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The Dictator | 2012 | R | - 7.6.6

Sacha Baron Cohen stars as a ruthless dictator from an oil-rich small North African nation. Wanting to pursue a nuclear weapons program, he visits the United States with his brother (Ben Kingsley) to address the United Nations, but he ends up stripped of his position and has to get a job in an organic grocery store run by an activist (Anna Faris). Also with Jason Mantzoukas and J.B. Smoove. Directed by Larry Charles. [1:23]

SEX/NUDITY 7 - A woman on her hands and knees on a bed leans over a pitcher while a man tugs on her breasts and milk sprays into the pitcher (we see her bare breasts and we hear the milk spray into the pitcher). A man dangling from a zip line cable swings into a window where a woman stands and screams; we see his genitals and pubic hair smash against the windowpane.
 A woman takes a man to a room, leaves him inside, closes the door and instructs him from outside how to pleasure himself; we see his eyes widen, he moves rhythmically and he runs out of the room with a semen covered tissue on his hand.
 A woman dresses after having sex with a man (we see the man bare-chested and wearing boxer shorts and we see the woman wearing a bra and undergarments). A nude male infant is held up and we see that he has a great deal of pubic hair, as well as facial hair. A man wearing a T-shirt and jockey shorts runs out of a building (we see bunches of pubic hair sticking out of both leg holes). A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage.
 We hear passionate moaning from inside a room, we then see a man lying on top of a woman in bed and we see the man's bare back and chest as he rolls off the woman and he tells her, "You now have happies," implying sexual gratification; he asks her to stay with him to "cuddle" but she replies that she has to be with another man.
 A man wakes up in bed and we see movement under the covers as if someone is performing oral sex on him and we then see another man's decapitated head move out from under the covers.
 A pregnant woman in labor lies on the floor of a store, a man says he can help her deliver, he puts his hand in her anus twice (we don't see anything and she yells at him), then reaches in to help the baby out and drops his phone inside the woman (we see the telephone inside the birth canal), and another woman reaches inside the pregnant woman and the man and the woman hold hands inside her (we see the hands inside the birth canal) until the pregnant woman yells at them; the baby is born and we see it covered with blood and goo.
 Several women remove their clothing to their underwear (we see cleavage, bare abdomens and bare buttocks), they surround and caress a man lying on the floor (please see the Violence/Gore category for more information), and the man kicks one of the women across the room and into a table; the man complains that "she tried to milk me" (she does not appear harmed).
 A man tells another man about several women, "They are trying to pleasure you" and two of the women kiss each other passionately; the man then kisses the other man, who pushes him away and leaves the room. A man and a woman kiss, they lie on the ground, the man says that he ejaculated and he kisses the woman's neck and her belly button and he licks her hairy armpits. When going to help a pregnant woman deliver, a man kneels on the floor between her legs and begins to unfasten his pants (as if to have sex with her) before he is stopped. While riding on the back of a moped driven by a woman, a man grabs the driver's clothed breasts.
 A man kisses the clothed armpits of another man presumably in greeting. Two men rub noses. A man and a woman hug. A man makes a sexual gesture with his hand and mouth.
 A man asks a woman to perform oral sex on him and she tells him that he will have to touch himself. Two men come out of a men's restroom and one smacks the other on the clothed buttock (it is implied that some sex act has just taken place). A man makes several comments about having famous people perform sex acts on and with him for money. A man tells another man that his job is to clean semen out of laptops. A man tells another man in prison to perform oral sex on the biggest guy in there. A man tells a woman, "They raped me." A man talks about another man sexually abusing several boys who went on to commit suicide. A man asks a pregnant woman, "Are you having a boy or an abortion?" A man says, "I was his lover," talking about another man. A man describes the appearance of a missile using sexual terms.
 We see a wall covered with photographs of a man posing with different men and women and implying that they were all his sexual partners.

VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - A man carrying another man's decapitated head runs through an alley while being chased by other men. A man plays with a decapitated head, making it sing, pretending to use it to perform oral sex on another man, etc. A man is shot in the head and falls to the ground where a pool of blood grows around his head. We see a dead man lying on a table in a hospital room where there is a bit of blood around his head on the table and brain matter on the top of his head. A man shoots at another man and another man jumps in the way of the bullet (we see the man fall to the floor with a bloody bullet hole in his head).
 A woman (she has just given birth) is killed when a pillow is placed over her face (we do not see her die). A man running in a race shoots an opponent in the leg and two judges (we do not see any blood) and they all fall to the ground. A man shoots another man in the arm and then the leg (no blood is shown).
 A man sets another man's beard (cut off his face) on fire and sets himself on fire in the process (we see him rolling on the floor in flames). A man is shown wearing boxer shorts and there are cables running into the legs of the shorts (presumably attached to his genitals) while another man flips a switch causing the first man to twitch. A man with a knife lunges toward another man and we later see that the man's beard has been cut off (he has spots of blood on his face). A man hits another man in the head with a stick while he is sleeping (we hear a thud); the man wakes up with a bag over his head and tied to a chair while another man lays out torture implements and threatens him.
 A man climbs a fence surrounding a building, he is sprayed with high-power hose and falls to the ground while other people are sprayed and knocked to the ground as well. Several men grab a man and push him down on a table while one man is shown with a large blade (threatening to kill him). A woman twists a man's arm and tells him to stop using hateful language. Several women remove their clothing to their underwear (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more information), they surround and caress a man lying on the floor and the man kicks one of the women across the room and into a table (she does not appear harmed). A man slaps another man in the face causing him to fall to the floor. A boy grabs his crotch and makes a negative remark to a man who then kicks the boy in the back causing him to fall into a pile of boxes (we do not see any injuries).
 A man rides a zip line across a busy street between two buildings and gets stuck midway, a goat nibbles on the cable on one end, and he empties his pockets and defecates (we see feces hit a woman in the head on the sidewalk below and she falls to the ground); the cable breaks and he slams into a window (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details), and then climbs in another window to safety. A man with a semen covered tissue on his hand touches a woman's face. A man urinates into a pitcher while on stage in front of many people (we do not see the act, but we see yellow liquid in the pitcher) and then drinks from the pitcher; the man then pours the urine on another man seated in the audience. A man opens the door to a restroom where another man is urinating and pulls him out and into a grocery store while the man continues to urinate (we see the stream).
 A pregnant woman in labor lies on the floor of a store, a man says he can help her deliver, he puts his hand in her anus twice (she yells at him), then reaches in to help the baby out and drops his phone inside the woman, another woman reaches inside the pregnant woman and the man and the woman hold hands inside her until the pregnant woman yells at them; the baby is born and we see it covered with blood and goo, we see the umbilical cord and after delivering the baby the man says, "It's a girl, where's the garbage can?"
 Throughout the movie we see a man make a gesture that suggest he is ordering people to be executed and the people are taken away by guards; we find out that the people are not actually killed. We see several paintings hanging on a restaurant wall that depict the violent death of a man: One shows the man decapitated (we see blood at the neck wound), one shows him with a long saw blade cutting between his legs (blood is shown on the blade and his legs), and one shows the man hanging by a rope around his neck.
 Two men speak in a foreign language with interspersed references to 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden and one man is wearing a vest that has pull-cords on it resembling a bomb vest while another man and a woman overhear them, they become frightened and the woman screams.
 A man tells another man, "You had him executed" when the man asks for someone. A man orders another man to be shaved and bathed and to "shorten the penis." Two men discuss implements of torture while one man holds them up for us to see. A man tells a woman, "They raped me." A man talks about the thought of a woman's decapitated head upsetting him. A man talks about another man sexually abusing several boys who went on to commit suicide.
 A man falls off a stage (he is unharmed). A woman is introduced as a political refugee and we see that she is missing both of her hands (they are replaced by hooks).
 A man plays a video game where his character cuts the head off another character using a sword and we see blood spray when the head separates. A man plays a video game called "Munich Olympics" where his character shoots several Israeli characters and we hear them yell when they are struck.
 There are many racist, anti-Semitic and stereotypical remarks made about people: A man says the U.S. was built by the blacks and is owned by the Chinese, a man makes a derogatory remark about the physically handicapped, African-Americans and women. A man tells a woman that she could "gas the Kurds with that stench" referring to her body odor.

LANGUAGE 6 - About 12 F-words and its derivatives, 15 sexual references, 2 scatological terms, 19 anatomical terms, 2 mild obscenities, 7 derogatory terms for African-Americans, 4 derogatory terms for Arabic people, name-calling (laughing stock, snitch, idiot, queers, beloved oppressor, sand monkeys, snake, coat hanger, murderer, insane, captain hook, sub-Saharan, imbecile, wolverina, lesbian, ugly horse, hairy pitted yeti), 2 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - Several men sit at a table where there are several hookah pipes.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Democracy, dictatorships, torture, Kim Jong-Il, Osama Bin Laden, nuclear threat, 9/11, Munich Olympic Games 1972, feminism, fascism, political refugees, civil rights, Dick Cheney, diversity, sensitivity, oppression.

MESSAGE - Authoritarianism, dictators, racism and xenophobia are easily satirized.

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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