With not-so-civil disobedience, Nat Turner forcefully fought for his people’s freedom more than 100 years before there was such a thing as a civil rights movement.
He has his story told in brutal, unrelenting yet masterful fashion by director/star Nate Parker in The Birth of a Nation (**** out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday nationwide). The drama chronicling a violent uprising of slaves against their white owners in 1831 Virginia isn’t an easy watch by any means, either from the standpoint of tortured blacks or in their owners’ climactic comeuppance. Still, Parker crafts the narrative in a way that immerses audiences in the heartbreaking though redemptive emotional journey of the conflicted main character.
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