The Birth of a Nation is a 2016 American period drama film based on the story of Nat Turner, the enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia in 1831. The film is co-written, co-produced and directed by Nate Parker (in his directorial debut) and stars Parker as Nat Turner, with Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Penelope Ann Miller and Gabrielle Union in supporting roles. Parker also petitioned financiers to invest in the film, ultimately getting a $10 million production budget and started filming in May 2015 in Georgia.
The film premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2016. Fox Searchlight Pictures bought worldwide rights to the film in a $17.5 million deal, the largest deal at the film festival to date. At the end of the festival, it won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition and was highly praised for its directing, acting, soundtrack and cinematography. The film will be theatrically released in the United States on October 7, 2016 by Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Movie Details :
- Directed by : Nate Parker
- Produced by : Nate Parker, Kevin Turen, Jason Michael Berman, Aaron L. Gilbert, Preston L. Holmes
- Screenplay by : Nate Parker
- Story by : Jean McGianni Celestin, Nate Parker
- Starring : Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Penelope Ann Miller, Gabrielle Union
- Music by : Henry Jackman
- Cinematography : Elliot Davis
- Edited by : Steven Rosenblum
- Production companies : Bron Studios, Mandalay Pictures, Phantom Four, Tiny Giant Entertainment
- Distributed by : Fox Searchlight Pictures
Synopsis :
Nat Turner, as a child, is taught to read so he can study the Bible, and be a preacher to fellow slaves. When Turner’s master takes him across the country on a preaching tour to profit from his preaching, Turner begins to see the scope of slavery, and decides to become a different leader.
Trailer :
The Birth of a Nation Movie Review :
The Birth of a Nation (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By The Guardian
The film’s name, the timing of its premiere and the huge standing ovation it received mean this will be one of the festival’s most talked-about movies. But the film’s often ham-fisted composition will leave many turned off.
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Rating : 3/5
The Birth of a Nation (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By Variety
A biographical drama steeped equally in grace and horror, it builds to a brutal finale that will stir deep emotion and inevitable unease. But the film is perhaps even more accomplished as a theological provocation, one that grapples fearlessly with the intense spiritual convictions that drove Turner to do what he had previously considered unthinkable.
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The Birth of a Nation (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By The Hollywood Reporter
The film offers up more than enough in terms of intelligence, insight, historical research and religious nuance as to not at all be considered a missed opportunity.
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The Birth of a Nation (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By Screen International
The Birth Of A Nation features a large ensemble, and some of the bigger names in the cast, including Jackie Earle Haley as a vicious slave tracker, have to rely on well-established personas to compensate for underwritten roles. Even Aja Naomi King as Nat Turner’s wife Cherry isn’t given a lot of room to develop, leaving the character mostly on the sidelines while her husband takes action. But Hammer creates a strong impression as a slave owner who perhaps secretly detests the institution but is far too spineless to do anything about it.
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The Birth of a Nation (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By Hitfix
This film puts Nat Turner and his moral journey dead center, and it asks you to take an unflinching look at how an inhuman system broke the human beings trapped in it.
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The Birth of a Nation (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By Vulture
Although much of The Birth of a Nation seems bluntly calculated, there are moments when it’s worthy of its subject — when you understand the hosannas from festival audiences.
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The Birth of a Nation (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By The Verge
Birth Of A Nation was hailed as an Oscar front-runner for a number of reasons: because the story behind it initially seemed so triumphant. Because it hurts to watch, and that pain has gravitas. And because it’s telling the kind of story we need to see more often on screen, the kind of black-centric, racially charged, socially significant historical story that’s been missing from American film screens for too long. But it’s not enough to acknowledge that film is doing moviegoers a service in telling a story they may not find familiar. It also has to be acknowledged that it tells it in a wearyingly familiar, conventional way.
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The Birth of a Nation (2016) Hollywood Movie Review
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