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Babel | 2006 | R | - 8.7.6

An intricately woven tale of the inadvertent connections between people from around the world whose lives have been affected by one gun. It all starts with a rifle shot in the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, which starts a chain of events linking an American couple, two Moroccan boys, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with the two young children in her charge and a Japanese teen. With Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Elle Fanning and Koji Yakusho. Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. [2:22]

SEX/NUDITY 8 - A teen (she seems to be 15 or 16) sitting in a dentist's chair, licks the dentist's face twice while he examines her teeth; then grabs his hand and pushes it into her crotch (he pulls away and makes her leave).
 A boy pulls down his pants and masturbates: we see his bare thighs and his underpants, his arm moves rhythmically and we see his facial expression.
 A teen (15 or 16-years-old) walks into a room fully nude (her bare breasts and pubic region are clearly visible) and stands in front of a man; she then puts his hand on her breast and caresses his face (he pulls away). A teen (15 or 16-years-old) removes a man's coat and we see her bare breasts briefly.
 A teen (15 or 16-years-old) takes off her panties and exposes her crotch to a table of young men in a club (we see her crotch also) and the young men ogle her. Two young women lift their skirts to show each other that they are not wearing panties (there is a very brief glimpse of their pubic regions).
 A boy watches his older sister undress (we see her bare back and shoulders) and she smiles at him. A young woman stands nude on a balcony (we see her bare back and buttocks. Prostitutes wearing skimpy clothing (cleavage, bare abdomens and bare thighs are visible) stand alongside a street. We see young women dressing in a locker room, and two young women are in bras and panties. A young woman changes her clothes (we see her in her bra).
 A teen (15 or 16-years-old) holds a man's hand, presses it against her face and puts one of his fingers in her mouth.
 A young man and a young woman kiss while dancing, and a man and a woman kiss in a few scenes.
 Young men and young women dance together in a club, and several young women flirt with several young men. A man and a woman hold hands.
 We see a statue of a nude woman with its breasts and pubic region visible, and we see mannequins in sheer bras and panties in a storefront.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A woman is shot in the neck through a bus window (we see blood spurt and then pour from the wound), and she is then stretched out on the floor of the bus (we see blood pool under her).
 Police shoot at a man and two boys who run along a mountainside; one boy is struck in the leg, then shot and killed, and a boy shoots a police officer.
 A man twists the neck of a chicken and pulls its head off while children watch (blood spurts from the neck and the chicken flaps its wings).
 We see a bloody bullet wound in a woman's neck, and a man identified as a doctor sterilizes a needle by passing it over a flame, and stitches the wound closed while two people hold the woman down (she pleads, screams and thrashes).
 A police officer holds a gun to a man's head, forces him to the ground, and punches and kicks him (the man has a bloody and bruised face later and a woman also has a bruised face although we do not see her being beaten).
 We see a woman on a stretcher with a very bloody shirt.
 A man slaps a boy in the face, pulls the hair of another and slaps a girl in the face (they are his children). A man pushes a man to the ground and attacks him, while other men pull him off.
 A boy shoots a rifle at a bus, the bus stops and we hear screaming from the passengers. Two boys practice shooting a rifle and their father tells them to go kill jackals with it. A man shoots a gun in the air at a celebration.
 Two boys push each other to the ground, wrestle and argue.
 A woman leaves two children in the desert alone and goes for help. A woman and two children are left in a desert in the middle of the night, and they stumble along trying to find their way to a road.
 A car is stopped and searched at the Mexico/U.S. border crossing: an officer un-straps his gun and tells the driver to move his car while they continue the search and questioning; the driver speeds away hitting another car and then racing down the road, while police officers follow.
 A police officer threatens to cut a part of a boy's anatomy off. Young men in a club tease young women who are hearing impaired. A man and his teenage daughter argue and appear estranged.
 A young girl talks about being afraid of dying like her baby brother. We hear that a woman killed herself by shooting herself in the head and that her daughter was the first to find her. We hear that a woman killed herself by jumping off a roof. We hear that a woman died from a gunshot wound. It is implied that a husband and wife have become estranged because of guilt and blame over the death of their infant son.
 A man driving a car (with a woman and two children as passengers) begins to fall asleep and swerves off the road; he wakes up before losing control. A man sells a gun to another man.
 Many people from a tour bus are angry and agitated when the bus stops in a remote village to try to help a wounded passenger.
 A boy hangs up a fresh animal pelt and flies buzz around it. A husband helps his injured wife over a pot so that she can urinate (we hear the trickle).

LANGUAGE 6 - 15 F-words and its derivatives, 1 obscene hand gesture, 2 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 1 mild obscenity, 2 derogatory terms for white Americans, name-calling (idiot), 3 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - Young men and young women smoke cigarettes, drink whiskey and take a drug (they all show effects of substance use). A woman smokes something from a pipe that helps her relax and eases the pain of a wound. People smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol at a celebration, and people smoke cigarettes in a club.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Guns, death of a child, death of a parent, suicide, love, blame, guilt, stress, fear, fear of the unknown, fear of anything different, illegal immigration, deportation, hearing impairment, terrorism.

MESSAGE - Guns can touch many people's lives in a profoundly negative way.

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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