Nat Turner's Confessions
New York magazine|October 3-16, 2016

The Birth of a Nation is a melodramatic revenge saga.

- David Edelstein
Nat Turner's Confessions

ON AUGUST 21, 1831, Nat Turner, a slave who saw himself as a prophet, led a brutal revolt in Virginia’s Southampton County. He and his fellow slaves hacked up, beheaded, and shot not just white slaveholders but also their wives, mothers, and children. After the marauders were killed and/or captured, bands of white men took revenge by roaming the countryside, shooting and stringing up blacks willy-nilly. It was an unholy bloodbath. The “peculiar institution” would endure for three more decades, but slaveholders could never again be certain that the blacks who were their “property”—and whom they regarded, in some cases, as “family”—would not someday turn on them.

This is the story that the writer- director Nate Parker sets out to tell in The Birth of a Nation, but his audacious title tells you something else. He’s not just taking on the Confederacy and a legacy that’s still cherished in parts of the South. He’s taking on D. W. Griffith’s seminal 1915 epic The Birth of a Nation, which sought to portray the aftermath of the Civil War—the “Reconstruction”—as the assault of lawless darkies on both the South’s social order and the virtue of its women. Griffith’s movie was also the most influential argument for vigilantism ever made. The Ku Klux Klan— a spent force by 1915—was reinvigorated by a scenario that had its members doing what officers of the law would or could not. The Klan was a holy cavalry.

この蚘事は New York magazine の October 3-16, 2016 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

この蚘事は New York magazine の October 3-16, 2016 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

NEW YORK MAGAZINEのその他の蚘事すべお衚瀺
Trapped in Time
New York magazine

Trapped in Time

A woman relives the same day in a stunning Danish novel.

time-read
6 分  |
Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024
Polyphonic City
New York magazine

Polyphonic City

A SOFT, SHIMMERING beauty permeates the images of Mumbai that open Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light. For all the nighttime bustle on display-the heave of people, the constant activity and chaos-Kapadia shoots with a flair for the illusory.

time-read
3 分  |
Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024
Lear at the Fountain of Youth
New York magazine

Lear at the Fountain of Youth

Kenneth Branagh's production is nipped, tucked, and facile.

time-read
5 分  |
Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024
A Belfast Lad Goes Home
New York magazine

A Belfast Lad Goes Home

After playing some iconic Americans, Anthony Boyle is a beloved IRA commander in a riveting new series about the Troubles.

time-read
5 分  |
Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024
The Pluck of the Irish
New York magazine

The Pluck of the Irish

Artists from the Indiana-size island continue to dominate popular culture. Online, they've gained a rep as the \"good Europeans.\"

time-read
8 分  |
Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024
Houston's on Houston
New York magazine

Houston's on Houston

The Corner Store is like an upscale chain for downtown scene-chasers.

time-read
3 分  |
Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024
A Brownstone That's Pink Inside
New York magazine

A Brownstone That's Pink Inside

Artist Vivian Reiss's Murray Hill house of whimsy.

time-read
3 分  |
Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024
These Jeans Made Me Gay
New York magazine

These Jeans Made Me Gay

The Citizens of Humanity Horseshoe pants complete my queer style.

time-read
2 分  |
Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024
Manic, STONED, Throttle, No Brakes
New York magazine

Manic, STONED, Throttle, No Brakes

Less than six months after her Gagosian sölu show, the artist JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLAND lost her gallery and all her money and was preparing for an exhibition with two the biggest living American artists.

time-read
10+ 分  |
Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024
WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT BRIGHT PINK MEAT THAT LASTS FOR WEEKS WAS A GOOD IDEA?
New York magazine

WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT BRIGHT PINK MEAT THAT LASTS FOR WEEKS WAS A GOOD IDEA?

Deli Meat Is Rotten

time-read
10+ 分  |
Nov 18-Dec 1, 2024