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A Dog of Flanders | 1999 | PG | - 2.4.2

A young, poor orphan in 19th-century Belgium endures many hardships but never gives up his dream of becoming a famous artist one day. With Jack Warden, Jeremy James Kissner, Jesse James, Jon Voight, Steven Hartley, Cheryl Ladd, Madylin Sweeten and Bruce McGill. [1:41]

SEX/NUDITY 2 - A boy kisses a girl on the cheek, and a boy and girl look as if they are about to kiss as a scene ends. We see, from the back, a woman who appears to be buttoning her shirt as a drunken, fully clothed man lies on the ground in front of her (no nudity is visible; it's mildly implied that they've had some sort of sexual tryst). We see a shirtless man.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - In one scene, a man threatens and tries to cut two other men with a knife; a brief knife fight follows, and as the man is about to hit another with a large cleaver, a dog knocks him down and into a stairwell (we see the lifeless man lying on the steps with some blood on his face). In a dream sequence, we see a boy lying in a casket during his funeral procession. A man appears to have trouble breathing, then falls to the ground and dies. We see a woman lying in bed, looking very pale and sweaty, then closing her eyes and dying. A boy stumbles in the forest during a snowstorm and passes out in a snow bank. A drunken man yells at a dog, whips it repeatedly and leaves it in a forest (we hear it whimper and see some blood on its fur); a boy later rescues the dog. A priest yells at and chases a boy after his dog knocks over an urn for collections; also, a man chases after a boy and his dog, verbally threatens them and throws the boy to the ground. A barn is engulfed in flames. A boy and girl playfully throw mud at each other and a man throws a girl's doll into a puddle. We briefly see a man's red, blistered feet as he rubs them. We see a painting of Jesus Christ's crucifixion with some blood visible on his body.

LANGUAGE 2 - Several mild obscenities.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Orphans, death of loved ones, poverty, class systems, artistic ability, out-of-wedlock births, honesty, false accusations, lying, determination, friendship.

MESSAGE - You can't judge someone's moral character by their wealth (or lack of); never give up on your dreams, no matter how impossible they seem; God has a plan for everyone.

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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