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Freedomland | 2006 | R | - 2.5.8
Samuel L. Jackson stars as a police detective in a New Jersey precinct who is called to investigate a case when a white woman (Julianne Moore) accuses an African-American of carjacking her and kidnapping her young son who was still in the back seat asleep. Also with Edie Falco, Ron Eldard and William Forsythe. Directed by Joe Roth. [1:53]
SEX/NUDITY 2 - A woman kisses a man, and a man kisses a woman on the cheek.
► A woman talks about "lying" with a man, implying that they had sex.
► A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage, a man is bare-chested while sitting in a hospital room, and a boy is bare-chested in a few scenes.
VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - A young man punches a police officer, other people and other officers rush each other, they begin shoving and the officers begin beating the people with clubs repeatedly (one man is hit hard on the head and we see a bloody gash).
► A young man has a bloody cheek and eye from having been beaten, and a police officer slams his head into a desk; he then punches him in the face several times until other police officers grab him and remove him from the room.
► A man climbs out a window, dangles from the ledge then falls to the ground (he is still alive but injured, and writhes on the ground).
► A man pulls a woman out of her car, throws her forcefully onto the ground, and drives the car away leaving the woman in a dark and secluded area.
► We see a woman's very bloody hands and they appear to have gravel or stones stuck in them. We see a body wrapped in a blanket being carried out of a building. We see a smear of blood on a door (in the shape of a hand).
► A woman screams and flails around in an interrogation room, and she is held by several officers, handcuffed and carried out of the room. A young man is grabbed by police officers and forcibly taken away in handcuffs. A woman hits her hand against a wall hard three times and then collapses holding her hand as if it might have broken.
► A woman hits herself on the head with the heel of her hand several times. A woman shoves a man. A man hyperventilates, struggles for his inhaler (it is implied that he has asthma), and is eventually injected with adrenaline by a nurse. A woman collapses on the floor.
► Riot police line a street, and people stand across from them and yell their disapproval. There are several escalating confrontations between white police and African-Americans who are being held behind barricades. A search party combs fields and woods using sticks to poke the underbrush. We see a dead bird in the rubble of an abandoned building. Fires are set and burn in and around a housing project.
► A woman tells a man that she was not raped. We hear that a character overdosed on cough syrup and died. We hear that there have been three murders of children under the age of 18 in the past year. We hear that a woman's son disappeared, has never been found and that she knows who took him but has no proof. A woman tells a man that another man has started hitting her. An abandoned orphanage is discovered and we hear that it was a place of abuse and neglect for the children who resided there.
LANGUAGE 8 - 38 F-words and its derivatives, 15 scatological terms, 7 anatomical terms, 27 mild obscenities, 2 derogatory terms for African-Americans, several racial remarks ("You're king of the jungle," "How'd you miss that monkey?"), 2 religious profanities, 8 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - A man smokes a cigarette (it's not clear whether it is tobacco or marijuana). A man is arrested and accused of carrying a small amount of marijuana. A woman tells a man that she has been clean for a number of years (alluding to her being a drug addict).
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Missing children, physical abuse, carjacking, racial tensions, racism, weakness, rape, respect, hate, negligence, forgiveness, selfishness, disappointment, letting our children down, armed robbery, child endangerment, child neglect, child abuse, harassment, Uncle Toms, God's will, guilt.
MESSAGE - There is always time to fix the mistakes we make.
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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