The passion of Nat Turner

Noel Vera

Charles Burnett's documentary "Nat Turner: a Troublesome Property"
is about as startling and excellent a documentary as I've seen
recently.

It's about Nat Turner, a slave that rose up and, with fellow slaves,
murdered his way across the nearby Virginian countryside (the
documentary opens with a re-enactment of the first few killings--of
Turner sneaking into a bedroom and hacking child, husband, and wife
to death with an ax). It's about knowing so little of the actual
historical figure and, as a result, of the wildly different
interpretations people have had of his legend, across different ages-
-to Abolitionists he was a freedom fighter, to Pro-Slavery whites a
terrifying bogeyman, to '60s civil rights protesters an early
prototype of Malcolm X ("by any means necessary").

There's mention of Thomas R. Grey's "Confessions of Nat Turner," a
(most historians suspect) highly fictionalized account of Turner's
last words; there's mention of Harriet Beecher Stowe's bowdlerized
version ("Dred") and of William Styron's Pulitzer-Prize
winning "Confessions of Nat Turner" (he took his title from Grey)
and the controversy this inspired because of a scene Styron wrote,
where Turner lusts after a white woman.

Burnett I think tries to be as fair as he can on the controversy--
supporters and naysayers are given equal time. You can't help but
notice, though, that the black historians and writers largely
express anger at a white man daring to show Nat Turner's lust for
white flesh, while Styron's friends--who all happen to be white, at
least the ones we see in this documentary--try to explain some
larger perspective.

Burnett does his best to play fair, but what I think was needed was
some black historian or writer who could look beyond the indignity
and show why Styron was right (or wrong, if that's his conclusion)
in writing that scene. That Burnett couldn't produce this one voice
is a telling lack on the part of Styron's critics.

We are also shown literary interpretations of Turner by white
writers, but other than a WPA play with black performers, no major
literary work by black writers--again, a telling lack that the
documentary points out. Ossie Davis asks (he's talking about Styron,
but he could be talking about all versions)--for whom are they
interpreting Turner? For the whites? The novel that addresses this
imbalance has yet to be written.

Perhaps the most unsettling moment in the documentary is Burnett's
re-enactment of the crucial scene in Styron's novel, Turner's
killing the white woman he lusts for. Showing this must have been
more than a little painful for Burnett (I'm guessing here, but I
think he must have hated Styron's novel), nevertheless he stages the
scene with unsettling force and skill, with the suggestion (through
the way the scene is staged and shot) of sexual violation, in the
way Turner's sword penetrates the woman from behind.

And just when you think you've seen everything, Burnett springs a
surprise (skip the rest of this paragraph if you haven't or plan to
see the documentary). The murders seen at the beginning of the
documentary are re-enacted, then the camera pulls back to show us
Burnett shooting the scene with his cameraman. For the last ten
minutes, the same intense gaze Burnett leveled at the various
artists interpreting Turner he turns on himself, and we see him
questioning his own motives and methods in making this documentary.

All in all, a wonderfully made piece of truth-telling (though I
would like to have seen the two-hour version Burnett originally
wanted to make, and which his producers refused to allow), and--I'm
willing to bet--possibly of the best things we'll be likely to see
this year.

("Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property" is available to schools from
www.newsreel.org)

(Comments? Email me at noelbotevera@...)