Technical masterpiece, but awful to watch

Rating: 1/10 (18 December 2005)

OK, so Birth of a Nation is a technical marvel. I will grant that. it is wonderfully shot, and it is stunning to think this movie is 90 years old, and only post-dates the end of the Civil War by 50 years. There are many things int his movie that had never been done before.
But it all goes pear-shaped when you actually watch it. It is, in a word, disgusting. Vile would be another word. The depiction of the slave-owners of the South as easy-going gentle people who merely took care of their happy slaves is an insult, not just to all blacks, to to any person with any sense of morals or decency.
I cannot in good conscience give this movie any other score than a 1, no more than I would give a well acted and well directed movie glorifying pedophiles a high score. Would that it were possible to give two separate scores.
Certainly it is a movie that should be seen by students of film, but the subject matter is so distasteful that it will be difficult for anyone to stomach.