(ThyBlackMan.com) At the time of writing, BOAN (an acronym for Birth of a Nation) is trending. Not because of the film itself. Or even directly because of the controversy surrounding Nate Parker — its star, director, executive producer, and head writer.
But because it performed below most expectations, which is being blamed on Black women collectively — Black feminists, particularly — whose criticism of Parker both dampened enthusiasm for supporting the movie and may have even influenced how it was critically received.
Which is both true and bullshit. Bullshit marinated in a “y’all got to 
be the dumbest motherfucka who ever lived” rub and dipped in a
“shut the fuck up” pate. And both the truth behind and the abject bullshit attached to this claim can by synopsized by a back and forth between TVOne’s Roland Martin and The Root’s Yesha Callahan Monday about a piece Callahan wrote about BOAN’s opening weekend.
From “Birth of a Flop: Nat Turner Biopic Fails to Live Up To Its Hype”
The historically inaccurate biopic about Nat Turner failed to bring in the big numbers that Fox Searchlight was expecting after the company paid $17,000,000 to distribute the film. The movie, which opened over the weekend, only took in an estimated $7.1 million and came in 6th place. Could it be that the low numbers were due to the controversy surrounding Parker’s rape allegations from 1999? Possibly so. It seems as though Parker became a liability for his own movie. No matter how many interviews he did, not only did he come off arrogant and rude, but also lacked remorse when discussing that night in 1999. Even his own co-stars couldn’t save the movie. Gabrielle Union, a rape survivor, penned a poignant post about her own sexual assault, but urged others to see the movie.
When the reviews came rolling in about the film, it was hard to find a positive one. From the historical inaccuracies, to the role black women played in the movie, it was true to some that it was a flawed endeavor.
Now, it is very clear from this write up that Yesha wasn’t particularly unhappy that BOAN underwhelmed. But there’s nothing she said here that’s even remotely untrue.
It was panned for being historically inaccurate — and with historical inaccuracies that were unnecessary and egregious. Considering the money Fox Searchlight put up for BOAN and put into promoting it, they surely did expect a better weekend. Not Avatar or Jurassic Parknumbers, of course, but better than $7.1 million. The spotlight on and discussion about Parker’s 17-year-old rape allegations definitely didn’thelp matters. And, when people — including Gabrielle Union and Oprah (Oprah!!!!!) — tried to help him out, his series of increasingly tone deaf interviews weren’t just train wrecks. They were train wrecks that grew sentient and searched for new trains and fresh tracks to crash again. It was train wreck bukkake. And most of the reviews from professional critics at national platforms (The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, RogerEbert.com, etc) found it to be fair to middling. Not a terrible movie. But definitely not something worthy of any type of award recognition.
Again, no lies told here. But that didn’t stop Roland Martin from chiming in.
Finish story here;