In a way, that's all that The Birth of a Nation is about. And that's plenty. Slavery is, by definition, inhuman and awful and a stain on American and world history. I watch a movie like this, and the last thing I want to hear is how the Civil War was actually about states' rights or how slavery wasn't unique to the United States. I'm not looking at a way to explain it all. It just makes me angry because it all really happened. It's good to be reminded that if left unchecked, peoples' capacity for evil things is pretty high. However, it's also good to be reminded that there are men who will take a stand against a rotten system.
There's a lot about The Birth of a Nation that is familiar. There's only so much variation allowed in a slave narrative. It's the American South in the 1800s. There's black slaves and white slave owners.This is the definition of a black and white issue. The film follows Nat Turner (Nate Parker, who also directed and wrote the screenplay), a slave in Virginia who learned to read as a child and became a preacher. He's a very good preacher and excels at keeping other slaves compliant through his words. His owner (Armie Hammer) rents him out to other owners top keep their slaves compliant too. At these other plantations, he sees all kinds of horrors. Eventually, it becomes too much and he decides to revolt. It's all based on Nat Turner's actual rebellion, which is worth looking up if you have the time.
It's a tough movie to watch. Where other films play up the violence against the slaves in big ways, The Birth of a Nation is starker about it. Everything is casually done. Punishing a slave is treated no differently patching a wall or mending a fence. It's just another part of the day for the owners. At times, bodies are left on the side of the road, not as a message to others, but because no one care to clean it up. There's value in being reminded how slavery really worked rather than thinking of it as an abstract concept.
Nate Parker is strong as the lead. Nat is not always allowed to say what he wants. As a result, so much of the story is told through the look on his face or in his eyes. He doesn't speak much about a revolt until he's made the decision to actually do it. He doesn't have to. You can see him processing it all along, his mental walls getting broken down one by one, until fighting back is the only option. By the time the rebellion happens, it feels long overdue but you understand why it took so long to get there. Nat Turner is a reluctant leader. He's scared. He's intimidated. Most of all, he's not a violent person in nature. And that's just one facet of Parker's work. For a debut feature, his direction is impressive and his screenplay is solid.
This is by no means a perfect film. The rebellion itself is pretty underwhelming. From the moment the Nat decides to arrange the rebellion on, the story is going through the motions. No one seems convinced that it will make a difference, but not in a thematic way. I didn't read anything as "all we have left to do is fight, even if it's a losing battle". It was more like, "this is the part of the story we had to get to". I wanted a perspective on it. Either fill the slaves with hope and cruelly pull it away or let me know the whole time that I'm following dead men. The film lacked either. It essentially lost its point of view until Nat's final scene. Also, I was disappointed that it made Nat's motivations so personal toward the end. There's a difference between revolting because you've seen things that you can't morally allow any longer and revolting because suddenly your situation is as bad as you've seen it be for others.
The Birth of a Nation is a good film, not a great film. It's an angry movie that isn't concerned with making subtle points. It doesn't want to make people feel better. Anger is stream of consciousness though. It's reactive. It's saying "look at this" and letting it speak for itself. I'm not sure if I came away with any new thoughts or insights. It's underlining points that have been made before. That said, there's importance to seeing this that most movies don't have. People need to be reminded sometimes. I'm not sure how the film with settle with me long term. But, it's there if I too need to be reminded.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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