On The Birth of a Nation 2016

 

Before I tell everyone how I feel about this new movie coming out in October, I think it’s prudent to tell you how I feel about the original The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith.  I wrote a review last year about one of the most controversial movies ever made.  Released in 1915, D.W. Griffith’s film was met with some pretty justified hostility on the part of the African-American people.  The NAACP strongly condemned the film as racist in its overtones, and the organization STILL considers the film to be racist.  The truth of the matter, is that the NAACP isn’t particularly wrong.  However, I judged the film on its technical achievements and it’s ability to tell a coherent story, however controversial.  I refused to give the film a score, not necessarily because of the content, but because of how much power the film still has.  It came out in a time when racial tensions were still sky high.  Many film historians will tell you that the film is important.  It’s important because not just because of its historical inaccuracy, but as I said, it was powerful.  It had fantastic acting with really great cinematography, and it was very well written and directed.  Some people consider D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation one of the greatest American films ever made.  I agree to a certain extent, however, the film has been seen as propaganda for the Ku Klux Klan.  It’s an interesting movie that’s worth watching at least once.  It’s currently in the public domain, so you can see it for free.  You can read my review of the original film here.

The 2016 version of The Birth of a Nation tells the true story of Nat Turner, a black preacher, who led a rebellion of slaves in 1831.  It’s not exactly one of the most well-known stories to come out of that era, but it is particularly significant for civil rights.  While I am certainly curious about the movie, and am willing to see if it’s any good or not, I can’t help but wonder what possessed director Nate Parker to slap D.W. Griffith’s film’s name on to his own.  In my opinion, that smacks of pretentiousness and capitalizing on the name of a movie that’s over a century old.  I had an interesting, but brief discussion with a friend of mine on a forum about it.  I’m not opposed to people making movies about slavery, whether it’s modern-day or Civil War-era.  In fact, I approve of the topic.  It’s a discussion that’s been happening and needs to continue to happen.  My problem with Nate Parker’s film, is that the movie looks really, really preachy.  It also looks like it approaches the issue from one side of the discussion.  Now, somebody might say, “HOW COULD THERE BE TWO SIDES OF THE ISSUE?!  IT’S SLAVERY!”  The answer is this:  Slavery was common in the South during most of the 19th century.  Most of the people in that part of the country didn’t see slavery as an evil.  It was part of the economy.  I’m not trying to justify it, because slavery is evil in and of itself, but when you take on a subject like that, you have to be willing to see things from all sides, not just one, otherwise you’re not going to see the whole picture.  That’s where I have a problem with the new Nation.  It appears to be approaching the issue from one side, but I won’t know for sure until I see it.

There’s another issue surrounding the film, but this is more of a legal issue, but it’s still worth mentioning.  In 1999, Nate Parker was accused of raping an 18-year old college student.  While he was acquitted in 2001, details surrounding the case have come back to haunt the man and potentially overshadow the new Birth of a Nation.  Something like that is definitely going to be on the minds of many people who are planning to see the movie.  Accusations of rape aren’t going to go away, even if you’ve been acquitted of the crime.  How it’s going to affect the release of Parker’s movie is something that only time will tell, but it will definitely have a negative impact.

As with any movie, I will attempt to reserve judgment until I have seen the final product, but I will admit that there are issues here that I really can’t ignore.  I will review the film as soon as it gets released, so stay tuned for that.

 

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