no thread for Nate Parker's 'The Birth of a Nation'?

Got a standing ovation at Sundance before it started playing, distribution rights sold for a record price, then Parker's acquittal in a rape trial in 1999 set a pall over the whole thing. Now no one seems eager to see or talk about what was set to be Hollywood's redemption picture after #OscarsSoWhite. I really dug the movie, it's not somber or full of itself like typical awards fare, it's very pulpy, basically blaxploitation. Reminded me of the original I Spit On Your Grave. What do y'all make of the movie and/or the controversy? I don't think seeing it is a "tacit endorsement" of rape culture, but Parker's indignant refusal to address the trial with any kind of grace in recent interviews is a bit perplexing, given how much money people have invested in him and the movie.

I wasn't in the right headspace to see this movie before Parker cast a pall over it so I've gone from "not seeing this movie any time soon" to "not seeing this movie"

I kinda cant believe this got made after chris rock's top 5

I'll post my negative review soon.

It's on my blog/Facebook.

I read a pretty detailed breakdown of the Parker rape case & yeah I just cannot bring myself to see the movie now

Parker's really appears to have made a total ass of himself as well lately re: the rape allegations/harrassment/trial (rather than coming off as I don't know at least marginally grown up) which undermines any interest I might have had in seeing this.

It seems like Searchlight did an idiotic job of marketing - nobody outside of trade press really gives a shit about what the director did in real life 15 years ago or how he acts about it now. Not supporting his behavior, just pointing that out.

If we are in fact living in some post-Polanski, post-Allen universe where his actions and crappy reflections on said actions really do matter and have anything to do with this film's shitty opening, great, but that isn't the case and this movie always had barely any chance of living up to the hype.

Umm, there are three posts in this very short thread so far above yours that explicitly say that they don't want to see the movie anymore because of Nate Parker

and afaik none of them are in the "trade press"

All the major promotion for this movie - on every major network and show - has led or focused entirely on Parker's rape trial. That was probably the first time most people heard of the movie, not Sundance.

It seems to me that people DID give a shit at the time it happened but like every other alleged rape everyone goes back to their lives & life goes on for everyone but her because that is what ALWAYS happens so the fact that it's coming up again and not going away is a good thing imo

This isn't inside baseball

My review.

Forget the allegations for a moment if you can. It's not a good movie. This guy loves Jesus Christ poses.

seems to be the consensus

Sorry, I wrote that on Zing and I realized it wasn't clear; my point is that this movie bombing despite all the Sundance hype is maybe a little tiny bit about Nate Parker's behavior and a little more about the film itself probably not being that good and a lot, like 95%, about the fact that the moviegoing public is still profoundly uncomfortable with the topic, either in the "I don't get it, because I have grown up around basically zero black people" sense or in the "I think I get it, and it makes me nauseous" sense

I dunno. I heard audience members cheering during two of the movie's goriest sequences.

I think the only thing people know about this movie is that it's a black revenge movie (strike 1) fronted by a dude who got away with rape (strike 2) opening right before an election where half the country is supporting a virulent racist (strike 3)

I think what I'm trying to do is argue that strike #2 should matter, because rape, but if it does matter, it's because black, not rape, because white directors and auteurs have been totally getting away with the same and worse for decades, and that hasn't changed.

And therefore the overall output of the equation is that this movie might not be good, but it is definitely not getting a bad rap because of Nate Parker's being a dick cheese, it's because he's black and it's a movie about black people. In other news, Quentin Tarantino thinks he's allowed to say the n-word.

Captain Obvious signing off for the night, thank you for indulging my languid wits and above-average density

y'all should watch the movie

I'll apply the same rule I'm using for Polansky and Allen: after he's dead

It's not good but fortunately it's not good on its own terms.

the Sundance film fest is very famous for swooning over bad movies btw

only usually they are about manic pixie white ppl