The Birth of a Nation (Official Thread)

[Dirty D]

Saw this tonight. It was very good at moments but I understand the criticisms. Those are Nate's choices. A better Nat Turner film could be made.

Aja Naomi King is a superstar. I'll watch anything she's in.

 

[Birnin Zana]

Current box office numbers for Birth of a Nation: 7.9 million. It made almost a million on Monday. Hopefully this keeps up throughout the rest of the weekday.

The Birth of a Nation (2016) - Box Office Mojo

 

[WaveGang]

Hit me with a link

shyt don't drop until Jan 20th

 

[Soundbwoy]

Finally got a chance to see it, I like the africain link to religion, I want to learn more about africain religion. I like it but it's not a movie I'm going to watch again but I will recommend it to every black person

 

[Bunchy Carter]

I'm not going to lie, but I started laighing when the brother chopped off his slave masters head and held it up.

There were other brothers say "Hell Yeah," when they started killing the white people. That shyt was funny, that movie had me hype.

When the kid ran off and told the other slave plantation what was happening, the brothers and sisters were yelling "fukking sellout."

I'm going to watch this movie again, I can't wait until it comea out on dvd.

 

[Bunchy Carter]

I could've used a bit more of the revolt. Solid film with some powerful scenery.
I did enjoy hearing Nat talk that talk

I see CNN is trashing him because he didn't use Confessions of Nat Turner as a source.

Btw what source do you all think he used

"Confessions of Nat Turner" wasn't non-fiction and has been debunked by many Black Historians. It was actually written by a White Author who tried to say Nat was Gay and dreamed of raping White Woman. Thankfully Nate was smart to not use it as a source. Nate wrote an original screenplay based off his own research.

Nate talked about that book being fake in the breakfast club interview, also he said he actually paid black historians to do research on Nat Turner.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Birth of a Nation flopping is trending on facebook

the 'genda is real

 

[Rapmastermind]

Current box office numbers for Birth of a Nation: 7.9 million. It made almost a million on Monday. Hopefully this keeps up throughout the rest of the weekday.

The Birth of a Nation (2016) - Box Office Mojo

I think domestically it's doing just fine. Also there's a thing called (PTA=Per Theater Average) in which "Birth of a Nation" came in 4th in the Top 10 behind 3 of those Blockbuster movies. So it's making more money per theater which is where the real box office game is. It has not open internationally. Again this is an Indy film and it needs to be judged on Indy standards. The Media is trying to spin it's numbers as if it was suppose to be this huge Blockbuster. Plus the movie is a peried piece and "R-rated", it's not G or PG or PG13 so the audience would be limited already.

What helps "Birth of a Nation" most is Nate spent the least amount of money to make the movie, it has the lower budget than many of the other slave flims (Amistad, 12 Years, Django et). The movie started in the green anyway as Fox paid double for the rights and it made History at Sundance. This is why there's is such a media push to call it a Box Office Failure because it blew out the gate already a historic success. The agenda is clear because Hollywood is upset Nate made the movie outside of the Hollywood studio system.

Also Nate broke the #1 Rule of Hollywood Slave movies, The White Savior Complex (He said while trying to get the funding some studios told him to put a White Savior in the film). I was mad at him going to Fox but I understand his stradegy now. It was about getting this epic story on as many screens as possible. There will be other revenue streams for the film (Streaming, Home video, DVD, Television etc) in the future. 21 Million Domestic will give the film 3x's it budget.

 

[Originalman]

Brillant filmmaking doesn't require you to show gore 100% of the time. Stephen Speliberg didn't need you see Jaws every single shot to know he was a threat and did major damage. This wasn't the "Saw" series. The Brutality for Blacks and Whites was done in a very artistic way. This was a bio picture, it showed the complete Nat Turner story childhood to adult. The Revolt was only one aspect of Nat's life. Also it wasn't 7 mintues, it was the last about 20-30 just broken up because it didn't go smoothly. There were problems along the way obviously. The entire movie was not going to be the revolt. Some of you wanted a 2 hour white people bloodbath. But that's not how you do a movie. Also more whites were killed in this than "Django". Another thing, Django was 2 hour 45 minutes, it was mostly talking and dialogue.

Sorry having a White Savior hold Django's hand 95% of the film disqualifies it from being the best Slave movie. How can this movie be the same as the others when the others focused on White People freeing us from bodage? Atleast Nat Turner killed not only his slave master but the leader of the Slave Police Patrol. Who did Django kill that was important besides that sellout Stephen? (Another Black man)? The Plantation Wife? Exactly. QT did not make a more balanced Slave movie, are you kidding? It was a "Save my wife revenge story with a White Man holding his hand all the way" where Django does not even Kill the man resonsible for his wife torment and torture. Did he touch on religion and indoctranation? No, did he touch on African Tradition? No, did he touch on the origins of the Police? No. Did he touch on the family bonds of slaves? No.

Django is essentially a White Liberal Slave Blaxplotation Fantasy. White people were in the theater having a good time watching it. White people are scared to even go to "Birth" because they know it's a film that shows us fighting back without the help of a White Savior. The reality is QT could never understand the emotions that Nate put on screen. Also how is it a rip off of "bravehart"? Which was a WAR Film? Just because of that Clash scene in Jerusleam? Having two groups running into each other was done on film long before "Bravehart". The only real comparison is it shows man rising up against his opressors and the ending with the death being before a crowd. There were no war battles here. Lastly the movie cost about 10 Million some of you are acting like you don't understand that budgets matter as far as how the scale of a movie looks. "Django" cost 100 Million dollars yet Nate made a more meaningful film with less money.

Well said

 

[Ziggiy]

I think domestically it's doing just fine. Also there's a thing called (PTA=Per Theater Average) in which "Birth of a Nation" came in 4th in the Top 10 behind 3 of those Blockbuster movies. So it's making more money per theater which is where the real box office game is. It has not open internationally. Again this is an Indy film and it needs to be judged on Indy standards. The Media is trying to spin it's numbers as if it was suppose to be this huge Blockbuster. Plus the movie is a peried piece and "R-rated", it's not G or PG or PG13 so the audience would be limited already.

What helps "Birth of a Nation" most is Nate spent the least amount of money to make the movie, it has the lower budget than many of the other slave flims (Amistad, 12 Years, Django et). The movie started in the green anyway as Fox paid double for the rights and it made History at Sundance. This is why there's is such a media push to call it a Box Office Failure because it blew out the gate already a historic success. The agenda is clear because Hollywood is upset Nate made the movie outside of the Hollywood studio system.

Also Nate broke the #1 Rule of Hollywood Slave movies, The White Savior Complex (He said while trying to get the funding some studios told him to put a White Savior in the film). I was mad at him going to Fox but I understand his stradegy now. It was about getting this epic story on as many screens as possible. There will be other revenue streams for the film (Streaming, Home video, DVD, Television etc) in the future. 21 Million Domestic will give the film 3x's it budget.

Also he said Fox was down with the educational aspect of the marketing. He had a book of essays by black historians and scholars written about Nat Turner and the impact of slave revolts, so that kids could go in their school libraries and have something REAL to read about the time period while their textbooks only mention slaves as "a group of workers".

 

[Ziggiy]

Abernathy has published my review


The Sword And The Sermon: A Review Of The Birth Of A Nation — Abernathy

 

[Originalman]

I think domestically it's doing just fine. Also there's a thing called (PTA=Per Theater Average) in which "Birth of a Nation" came in 4th in the Top 10 behind 3 of those Blockbuster movies. So it's making more money per theater which is where the real box office game is. It has not open internationally. Again this is an Indy film and it needs to be judged on Indy standards. The Media is trying to spin it's numbers as if it was suppose to be this huge Blockbuster. Plus the movie is a peried piece and "R-rated", it's not G or PG or PG13 so the audience would be limited already.

What helps "Birth of a Nation" most is Nate spent the least amount of money to make the movie, it has the lower budget than many of the other slave flims (Amistad, 12 Years, Django et). The movie started in the green anyway as Fox paid double for the rights and it made History at Sundance. This is why there's is such a media push to call it a Box Office Failure because it blew out the gate already a historic success. The agenda is clear because Hollywood is upset Nate made the movie outside of the Hollywood studio system.

Also Nate broke the #1 Rule of Hollywood Slave movies, The White Savior Complex (He said while trying to get the funding some studios told him to put a White Savior in the film). I was mad at him going to Fox but I understand his stradegy now. It was about getting this epic story on as many screens as possible. There will be other revenue streams for the film (Streaming, Home video, DVD, Television etc) in the future. 21 Million Domestic will give the film 3x's it budget.

Well said you and Ziggiy are holding it down.

You guys should check.out news one from this morning. Roland and the professor from Howard made some great points.

Another thing we have to also understand these historical black movies almost never break even. shyt red tails and rosewood didn't even break even. shyt red tails was backed by a white director movie writer and had big time media push to get black people to see it and others.

Hell just off the top of my head in the last 25 years only malcolm X did better than break even. And from what I remember as a child the movie was struggling to break even when it first came out. I think it was able to make over the budget over the years because of re-releases to movie theaters and long runs (remember in the 90s movies would be re-released in certain cities and even had year or two year long runs at release in certain cities).

 

[Rapmastermind]

I really want to make this clear. In no way, shape or form am I blaming Black Women for this clear bias media agenda against the movie. Yes there are some black women who are being used by White Media Publications as shields. This is something Tariq mentioned in his show. Also some media outlets were using Black Women to be more vocal about it. Notice you didn't see a whole lot of White Women on television being vocal about this. It was mostly Black women. I saw the film with two black women and they enjoyed it even cried at the end. Also the numbers showed Black Women dispite the Media Drama did come out and support the film. Actually based on Exit polls, Black people (Male and Female) are the reason for the 7 million so we came out. Rape is very serious and men do need be more sympathic to women who go through these things.

We have a White Presidential Canidate of a major party who brags about sexual assualt on tape and he could be President (Of course White men are always given a pass while Black men are demonized for sexual assualt, this is what the original Birth of a Nation was about as well as Mandigo). Not to mention Former President Bill Clinton has a long sexual history of deviancy. White men since going back to slavey are always held to lower standard when it comes to sex crimes which is why they get lower sentences in court. With that said there are black men who are predators and should be held accountable. At the same time human beings lie and Entire Towns and thousands of Black People have been killed because a White Woman lied on a Black Man about sex. Even during Slave times this happen when White Women would sneak out and have sex with black men and get pregant and have mixed babies (12 Years did a great job showing this).

I think the thing that upsets me about this was Nate was actually found innocent by an all white jury which is damn near impossible with a Black man/White Woman rape case. Also we live in a world were Black men are never given the benefit of the doubt and are always deemed guilty reguardless (This is why we are getting shot down based on preception of guilt). The fact some tried to re-litigate the case that Nate never hid from the public 2 months out from the release of this film set a terrible precident. A Black Man can be deemed innocent and this White Supremacy system will still use media and other factors to call us guilty. Nate isn't a saint and I'm sure he regrets things he did in his youth but the brotha did not deverse this attack. So again to my sisters it wasn't your fault. I personally blame White Supremacy 100%. But this doesn't excuse some Black Women who are overdoing it and being used willingly by White Supremacy. They do not represent Black Women as a whole. This narrative starting to go around "It's black women's fault" is very dangerous and once again puts us against each other where the message of the film is about Unity and us coming together.

 

[Squirrel from Meteor Man]

Abernathy has published my review


The Sword And The Sermon: A Review Of The Birth Of A Nation — Abernathy

Great read

 

[satam55]

Roland Martin explains The Birth Of A Nation's value to African Americans as opposed to Hollywood's narrative and valuation of the film during a NewsOne Now / Tom Joyner Morning Show simulcast.

Want more Roland Martin? Watch NewsOne Now every weekday morning starting at 7AM ET on TV One.