The Many Saints of Newark | 2021 | R | – 7.8.10

Why is “The Many Saints of Newark” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong violence, pervasive language, sexual content and some nudity.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a few sex scenes with partial nudity, conversations about men having mistresses, many murders by gunshot, drowning and beatings leaving the victims with bloody wounds, a torture scene involving a drill, many arguments, discussions of organized crime and illegal activity including gambling and drug peddling, and nearly 80 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A prequel to the HBO series “The Sopranos”: Set in the 1960s and 1970s, the young Anthony Soprano (Michael Gandolfini) is torn between leading a normal life or following in the footsteps of his beloved uncle (Alessandro Nivola), a charming but volatile member of a New Jersey crime family. Also with Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Corey Stoll, Ray Liotta, Michela De Rossi, Billy Magnussen, John Magaro, Michael Imperioli, Samson Moeakiola and Joey Diaz. Directed by Alan Taylor. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in Latin without translation and several lines of dialogue are spoken in Italian with and without English subtitles. [Running Time: 2:00]

The Many Saints of Newark SEX/NUDITY 7

 – A man and a woman have sex: she straddles the man and thrusts (we see the man’s bare chest and the woman’s bare back, breasts and abdomen). A man and woman have sex in a bathroom and we see his bare buttocks and legs as he thrusts while she sits on the counter (we see her bare legs to the upper thighs with garters). A man with a brace on his back tries to have sex with his wife and grunts and moans in pain; the woman is wearing a bra (we see cleavage and her bare abdomen) climbs on top of him and the man moans when the woman starts to thrust and they give up (he then throws a small religious statue against a wall). We hear rhythmic thumping and groaning coming from an upstairs room, where it is implied a man and a woman have sex. A married man and a woman kiss and lie on a floor together; the woman lifts her skirt (partial legs are visible), straddles him and kisses him as someone interrupts them by ringing the doorbell. A woman kisses a man and he pulls away telling her his wife is just inside and the woman seems sad.
► A woman confesses to her lover that she has been having sex with another man (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man accuses his adult son of wanting to have sex with his new, young wife. A man sends his teen daughter to her room to put on proper clothes (she’s wearing tight-fitting jeans). A woman talks about not wanting to become a nun because there wouldn’t be any men around, and she makes a crude remark about a sex act in a garden.
► Women wear low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage and bare shoulders in several scenes. A woman wears a short slip that reveals cleavage and bare legs to the upper thighs.

The Many Saints of Newark VIOLENCE/GORE 8

 – Three men attack another man in a garage and hold him on a cot, he struggles and they put him on a work table where one man uses a power drill to drill in the man’s mouth (blood sprays and gore spews from his mouth), a man moves toward him with the drill again and the wounded man gets up and shoves the three men around him until one of them shoots him a few times (we see blood on his chest and abdomen) and he falls dead. A man confronts his father while in a car about abusing his mother as well as the father’s current wife, and that he won’t tolerate it; they argue and the son punches his father in the face, they tussle, one man steps on the gas and speeds into the wall of a garage, and the son beats the father’s head against the steering wheel repeatedly until his face and head are dented in (we see a lot of blood). A man in a street is shot in the head by a car driving by and several other men in the area are shot at; the driver of the car is shot and the car crashes into a powerline pole, the others continue to exchange gunfire and another man is shot in the back as he runs away and others fall dead; a car drives into a parked car and they burst into flames fire. A man in a street shoots another man in the back of the head and the back and he falls into the open trunk of his car and then onto the ground, dead with blood pooling and splattered. A woman confesses to her lover that she has been having sex with another man; the man shoves the woman and pushes her into the ocean where he holds her underwater until she drowns and watches as her body float out into the surf and sink. A man finds a young man in a recruiting office and shoots him in the chest (we see a lot of blood as he is thrown back against a wall); the recruiting officer puts up his hands and the shooter leaves without hurting him. A man shoots another man in a car and we see blood spray on the window. A man runs away from police from an illegal card game and is shot twice (once in the leg and once in the back); a man later says that the man could never have a normal bowel movement again. A man drags a dead body into a factory (we see the body’s very bloody and caved-in face and head), pours gasoline on the body and around the building and sets it on fire.
► A man chases another man through a street, the first man trips and the second man beats him with a hubcap; the beaten man tries to crawl under a parked truck but is pulled out and reprimanded by another man that tells him, “I’m the guy that would put your eye out for talking to me like that.” A man shoots through a door toward a man on the other side and he is not struck. A woman complains about her son wanting to play football and her husband shoots a handgun into her beehive hair (we see a smoldering hole in her scarf and hair without evident blood). A taxi driver is told to turn down a one way street the wrong way and when he does two police officers pull him out of the car and slam him to the pavement and they beat him (we don’t see the result). A husband yells at his wife and grabs her by the arm pulling her out of bed and onto the floor, they argue bitterly, she runs out of the room and he chases her then kicks her down a flight of stairs (she winces but we do not see injuries). Three teen boys steal an ice cream truck and throw the driver onto the street while it is moving (we don’t see injuries); they then drive to a park where they give away free ice cream to children. Two teen boys fight and one slams the other against a store window, and also shoves a teen girl to the ground when she tries to stop them from fighting.
► Many people yell and throw things at a building protesting police actions and the beating of a Black man; an officer tells a motorist that the crowd thinks they killed the man and that officers have been wounded in the fracas and sent to the hospital, and as the man pulls away he is struck in the head with something thrown from the crowd (we see a bloody cut on his head); we later see the city in flames from a distance. People break store windows and loot the merchandise as police drive through the streets and shoot (one young man falls dead with blood on his back). Molotov cocktails are thrown on cars and one hits a police car setting it on fire. A tank and armed soldiers move through streets where people are protesting and looting and a vehicle is stopped until the driver is identified as being “white” and allowed to pass. A man kicks in a television set at a funeral home when people turn it on during a service. A man slips on a wet step and slams his back down on the stairs yelling in pain (we see him wearing a back brace/girdle later). A woman tells a man that another man is dead. A man says that he would eat a woman’s excrement and another man punches him repeatedly and threatens him.
► A man yells at a young boy as he walks up to a garage where the man is trying to hide a dead body. The camera passes through a cemetery and we hear voices (presumably of the dead) of a man saying that he considered suicide, a woman says that she had to be opened up under anesthesia during childbirth, a man says “he choked me to death,” and a man says that he met death on Rt. 23. A man says that his father used to beat him every day when he was young. We see a woman’s dead body and later a man’s dead body in open caskets. We hear that a boy was kicked out of school for setting up a gambling syndicate and later for buying the answers to a test. We hear that a boy set off cherry bombs in a YMCA and let the air out of a woman’s car tires. A boy says that he saw a man get shot in the back by the police. A wife cries and yells at her husband saying that he berates her in front of everybody. A man sends his teen daughter to her room to put on proper clothes. A woman gives a married man a hard time about his needing to go back home to his wife after being with her in an apartment that he rents for her. A man says that his girlfriend died of pneumonia. A teen boy lies on the floor with his head between two large speakers as music plays loudly. A teen boy pushes two large speakers out through his bedroom window and yells that he doesn’t want them, as they splinter on the ground.
► A man says that the military wouldn’t take him because he has 2 felony convictions. A man tells his father that men usually come back from Italy with gout. A man tells a joke about a donkey given medicine that caused it to have diarrhea and it was put on an elevator that opened into a party room, where it defecated on the partygoers. A man asks another man if he has any Black blood because he runs so fast. A man mocks a Black man and asks if the drink he ordered is “What they drink on the plantation.” A Black man tells an Italian man that Italians (using a derogatory term) are doing the ditch digging now. A man tells a woman, “You don’t stare at those people [referring to Black people]; they don’t like it.” A man says that he beat a younger man up for not doing his job. Several people are handcuffed and put into a police vehicle. A man says, “I murdered a “made” guy.” A boy says, “I try to be good.” A man says, “All life is pain and pain comes from wanting things.” Men roll dice in a garage. A woman says that in her home in Italy, she dreamt of becoming a priest so that she could be in charge. A woman tells a Black man that another man said “[derogatory term for African-American people deleted] don’t have no head for making money.” A man tells another man, “No more Whitey’s cut.” A woman says that she doesn’t see a particular doctor anymore because “he said some very rude things to me.” A man says, “Goys and children pay retail.” A man says, “I’m a murderer.” A boy tells his mother that he got in trouble with his father because he “passed gas” while he was eating lunch.

The Many Saints of Newark LANGUAGE 10

 – About 79 F-words and its derivatives (1 in Italian without translation), 6 sexual references, 22 scatological terms, 14 anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities, 14 derogatory terms for African-American people, 3 derogatory terms for Italian people, name-calling (fat kid, gagootz, fascist, Joe [sexual reference deleted], goomar, Gypsy, lunatic, drug addicts, crummy, smart aleck, mutt, fat [derogatory term for Italian people deleted], civilian, crippled man, morons, punk, weird, mafia, dope king, looney tune, Pullman porter, fool, chooch, horrible, Jesse Owens, sinkhole city, bully, bastards, animals, Hollywood Dick, old man, stupid), exclamations (uh, ow, oh poor you, marone, shut-up, don’t get cute, talking through your hat, huh, boo-hoo-hoo, wake up), 7 religious profanities (GD), 11 religious exclamations (e.g. For Christ’s sake, what kind of God, God, my God, for God’s sake, Jesus Christ, Holy [scatological term deleted], Jesus). | profanity glossary |

The Many Saints of Newark SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman complains about a doctor wanting to prescribe Elavil for her, a man talks about selling smack, and a woman quizzes her teen son about whether he is smoking pot and also saying that her daughter does. People drink wine with a meal, a woman brings a man a cocktail in bed but he does not drink it, a man and a woman drink wine with a meal, and a man drinks liquor from a bottle in a few scenes. People smoke and drink at a party, a teen girl and a few teen boys smoke on a street in a couple of scenes, a woman smokes in bed, people smoke and drink at a horse training ring, a man smokes a cigar and others smoke cigarettes at a party, and a woman smokes in bed.

The Many Saints of Newark DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Organized crime families, dealing in stolen goods, gambling, infidelity, racism, murder, gender roles, expectations, the G.I. Bill, Vietnam War, Mussolini, the RICO Act.

The Many Saints of Newark MESSAGE

 – A life of crime is dysfunctional, violent, and unhappy.