Burden Parent Guide

It’s 1996 and Reverend David Kennedy (Forest Whitaker) is preaching the gospel of love to his African American congregation in Laurens, South Carolina. Acknowledging the scourge of racial violence, the good Reverend exhorts his flock to cast away fear and reminds them that “The weapons we use to fight fear, they’re not brutality, they’re not wrath, they’re not hate. They are, and will always be, love.” Those ideals are soon to be put to the test.

Mike Burden (Garrett Hedlund) is a lost soul. Orphaned as a child and now a military veteran, Burden has found a kind of family with Tom Griffin (Tom Wilkinson), the local leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Burden adopts Griffin’s racist philosophy and throws himself into renovating a dilapidated movie theater into a KKK store and museum. Then Burden meets and falls in love with Judy (Andrea Riseborough), a single mother with a young son. Judy loathes white supremacism and gives Burden an ultimatum: he must choose between her and the Klan. When Burden picks her, the dominos begin to fall and the pair are soon unemployed and homeless. Panhandling for change to buy food, Burden is seen by Reverend Kennedy, who feeds the young family and tries to help Burden rebuild his life. But old habits die hard and the Klan doesn’t wave friendly goodbyes to its erstwhile members…

Based on a true story, Burden, is a moving film with a couple of significant problems. The first is negative content. Obviously, any movie about the Ku Klux Klan is going to contain violence, with scenes of cross burning, physical assault, and a young child being given a knife and told to “cut dark meat”. The violence in the movie is extremely harrowing and might be triggering for some viewers. That said, it’s difficult to make a movie that clearly portrays the horrors of the Klan without including upsetting scenes.

The other problematic content in Burden is profanity, with over 80 swear words, including 33 sexual expletives and a dozen uses of the “n-word”. Again, I have no doubt that the language accurately depicts Mike Burden’s world, but the screenwriters could have significantly reduced the amount of swear words used in the film without sacrificing authenticity.

I was also disappointed with Garrett Hedlund’s performance in the role of Mike Burden. One of the challenges actors face in depicting real people on film is distinguishing between an impersonation and a portrayal. Impersonating someone – perfectly reproducing their appearance, mannerisms, and speech patterns – can actually be less effective than portraying them – putting across a sense of who the person really is. In this movie, Hedlund seems so determined to mimic Burden that he creates a shoulder-rolling, loping gait that unfortunately distracts viewers from the emotional power he brings to the roll. Hedlund convincingly inhabits the role of Mike Burden - psychologically wounded, seeking belonging, hoping for a future for his new family - but as soon as he starts twitching and rolling across the screen, the power of his portrayal dissipates.

Despite these flaws, Burden has a lot to offer, particularly its message of hope, change, and redemption. This isn’t a “Christian film”, but it certainly demonstrates the power of the Christian message of repentance, forgiveness, and transformation. You don’t have to be a believer to hope that more Americans will work together to lift the nation’s centuries-old burden of racism, hate, fear and violence.