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Apt Pupil | 1998 | R | - 6.6.7

A high school student becomes obsessed with the Holocaust and blackmails a former high-ranking Nazi soldier into telling stories about his involvement. Based on a novella by Stephen King. With Brad Renfro, Ian McKellen, David Schwimmer, Joshua Jackson, Ann Dowd, Bruce Davison and Heather McComb. [1:51]

SEX/NUDITY 6 - A girl sits on top of a boy and kisses him, then puts her face into his lap (oral sex is implied, but we don't see or hear anything). We briefly see many boys' bare backsides while they're showering; we also see a few nude men from the side (a bit of their pubic hair and genitalia is visible). Twice, we see a boy in his underwear.

VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - A man is stabbed in the back with a knife and thrown down a staircase. A man is repeatedly hit in the face with a shovel until he dies (his face is very bloody and we see blood pooling on the floor next to his corpse). A man drools and his body jerks violently before he dies and a man clutches his chest and appears to have a heart attack. A man tries to shove a cat into a lit oven. Implied: a boy smashes an injured bird with a basketball. There are several discussions of Nazi Holocaust atrocities, including using gas chambers, burning bodies and shooting people. In a dream, we see a few people looking through the window of a gas chamber; in a montage of split-second shots we see several photos from the Holocaust, mostly of malnourished people. A boy has blood splattered on his face and a man has blood on his fingers and shirt. A boy is knocked down during a basketball game and hits his head against a wall.

LANGUAGE 7 - About 23 F-words, one obscene finger gesture and several anatomical references, scatological references and mild obscenities.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - The Holocaust, Nazism, evil, psychological games, obsession, blackmail, deception.

MESSAGE - An obsession with evil will eventually rule your entire life.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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