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The Battle of Shaker Heights | 2003 | PG-13 | - 3.4.5

Two 17-year-old young men from different social and economic spheres share a passion for re-enacting battle scenes from World War II. Through this connection they befriend each other and they mount their own commando raid against a bully. Meantime, one falls in love with the other's older sister. The film is the second winner of the Project Greenlight screenwriting contest. With Shia LaBeouf, Anson Mount, Shiri Appleby, Elden Henson and Kathleen Quinlan. Directed by Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin. [1:20]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A man and a woman kiss, and a young man and a woman kiss (she's a few years older). A young woman kisses a young man on the cheek and they hold hands. A young man talks with an older woman about flowers being sensual. A young woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - During a battle re-enactment there are explosions on a battlefield, men are thrown through the air, a man is shot in the chest, a man is held with a knife to his throat, a man is held at gunpoint and a man is threatened. Armed people walk through a street, break into a house, grab a young man, hold him at gunpoint and the young man urinates on himself (we see a puddle). A young man punches another young man hard in the face and he falls flat on the ground. Two young men struggle while driving a jeep, it swerves through a crowd of people and crashes into a table full of food. A young man shoves another young man to the ground, gets on top of him and threatens him. A young man trips another young man who falls on steps and hits his forehead (we see a bruise later). A young man throws cans of cat food at a young woman while describing the Battle of the Bulge from WWII. A young man is hit by food thrown by people in a passing car. A young man makes a remark about another young man "torturing puppies." A young man challenges his teacher about the reality of history and we hear about draft riots. We hear that a man is in the hospital and is very ill.

LANGUAGE 5 - 1 F-word, 1 obscene hand gesture, 2 sexual references, 7 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 16 mild obscenities, 2 religious profanities, 1 religious exclamation.

SUBSTANCE USE - People are shown drinking alcohol.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Fitting in, adolescence, drug and alcohol abuse, friendship, collecting, war, revenge, bullies, lesbians, invention, empathy, growing up, anger, marriage, infidelity, fantasy vs. reality, consequences, forgiveness, bitterness, disappointment.

MESSAGE - Everybody makes mistakes, but it's what you do afterward that counts.

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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