Four stars. Rated R, for violence, cruelty, rape and brief nudity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 10.7.16
It’s telling — likely for all the
wrong reasons — that the Nat Turner slave rebellion hadn’t yet been dramatized
in an American film.
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| Having viewed a solar eclipse as a sign — of a black man's hand reaching to obscure the sun — Nat Turnet (Nate Parker, foreground) gathers an increasingly large band of equally enraged slaves, in order to begin a movement that he hopes will gather strength and build, from county to city to state. |
Aside from earning a chapter in
the 1977 TV miniseries Roots — which
got a few key details wrong — the event has gone unacknowledged by mainstream
visual media.
Until now.
Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation was the darling of
this year’s Sundance Film Festival, taking both the Audience Award and the
Grand Jury Prize; without doubt, its arrival is timely. But tapping into the
current combustible zeitgeist is ephemeral; relying on that sort of serendipity
has consigned many films (and books, and plays) into the basement of forgotten
relics.
The question is whether Parker
has made a truly good film: an
honorable, balanced and historically truthful document that will stand the test
of time, and resonate with future viewers. On balance, the answer is yes: This
shattering drama falls somewhat short of the bar set by 2013’s 12 Years a Slave, but it’s worthy
competition. Thanks to these and other recent entries such as Selma and Fruitville Station, we’re experiencing an alternate — and equally valid
— depiction of events which, in some cases, have remained shamefully overlooked.
ALL drama is compelling, particularly
when experienced from differing viewpoints. Variety — as ever — is the spice of
life.
Granted, Parker’s Birth of a Nation occasionally is guilty
of grandiloquent excess. (The angel imagery is a particular overreach, as is
his tendency toward unnecessary close-ups.) The indiscriminate butchery
fomented by Turner is glossed over; no matter how justified the rage, it’s
difficult to condone the slaughter of children (a detail Parker simply disregards).
