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The Legend of Tarzan | 2016 | PG-13 | - 3.6.2

Based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic adventure: In the 19th century a British infant lost in an African jungle after a shipwreck is raised by gorillas. As an adult (Christopher Skarsgård), he marries an American woman (Margot Robbie) and confronts Belgium's mercenary soldiers. Also with Djimon Hansou, Christopher Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and James Broadbent. Directed by David Yates. Several lines of dialogue are in Bantu with English subtitles. A few lines of dialogue are in French with English subtitles and a few are not. [1:48]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A husband and his wife kiss passionately for several seconds in three scenes and in one of the scenes she sits straddling his lap on a large tree limb; in another scene the man carries the woman to a bed and the camera cuts to early morning, and the couple is under covers (sex implied).
 A woman meets a man that we see from bare mid-chest upwards, she looks down, then she looks embarrassed (suggesting that he is nude); after being raised in the jungle he sniffs her from head to toe, sinking below the frame and the woman says, "I don't think so, wildman!" A man tells another man to kneel in front of a gorilla to avoid being attacked; the first man asks, "You want me to lick his nuts, too?" A soldier says that a man had sex with many "Negresses and 'boons," and he tells the man's wife that she is lucky she has not been "serviced" by soldiers. A man looks at a clothed woman from behind a curtain in a room on a boat and she calls out, "Are you enjoying the peepshow?" A woman tells a man sarcastically that it sounds like he and his priest were very close; he does not understand the statement.
 Several scenes show men wearing loincloths, revealing bare backs, chests, some navels and lower thighs. A man wears only trousers cut off just below the knee with the waistband below his waist, revealing back, chest, abdomen, navel and skin just above the pubic area in many scenes. A woman wears a V-necked gown that bares slight cleavage. A few scenes include women wearing long sarongs that bare the shoulders, arms and the lower portion of the lower legs with dots of scarification marking their shoulders. A woman packs long slips and boned corset underwear into a bag. A young boy is shown in a fetal position with dirt covering his bare back and buttocks. Women dance out of a tent and one of them holds out a wrapped newborn baby, giving it to its father.


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VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - A flashback shows a warrior shoot a gorilla in the back with an arrow and the animal dies in the arms of her adopted son, an adult human she raised, who cries briefly; the man hunts the warrior, killing him with a knife (we see no bloodshed) and we see the body carried on a stretcher to a tribal chief, who cries.
 Soldiers shoot three gorillas (we see no blood) that fall to the ground, one of them groaning and the other two likely dead; another gorilla is tackled by a man to keep it from being shot and it gets up to kill four soldiers while we see a fifth soldier run away.
 Many sailing ships filled with 20,000 mercenaries approach the shore as many lines of cannons and hundreds of soldiers point rifles toward them: a man gathers lions, gorillas, and a large herd of wildebeests and we hear thunderous sounds in the distance as the animals storm through the a hotel and other buildings, demolishing them as we see wood and debris thrown; a lion knocks down a man and begins eating him below the frame, a dock collapses and pieces of wood are thrown toward the camera, two enemy groups shoot rifles at soldiers on a ship and on shore and we see many men fall (no bloodshed is seen) and something pulls a man under water and we never see him again.
 Soldiers point pistols at a man and loudly demand that he kneel; we then see the man dead and lying on a pallet as men and women around him look sad. Over 100 men with spears surround other men and one man strangles and kills a gasping man using a long rosary. A man carries a long rosary he says is strung with Madagascar spider silk cord and he uses it to choke two men and snaps it around a woman's wrist, making her yelp in pain.
 A man fights hundreds of tribesmen holding long spears until several gorillas rush forward, pounding their chests, and they begin beating the tribesmen into the ground; the man and a tribal chief fight with knives and the chief uses leopard claws on his hands to strike the other man as they punch, kick, choke and roll until the man is stabbed in the back with a spear (it does not stop him); the man chokes the chief and holds a knife to his throat, then releases him as many others circle the man and another man with spears pointing and the gorillas roar, beat their chests, and drive the attackers back (we see a few dead men lie face down in the shallow river with no blood visible). As a boat sinks in a harbor, a man snaps a long rosary around another man's neck, choking him; several crocodiles enter the water and swim to the boat as the choking victim grabs his attacker around the waist with his legs and squeezes then releases the now broken rosary and the attacker falls into the crocodiles (and presumably eaten alive).
 Two men swing onto a slave train from vines and enter a car filled with soldiers as a soldier pulls a pistol and one of the first two men punches and kicks all but one soldier unconscious, slamming that one up into the roof of the train car, where his feet dangle; after a bullet misses his head, one man shoots the ear off a soldier, who yelps and grabs the red remainder of ear. A dozen soldiers point rifles into a canyon-like area as a single spear flies out and falls to the ground and gunfire erupts; a man jumps out of a river and others wield curved knives at soldiers (we see slashing, but no wounds), and two dead soldiers lie face down in muddy water with a little blood on the bodies. Three train cars are shown full of African warriors with chains around their necks as soldiers with rifles harass a village, burning down huts and taking many men captive at night; they hogtie a man and carry him away in a heavy rope net and other men later shoot rifles at the soldiers and free the man, cutting rope away from his throat after he rolls down a steep ravine. A man kidnaps another man's wife and she spits in his face (we don't see spit, but he wipes his face with his sleeve).
 A woman groans on the floor of a tree house in Africa and we hear that she died; her husband touches the soil of her grave and a gorilla appears, roars, and pounds the shouting man to death below the frame. A man fights a male gorilla, both jumping and punching each other in the face; the man breaks a branch over the animal's shoulder without effect, they kick, punch, and roll until the gorilla pounds the man on the ground several times; the gorilla leaves and we see the man with red scratches across his chest and a large bloody bite wound on one shoulders; another man stitches it and applies large black ants to disinfect the wound (the injured man eats some of the ants). A flashback shows a man cover a woman with his body to prevent a roaring gorilla from pounding her; the camera cuts to natives using a stretcher to carry the man with deep red scratches across his chest and we see him in a bed, feverish, while an old female gorilla outside yelps and cries. A flashback shows a leopard snarl, threatening a baby gorilla and its mother; a man jumps through the air, grabs the leopard, and rolls with it across the ground until it runs away.
 A man holds a pistol to a woman's head as another man strings her up by the wrists from a boat mast and a third man swings down on a rope and grabs her away to safety as she kicks a villain into the water. A woman is tied by her wrists to a paddle wheeler railing and a native man is suspended in a cage over the water from a metal arm as men drop him a few feet over a herd of hippos in the river and laugh; they later release the cage to the hippos (the man escapes) and the woman head-butts a soldier and escapes with a hippo chasing her until she climbs ashore.
 Headless and legless flamingo bodies lie on a table as a man cuts them up with a cleaver and we see a little blood on one bird. A tribal chief is shown wearing leopard claws and skin on his hands and leopard skin on his head and shoulders.
 A man in one scene and a man and a woman in another scene, kneel before a gorilla in order to avoid being killed. A female gorilla peaks over the edge of a hanging basket and a baby inside it laughs at her; the ape carries the baby to its home as a male gorilla roars loudly and when the child is older, the male gorilla pounds his chest, roars, and chases the boy until the child falls to a fetal position. Four lions butt heads with a man that they know.
 A hippo opens its large mouth to the camera and bellows. A small crocodile on a leash snarls at a train station where we see several carts full of elephant tusks. A gorilla roars in a close-up several times with saliva dripping from its large sharp teeth. Gorillas pound the ground and their chests in several scenes, and swing through trees on vines. Four lions surround the carcass of an antelope that has a long red gash in its side.
 A man chokes another man as they argue, and then releases him. A man argues briefly with his wife. A wife tells a man that her husband killed a powerful chief's only son and will do worse to him. We see three train cars full of chained tribesmen and learn from the frightened engineer that 20,000 Belgian mercenaries will arrive to enslave all the Congo natives. A man tells another man that he suspects widespread slavery in the Congo and later says, he fought in America's Indian Wars, stating, "What we did to the Indians... I'm no better than the Belgians." A man tells a tribal chief that Belgians want to trade for the tribe's diamonds only to enslave them. A man tells tribesmen that gorillas will kill every one of them. We hear that the King of Belgium plans to enslave all black Africans in the Congo. A man in London presents bureaucrats with evidence of corruption and slavery actions on the part of the King of Belgium, who used British money to commit crimes; we hear that serious legal consequences will be given. A child asks a man if his mother was a monkey; he says she was an alligator. A man makes a deal to deliver another man to a tribal chief. A man complains about an "odious odor" in the jungle.
 A flashback shows a tall ship tilting in heavy rain. The boiler on a sinking boat explodes in smoke and a little fire; the camera pans back to show a lot of smoke in the harbor.
 Several men are shown to have scarification decorations on chests and arms. Women are seen with dots of scarification marking their shoulders. A man drinks one of four raw eggs served him from its shell.

LANGUAGE 2 - 1 scatological term, 1 anatomical term, 6 mild obscenities, name-calling (savages, paltry coward, bloodthirsty, trucky), exclamations (shut your mouth), 4 religious exclamations (God Help Us, God Help Him! Oh My God, Oh God, Christ Almighty).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man and woman at a dinner table have glasses of wine and a wine bottle is seen on the table and the woman drinks from her glass, a man has a glass of amber liquor on his desk (he does not drink it), and natives give a man a mug of a fermented beverage they call "beer" and the man chokes at the strength of it when he drinks.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Predatory colonists and colonialism in Africa, mercenary armies, slavery, genocide, greed, plunder, murder, courage, determination, endangered species, animal stewardship, relationships, friendship, family, love, equality, cooperation, justice.

MESSAGE - Corrupt governments can be held accountable and levied consequences.

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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