Getting excited about 'Birth of a Nation'

[Cassius Clay]

Been waiting for this movie for a while....I don't think there's ever been a proper movie about Nat Turner. Just heard it's getting good responses at Sundance, but not sure if that means anything.

[Blade Azaezel]

Sounds like a pretty interesting film. Subject line threw me for a moment, because I thought you were referring to this one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004972/?ref_=nv_sr_2

[Gendo]

Sounds like a pretty interesting film. Subject line threw me for a moment, because I thought you were referring to this one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004972/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Google seems to think so too. I had a hard time finding links to the new movie; everything came up about the 1915 movie.

[Derived Absurdity]

Ironic. I assume that was done on purpose.

[Cassius Clay]

It's definitely on purpose. Using the title of a racist ass movie to tell a heroic story about a slave rebellion is awesome on multiple levels.

[Derived Absurdity]

Yep. And it's very timely too. It's just too bad it didn't come out last year, to mark the 100th anniversary.

I've been reading reviews of it. It sounds amazing so far. Story of black people fighting the white establishment without being dependent on the kindness of white people? Yep. Story of rebellion through righteous acts of violence? Yep. Story where the establishment hasn't been able to whitewash it and pretty it up, like Selma? Seems like it. Also I heard Strange Fruit is in it, which is yes. That had better be emotionally affecting, y'all.

[Cassius Clay]

Welp. Just finding out Nate Parker is a rapist, homophobic hotep. Everything sucks.

[Derived Absurdity]

You didn't know that?

I don't know what to do, really. I obviously want to support this film, but I also don't want to support an alleged rapist and homophobe. On the other hand, I bet the majority of successful filmmakers have been pieces of shit in certain ways and I don't boycott them, so I don't know why I would make an exception in this case. And I don't want to downplay this by responding to the racists who will be taking advantage of this story to smear the film by saying "Hey, it's not that important, what matters is the actual film!", but I also don't want to be the type of person who says stupid and evil things like that and downplays the importance of, you know, rape.

There are no good options.

[Cassius Clay]

A lot of people who liked him didn't know, which is kind of surprising - since it's apparently right there on his wiki.

Everybody seems to be a piece of shit. Mel Gibson is garbage but I still enjoy his past work. But, it's harder to enjoy someone's future work once you find out they suck.

[Derived Absurdity]

Yeah, I don't know. I still want to see it, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to pay for it, which is sad, because this film needs to be successful.

[Anakin McFly]

You could still pay for it but then make up for it in other ways. Like I paid to watch Ender's Game, and then donated double the ticket price to an LGBT healthcare organisation. There could be a rape survivor group or something you could support in conjunction with watching the film.

[Gendo]

What did the Ender's Game people do wrong?

[Gendo]

Everybody seems to be a piece of shit. Mel Gibson is garbage but I still enjoy his past work. But, it's harder to enjoy someone's future work once you find out they suck.

Not for me, specifically because of your first sentence. I'm pretty much of the mindset that everything I do is going in regards to public commerce is going to support some evil person or thing in varying degrees of indirectness. I never felt a pull to avoid buying fro a certain company because of the beliefs or practices of people involved with that company.

[Derived Absurdity]

You could still pay for it but then make up for it in other ways. Like I paid to watch Ender's Game, and then donated double the ticket price to an LGBT healthcare organisation. There could be a rape survivor group or something you could support in conjunction with watching the film.

That sounds like a good idea.

[Derived Absurdity]

What did the Ender's Game people do wrong?

The author of the book is homophobic.

[CashRules]

The author of the book is homophobic.

He's also a direct descendant of Brigham Young which should be enough justification for beating him with a stick.

[aels]

Orson Scott Card wrote this, which... I got nothing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet%27s_Father

EDIT: Wait, I got something: http://scott-lynch.livejournal.com/265746.html

[Anakin McFly]

What did the Ender's Game people do wrong?

The book's author Orson Scott Card is a very enthusiastic homophobe. Regular homophobia is one thing, but he goes way over the top and has participated in organisations that actively fight against gay rights. He has also implied the need for violence. Some people theorise that he's deeply closeted, which wouldn't surprise me; the passion and degree to which he cares about the subject is reminiscent of those homophobic pastors who later get caught having gay sex in public bathrooms. What's odd is that his books have such great messages of inclusivity and accepting those who are different, and he's also written very sympathetic gay characters which makes his RL vitriol jarring. There's a lot of cognitive dissonance going on in there. Quite a few of his stories also have vague homoerotic/pedophilic vibes (the young boys in Ender's Game hang around each other while naked all the time, plus there's that naked shower fight scene). He's a very devout Mormon and I think he may have some issues with his sexuality that he ends up projecting very harshly on others. Apparently he's mentioned being abused as a child; no idea if it was sexual abuse, but if so it would explain some of this. Sometimes I feel bad for him.

I'm pretty much of the mindset that everything I do is going in regards to public commerce is going to support some evil person or thing in varying degrees of indirectness. I never felt a pull to avoid buying fro a certain company because of the beliefs or practices of people involved with that company.

Yep, same here. I realised there was no way to avoid inadvertently supporting evil people, so the only practical thing to do is to support good people in addition to that.

[Monk]

What did the Ender's Game people do wrong?

There's a lot of cognitive dissonance going on in there. Quite a few of his stories also have vague homoerotic/pedophilic vibes (the young boys in Ender's Game hang around each other while naked all the time, plus there's that naked shower fight scene). He's a very devout Mormon and I think he may have some issues with his sexuality that he ends up projecting very harshly on others. Apparently he's mentioned being abused as a child; no idea if it was sexual abuse, but if so it would explain some of this. Sometimes I feel bad for him.

I think that's called reaction formation

Despite him being a homophobic prick, at least three of his books are good (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, and Ender's Shadow)

[Anakin McFly]

Ender's Shadow was so good. I've got Speaker of the Dead but haven't got down to reading it yet.

[Derived Absurdity]

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cassius Clay]

Gabrielle Union is my 7th wife. Glad she spoke up.

[Derived Absurdity]

Uh-oh. Reviews are coming out and for the most part they have not been particularly good.

[Gendo]

I read this: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/ ... -defending" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cassius Clay]

According to a lot of the reviews, you can really see Parker's narcissism baked into the story. He was the last person that should have been telling this story.

[phe_de]

But still, 77% on RottenTomatoes is anything but "not particularly good".

[Derived Absurdity]

That's a C.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

That's a C.

You're confusing Rotten Tomatoes for Metacritic.