape of a white woman by a black man. Parker's Birth presents Nat Turner's rebellion as sparked by the rape of Turner's wife by white men. Yet according to “The Confessions of Nat Turner,” compiled by a white attorney in 1831, Turner stated that his revolt was inspired by religious visions. Nate Parker, lauded during the “Oscars so white” controversy earlier this year, has since come under attack because he was charged with rape in 1999. At trial, however, he was acquitted. (2) Burn! (1969), by Italian leftist director Gillo Pontecorvo, is a powerful, but unjustly neglected, epic film about a slave revolt in the Caribbean. It stars Marlon Brando, Evaristo Marquez and Renato Salvatori.