Unlike the MPAA we do not assign
one
inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE
and PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest,
depending on quantity and context.
Tim Robbins stars as a South African anti-terrorism agent, prior to the abolition of Apartheid, when torture and murder were accepted practices in the name of weeding out the threat of an underground revolutionary movement. After an explosion at a nuclear power plant, he is determined to pin the act on an employee (Derek Luke) of the plant who cannot satisfactorily explain his whereabouts for that evening. Also with, Bonnie Henna, Mncedisi Shabangu and Terry Pheto. Directed by Phillip Noyce. [1:42]
SEX/NUDITY 4 - A man stands nude (bare buttocks and chest are visible) after having been forced at gunpoint to remove his clothing. Two men are shown bare-chested. ► A woman kisses a man on the cheek and caresses him, and he pushes her away and leaves. ► A husband and wife lie in bed together (he's bare-chested). ► A man and a woman dance together and his wife appears jealous (she punches him on the shoulder as she walks past him). Men and women dance together at a celebration. A man and a woman hug. ► It is implied that a man is the father of a child, with a woman he is not married to.
the review continues below...
VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A raid is executed and armed men enter a compound and shoot many people; some of the people shoot back at them but many are killed (we see blood spurting and blood-stained clothing on dead bodies). ► Two men hold a man under water, the man thrashes, is pulled up and then pushed down again several times. A man's arms are pulled up behind him as a form of torture (he screams). A man and a boy are taken away by people in a truck, we hear the man being beaten (he screams), we see the man's bloody face and the boy is forced to watch. ► A dead man is put into a cart and driven away (we see the man's bloody face and are told that he had a weak heart). We see a dead man on the ground with a pool of blood beneath him. ► A man drives his car off a road and the car flips over; the man runs away and police shoot at him, he is struck in the leg (we see a blood-soaked pant leg), and he shoots back while continuing to run away. Two men are shot as they run away from police at a roadblock. ► We hear whimpering in the distance and see a woman's bruised face after she has been beaten. We see a man's bruised face and bloody nose after several beatings. ► A man is chased by police cars and helicopters, he is held at gunpoint and forced to remove all of his clothing. A man is locked in a dark shack where splatters of blood and stains are visible from a previous prisoner. A man is locked in a dark cell. ► Two men are pulled roughly out of their homes, handcuffed and taken away as their wives and children are left behind, screaming and crying. We see newsreel footage of people being beaten by police with sticks and others being threatened with guns. Cars are stopped at a roadblock and are searched by police; one driver is forced to the ground and searched. ► A white man yells at a black man for using the "Whites Only" toilets. A wife confronts her husband about him having an affair with another woman. ► We hear that a man and a boy were "never heard from again." A man tells another man that it is his job to see that he is hanged. We hear a news report that states, "three black people were killed." People sing a song about killing other people. We hear that a man's mother died. ► We see many coffins carried through a street, and a funeral service. ► We see several large explosions in a nuclear power plant. We see a large explosion at a nuclear power plant in the distance as a man drives along a road late at night. A man sets an explosive on train tracks. ► A man and his family take target practice with handguns.
SUBSTANCE USE - Men drink from bottles and we are led to believe that it is an alcoholic beverage, people drink alcohol in a few scenes, a man drinks wine and people smoke cigarettes and drink beer.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Apartheid, the Boers, the ANC, South Africa, migrant workers, racism, torture, murder, terrorism, imagination, freedom, power, forgiveness, family, segregation, survival, infidelity, lies, paternity, rage, anger, revenge, betrayal, desperation, pain, terrorists vs. freedom fighters, oppression, slavery, death of a parent, privilege, jealousy.
MESSAGE - Standing up for what is right can lead to pain but will also leave a positive legacy.
A CAVEAT: We've gone through several editorial changes since we
started covering films in 1992 and some of our early standards were
not as stringent as they are now. We therefore need to revisit many
older reviews, especially those written prior to 1998 or so; please
keep this in mind if you're consulting a review from that period.
While we plan to revisit and correct older reviews our resources are
limited and it is a slow, time-consuming process.
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