Nat Turner, preacher turned rebel
In the era of Black Lives Matter, an epic movie about Nat Turner, the renegade slave-preacher who led a bloody revolt in 1831 Virginia, couldn’t be timelier or more provocative. Yet writer, director and star Nate Parker blows the opportunity with his self-indulgent, one-dimensional, cliché-ridden biopic, The Birth of a Nation.
For all the film’s flaws, its depiction of the monstrous crimes of slavery in the antebellum South can’t help but pack a punch. But when it comes to the uprising, Parker distorts history, concealing the inconvenient truth that most of its victims were women and children. Which makes his attempts to present Turner as a mix of heroic avenger and saintly martyr – complete with an angelic vision when he goes to the gallows – ring somewhat hollow. A more honestly nuanced portrait would have been more powerful, and much more effective.
Certificate 15. Runtime 120 mins. Director Nate Parker
The Birth of a Nation is available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Download from Twentieth Century Fox.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i18z1EQCoyg
