Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

eddie_baggins It's quite strange to fathom at the time of writing, that many months on from the initial hype of The Birth of a Nation's Sundance appearance, where now controversial actor/director Nate Parker found his film to be an early year Oscar contender, that this film was ever talked about seriously as a film worthy of taking home golden statues and becoming a box office hit and after a lacking awards season and a box office run that barely saw the film make back its marketing costs, it seems as though The Birth of a Nation noise was just that and nothing more.It's hard to pinpoint just how much of an effect Parker's past misdemeanours or cloudy background had on Birth of a Nation's ability to transform the Sundance hype (where it was sold for a record amount of money to its distributor Fox Searchlight) into anything substantial and its likely it did play a large part in hampering its potential as a film audiences flocked to but at the end of the day it's also likely that those initial vocal supporters of the film realised that this Parker passion project in which he directs, writes, stars in and produces just isn't that accomplished of a film.The true story at the heart of Nation, that of slave preacher turned rebellion leader Nathanial Turner is a worthily famous one and while Parker and his co-writer Jean McGianni Celestin have taken certain liberties with the story for cinematic purposes, Nation just never gets us totally committed to the goings on in the narrative from Turner's romance with fellow slave Cherry, his commitment to God and the Bible or his eventual rebellion, they all feel like components of the film we should feel more for and while there's horrific scenes playing out before us (Parker should be commended for showing the true atrocities of the time and not shying away from them) that certainly aren't for the faint of heart, Nation's inability to connect us emotionally is a failing that can't be overcome.Much of this blame must be placed at the feet of Parker who has taken years to get this story to the big screen, his direction lacks polish with some uneasy surreal dream sequences and visions in particular shoddily done, his acting a little too forced and script work lacking in polish and had he perhaps handed over more control to another it may've allowed him time to nail the core of this story that feels half-baked, a college film masquerading as a Hollywood quality drama.Final Say – An important story to be told, a film with some strong individual moments and one that in the face of recent Hollywood controversies surrounding lack of diversity and colour representation a timely story too boot, Birth of Nation should never have been spoken about in the same sentence as Academy Awards and while this long gestating Parker project showcases certain abilities for the budding filmmaker/actor, there's still a long road for him to take before he makes a truly awards worthy film and a road likely that not remains blocked for him forever due to a past that will shadow him in Hollywood for the remains of his career.2 ½ uncomfortable sermons out of 5

jhdw Had he just been humble and not done any interviews in the midst of the young lady committing suicide as a result of years of trauma from her ordeal that involved him and another roommate....he might have had an Oscar nomination. Instead, he chose not to listen to Oprah and did press. He came off arrogant, insensitive and bragged about his acquittal. He should have had Gabrielle Union, Aja Naomi King plenty of others to promote the movie but he was too busy feeling himself.I just feel sorry for the young lady that committed suicide. College campus rape cases are met with so much bias and they make the victim out to be the villain.I also feel sorry for the actors who were robbed of a unique opportunity to have their craft appreciated in this movie.Birth of a Nation was an opportunity to showcase a moment in this nation's history and more importantly Black history. I'm disappointed it didn't do better at the box office. But thanks to Mr. Parker's ego...well at least it broke even...kinda

Robert J. Maxwell Nate Parker, who also directed, is Nat Turner, a slave in pre-Civil-War Virginia. As a boy, he catches the eye of Penelope Ann Miller, mistress of the big house and wife of Sam Turner, a relatively easy going plantation owner. Miller teaches him to read between cotton-picking chores and he grows up to be a charismatic preacher, inspiring blacks and whites alike. The master buys a pretty young slave, Aja Naomi King, and she and Nat fall in love and are married.However, business is business, slaves are chattel, and King is sold to another family, a painful experience for the spouses. As Nat grows and gets around as a popular preacher, he witnesses the horrible indignities imposed on slaves perceived as truculent. Really. One man is shackled against a wall and has his front teeth knocked out with a hammer and chisel in order to force feed him.Nat is gradually turned against slavery, shows signs of "uppitiness" and is whipped, while the others put candles on their doorsteps as moral support. Finally, having had enough, Nat organizes a small rebellion and takes revenge on the most iniquitous red necks before the rebellion is subdued by the U. S. Army and all of the rebels are killed, including Nat Turner and countless innocent blacks, whether slave or free.It's artfully photographed and the lighting is dramatic and evocative. You can almost smell the magnolias. It looks more like Louisiana than Virginia, what with all the live oaks and Spanish moss. But no matter. The moonlight, the ethereal mist, and the thick-trunked trees turn the scenes into a kind of fairy tale, only it's the kind of fairy tale in which Hansel and Gretl get thrown into the oven.The acting is of professional caliber, with Nate Parker perhaps giving the weakest performance as Nat Turner. The action scenes are convincing.But now, ethics require that I crawl out from under the protective carapace of political correctness. I don't know that it's a particularly good idea to make films like this. Every racial, religious, and ethnic group has some history of persecution and suffering at the hands of an enemy. It's impossible to list them all, nor should it be necessary. The reason I'm suggesting that movies like this should be carefully crafted is that there is already enough divisiveness in the country as a result of slavery and there must come a time, sooner or later, when the bitterness has to abate. Nobody now alive was ever guilty of owning or whipping a slave, yet the anger has followed generations through the movement of time.I'm thinking of seeing a film, "Glory", in a black neighborhood theater and listening the audience's deafening cheers as the Union's black soldiers attacked and killed Confederates -- not an isolated incident because the same screams of joy erupted during a screening of a dismissable movie, "Grasshopper," in which a furious Jim Brown beat the hell out of a villainous white man. The gulf between blacks and whites in this country is as wide as the Great African Rift. That's how a Swedish Nobel Laureate described it in 1944. We can forgive or forget nations we've been at war with -- Great Britain, Mexico, Nicaragua, Germany, Japan, Vietnam. Isn't it time to forgive one another's ancestors?The story of slavery and Nat Turner is powerful enough in its raw form. The director needn't have had Nat Turner smile while being hanged, and looking upward to see an angel descending for his soul. The angel is black. Is Nate Parker suggesting that there is a heaven for whites and a segregated heaven for African-Americans? I apologize if this offends anyone but it's all very confusing.Well, whatever propagandistic value the film has, it's worth seeing based on it's aesthetic and informative merits. We don't hear much about Nat Turner's rebellion. We might hear even less if William Styron hadn't written a popular book about it.

SnoopyStyle Nat Turner (Nate Parker) grew up a slave in Virginia. It was better than most slaves and he was taught to read the bible by Elizabeth Turner. His father ran away after killing a slave catcher. Raymond Cobb (Jackie Earle Haley) is one of those evil slave catchers. With fears of a slave revolt, Reverend Walthall suggests that the debt-ridden drunk Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer) hire out Nat's preaching to soothe other restless plantations. Nat talks Samuel into buying and saving Cherry-Ann. Nat witnesses and experiences countless injustices. When he dares to baptize a white man, he is whipped. Finally, he organizes a slave revolt.This is competently made. It is sincere but it doesn't have that extra something to put it over the top. Nate Parker is a good actor but Nat Turner is a passive character for the first half of the movie. He could have made more with the religious aspect. That would be a different angle to get at this subject matter. Whatever it is, the movie needs a new spin to angle this shot.