D.W. Griffith’s 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation is one of the most controversial movies ever made, so it was with gleeful irony that Nate Parker wrote, directed, produced, and starred in a completely unrelated vehicle a century later that weaponized an identical title for ironic effect.
Parker’s version found an enslaved preacher tasked with quelling a rebellion among his peers, only for him to go ahead and do the exact opposite, with Nat Turner eventually leading an uprising in 1831 that would become the stuff of legend.
There was plenty of buzz surrounding the project, and Fox Searchlight were so confident The Birth of a Nation had massive commercial and awards potential that the company shelled out $17.5 million to secure the worldwide distribution rights, over twice the production budget.
However, the headline-grabbing attention generated by the incendiary epic’s festival run and subsequent expensive acquisition shone a light on the 1999 rape accusations that were leveled towards Parker and co-writer Jean McGianni Celestin. The filmmaker may have been acquitted, but the renewed interest in the case effectively cratered The Birth of a Nation, as well as his long-term career prospects.
A Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 73 percent signaled that critics were willing to separate the artist from the art, but The Birth of a Nation couldn’t even recoup the $17.5 million invested in it by Fox at the box office, turning what looked to be a shrewd financial decision into a waste of money. Six years later, though, and the well-made documentation of a pivotal moment in time has found itself surging on the Rakuten rankings per FlixPatrol, even if it never managed to stave off the negativity.