A flawed masterpiece, writer-director-star Nate Parker’s THE BIRTH OF A NATION is based on the true tale of Nat Turner, a bible-thumping, visionary slave who led a bloody uprising in Virginia in 1831. As a child, Nat was bound for more than picking cotton. With the encouragement of his owner’s nurturing wife (Penelope Ann Miller), Nat studied the Bible, which leads to him growing up (played by Parker) as one of the few educated slaves on the struggling plantation run by Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer). Samuel rents Nat out to other plantation owners to preach, earning a name as someone who can keep slaves mollified despite their abuse. Nat crosses a line by baptizing a white man which leads to a whipping and the epiphany that he can no longer stand by while blacks are mistreated. He and a band of fellow slaves ambush and murder over 50 white folks – not just slaveholders but also their wives and families. Though they were eventually killed or captured, herds of white men took unholy retribution by roaming the land lynching blacks left and right, some 200 in all. Slavery would continue for several decades after Turner’s revolt, but slaveholders could never again be certain their ‘property’ would not someday turn on them. It’s a shocking story, one I’m surprised has never been tackled before, and so impressive the feats of directing, writing, cinematography, and historical research that conspire to bring us THE BIRTH OF A NATION that the film’s weaknesses are that much more frustrating.
The film’s biggest flaw is that Nate Parker’s performance as Turner is not up to the material. Nat Turner is a such a complex and mythic character that it’s a shame Parker didn’t cast someone with stronger acting chops. Nat Turner needs to be the slow burn of a lit fuse, which would make the carnage more natural. Instead Parker plays him as a passionate preacher (there is a lot of scripture in this film), but with emotions always at the same level – humble and benign, which makes the introduction of bloody axe-murders and decapitations a bit jarring. It would have helped for contrast if someone other than the bland Armie Hammer had been cast as Samuel Turner (think Warren Oates in DRUM – now that was a colorful mastah!). Aja Naomi King as Nat’s wife Cherry doesn’t make much of an impression while the scene stealer in THE BIRTH OF A NATION is Jackie Earl Haley as slave hunter Raymond Cobb. He’s hardly a shaded villain, but Haley hits the right hateful notes and I wish his role had been bigger.
Where Nate Parker really shines is in his ambitious, swing-for-the-fences direction of THE BIRTH OF A NATION. One long shot that just takes your breath away begins with the close-up of a butterfly, then slowly pulls back to reveal unspeakable horror. The film’s final image makes you want to stand up in your seat and cheer. A young boy quickly morphs ahead several decades and what he’s doing and represents ends the film on the highest of high notes. It’s an astonishing debut. Parker loads his film with heavy-handed symbolism, religious dreams, and Christ imagery, all driven by Henry Jackman’s appropriately grandiose score, bold moves that work in terms of mythologizing Turner. It’s too bad that THE BIRTH OF A NATION isn’t more consistent in its potency. The BRAVEHEART-inspired battle sequence is lackluster and not as cathartic as it should be and seems to end just as it begins. Despite some weaknesses, I highly recommend THE BIRTH OF A NATION. Whether you think Nat Turner a hero, a religious fanatic, a villain, or all of the above, his story is an important one and Nate Parker tells it brilliantly.
4 1/2 of 5 Stars
