The Birth of a Nation Summary & Review
The Birth of A Nation movie review
One of the most hyped films to come out of the Sundance Film Festival in the last few years is The Birth of a Nation. The movie sold for the highest amount any movie from the festival has ever sold for. As Academy Award nomination talk began, someone brought forward a forgotten court case against director Nate Parker and his co-writer. Since then, the movie has been surrounded in controversy, and has become a target among certain activist groups. Now that it’s finally out in theaters, is it really worth all the protesting?
The Birth of a Nation follows the true story of Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a plantation slave who is given the chance to learn to read, and soon becomes a preacher. When he gets a good view of slavery from the many homes he travels to, he is inspired by his faith to do something. He recruits the resident slaves from other plantations to launch a fight against their owners. The result would become known as one of the largest and bloodiest slave rebellions in American history.
I’m not one to say I love period dramas, but this movie is the exception. The Birth of a Nation is one of the most powerful biopic I have ever seen. Everything from the stellar screenplay to the unforgettable performances of the cast makes this movie a total masterpiece. I know a part of the controversy is that the movie invents certain motives for Turner. The fact is that almost all biopics are not 100% historically accurate. No one today was around in that era, so no one knows the whole story.
What I loved most about this movie is that it was overly long. Most biopics that take place in early America are around two and a-half hours. This ends up making the movie feel bogged down by an overload of historical facts. At two hours even, The Birth of a Nation is perfectly paced and doesn’t try to force an overload of history on us. This movie knows its story and tells it first and foremost.
The Birth of a Nation has becomes my new favorite movie of the year, surpassing Ghostbusters. When I sat down to think about it, Ghostbusters is an extremely fun movie, but The Birth of a Nation is the truer achievement in cinema. I really hope the Oscars overlook the controversy because, for once, I believe that this movie should receive the Best Picture award. It truly is the best film of 2016.
