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BlacKkKlansman | 2018 | R | - 1.5.10
Based on a true story that took place in the 1970s: an African-American Colorado Springs rookie police officer (John David Washington) manages to become a part of the local Ku Klux Klan chapter -- and even befriends the Klan's leader, David Duke (Topher Grace). Also with Adam Driver, Alec Baldwin, Ryan Eggold, Laura Harrier, Jasper Pääkkönen, Robert John Burke, Paul Walter Hauser, Corey Hawkins, Michael Buscemi, Harry Belafonte and Ashlie Atkinson. Directed by Spike Lee. [2:15]
SEX/NUDITY 1 - A husband and his wife lie in bed together and she kisses his arm (she is clothed and he is shirtless and we see his bare shoulder and part of his chest). Women wear low-cut tops and short skirts that reveal cleavage and bare legs to the lower thighs. Men wear partially unbuttoned shirts that reveal bare chests.
► A man and a woman kiss in a few scenes. Men and women dance in a bar.
► A man makes a crude comment about a woman's lips and oral sex. A white man shows an African-American man a picture of a white woman in a magazine and asks him if her wants some of that, in a mocking manner. People talk about defining beauty for black people.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - A woman tries to place an explosive in a woman's mailbox, and then puts it in her car and runs away; a man tackles the woman in the street and she screams for police and accuses the man of trying to rape her, shouting, "Shoot him!" when another car drives by the booby trapped car and the explosive blows up engulfing the second car (with a few men in it) in flames and throwing two women to the ground.
► A man holds a gun on another man and forces him to take a lie detector test. A man points a gun to his own temple (he does not shoot). Several men take target practice and we see that the targets are large cutouts of running African-American men with exaggerated features. A man gives a woman a brick of C4 and a switch and instructs her on what to do with it (it's a planned attack on the leader of an African-American student organization). A movie shows African-American men being shot (some blood is seen). We see movie footage of war with many bodies wounded and dead on the ground and a woman walks through the bodies looking for someone and a dead man is shown being dragged by Ku Klux Klansmen wearing robes and thrown on a porch.
► We see TV news footage of the 2017 Charlottesville protest march and people are shown being beaten with sticks and fists, a car speeds through a crowd of marchers throwing several people and we hear screaming as it looks like people are run over by the car and the car's windshield is shattered by the impact of bodies.
► A man speeds in his car and nearly causes a crash. A man throws a brick through a house window and many men inside the house run out and chase him as he speeds away in a car; one man shoots at the car (no one is harmed). A man swings and punches the air after another man leaves the room. A man slams into another man in a hallway making him drop his files and papers, and then makes insulting and racist remarks about his position on the police force. A man in a truck follows a woman. A man and woman draw guns when there is a knock at the door and they see a flaming cross in the distance. A man loads a shotgun.
► A man describes a case where an African-American man was accused of raping and murdering a white woman and that he was chained around the neck and dragged, stabbed, beaten and castrated, his fingers were cut off and oil was poured over him before holding his body over flames; afterward his remains were sold as souvenirs. We hear that African-American people were pulled over by the police and guns were held on them. Several conversations include references to violence against African-Americans and Jewish people. Several men talk about cross burnings. A man says, "The cross burning is off." A reference is made to people wanting to "Kill the beast, kill the savages." A man talks about a young Jewish boy watching Nazis and cheering them on. Remarks are made about African-American people being shot down in the streets by white racist cops. A character says, "The revolution is coming, arm yourself." A man talks about "white power." A man says, "Jews killed Christ." Many conversations include talk of fearing an uprising and a revolution. A character says, "Kill whitey." We see an upside down American flag with red, white and blue replaced by black and white. A man says, "It makes me wanna puke."
► A man spits a mouthful of coffee out. A man slurps coffee.
LANGUAGE 10 - About 67 F-words and its derivatives, 1 obscene hand gesture, 6 sexual references, 20 scatological terms, 16 anatomical terms, 28 mild obscenities, 71 derogatory terms for African-Americans, 8 derogatory terms for Jewish people, 1 derogatory term for Italians, 1 derogatory term for Hispanics, 5 derogatory terms for homosexuals, name-calling (inferior race, worm, crazy, boy, slow, retarded, mealy mouth, loose cannon, pig, leeches, jive turkey, mongrel nation, super predators, idiot, filthy, womanizer, rookie, soul brother, toad, dumb, pigs, draft dodger, baboons, spook, red neck, crazy, commie, anti-war, shenanigans, skullduggery), exclamations (darn, shut-up), 7 religious profanities (GD), 14 religious exclamations (e.g. May God Bless Us All, Holy [scatological term deleted], God Bless White America, My God, Oh God, God, Christ, Jesus, Jesus Christ, I Swear To God, Jesus, Amen). | profanity glossary |
SUBSTANCE USE - A man and a woman are shown with glasses of wine at a restaurant, men and women drink wine with a meal, a man and woman drink beers in a bar, and men and woman hold glasses of wine and champagne. A cigarette is shown burning in a car, a man smokes in a locker room, a man smokes in a car, several men smoke cigarettes in a house, a man smokes in an office, and a man smokes in a pool hall/bar.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Slavery, integration, Brown v. Board of Education, the Ku Klux Klan, Martin Luther King, conspiracies, selective service, Vietnam, narcotics, undercover police work, naivety, equal treatment, conspiracy, the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally (also known as the Charlottesville riots), The Holocaust, anti-Semitism, the media, Kennedy assassinations, anti-war protests, freedom, rituals, heritage, Black Panthers, ethnic cleansing, eugenics, black exploitation, budget cuts, "The Birth of a Nation" movie.
MESSAGE - Horrible things have been done in the name of preserving a white America and the KKK and white supremacists are very dangerous. Racism can sneak into mainstream ideologies disguised within other issues such as immigration, crime and tax policy.
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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Become a member of our premium site for just $2/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.
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