Fresh
Parker's film is at its best when he presents his harrowing story straightforwardly.
Christopher Orr, The Atlantic
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The Birth of a Nation
Overview
Nat Turner, a former slave in America, leads a liberation movement in 1831 to free African-Americans in Virginia that results in a violent retaliation from whites.
Director and cast
- Nate Parker as Nat Turner
- Armie Hammer as Samuel Turner
- Aja Naomi King as Cherry
- Jackie Earle Haley as Raymond Cobb
- Penelope Ann Miller as Elizabeth Turner
- Gabrielle Union as Esther
- Mark Boone Junior as Reverend Zalthall
- Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Nancy Turner
- Dwight Henry as Isaac Turner
- Esther Scott as Bridget Turner
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
72%
Tomatometer
Rotten
A seriously damaged and inadequate movie ... its defects reveal traits of character-arrogance, vanity, and self-importance-that exert an unfortunately strong influence on Parker's directorial choices.
Richard Brody, New Yorker
Fresh
If you forgive him enough to see it, The Birth of a Nation offers a troubling tangle of the personal and historical. But above all else it's commercial, an entertainment of purpose and some power.
Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice
Fresh
The Birth of a Nation is a flawed but fairly compelling chapter of the American story that powerfully resonates with how that story is playing out today.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Rotten
The highly charged arena into which this film about America's bloodiest slave revolt arrives gives it a cachet that, in artistic if not sociological terms, it does not really merit.
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
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