Medieval | 2022 | R | – 6.9.2

Why is “Medieval” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong and grisly violent content throughout, and some nudity.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a rape scene with nudity, an implied sex scene with nudity, a few kissing scenes, many brutal fighting scenes with swords, arrows, knives, spears and maces, leaving many dead with bloody wounds and missing limbs, a kidnapping, many arguments, and some mild language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Set in the 15th century and based on the life of Jan Zizka (Ben Foster), who led armies of common folk against the armies of the Teutonic Order and the Holy Roman Empire, in defense of freedom. Also with Sophie Lowe, Michael Caine, Til Schweiger, Roland Møller, Matthew Goode, William Moseley and Karel Roden. Directed by Petr Jákl. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in an unidentified language without translation. [Running Time: 2:06]

Medieval SEX/NUDITY 6

 – Men attack a village, beating people and burning houses and a woman is slammed against a table, her dress torn open and she is raped by a man (we see her bare breasts and see the man thrusting). A fully nude woman sits in a bed as a man dresses (sex is implied) and we see her bare breasts, side, hip and leg as the man strokes her thigh; it is implied that she is the man’s mistress but that he is engaged to another woman.
► A man kisses a woman tenderly. A woman touches a man’s neck and they lean toward each other to kiss (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man has his arms around two women in a drinking establishment.
► A man makes a crude remark about a woman.
► A woman’s skirt lifts to reveal her bare knee and she quickly covers it up. Women wear low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage in a few scenes.

Medieval VIOLENCE/GORE 9

 – A man using a heavy mace rides on horseback and strikes several other men causing damage to their faces and throwing them to the ground; when he gets off his horse, he uses the weapon to obliterate one man’s face (we see the damage and blood), he breaks another man’s leg at the shin (we see the leg snap unnaturally with a lot of blood and the man screams), and the man beats another man repeatedly with the weapon while the man is on the ground (we hear crunching and squishing and a man is shown with a bloody gouge on his head later). A young man is shown impaled on a pole through the back and dangles with his feet off the ground while blood pours into a puddle on the ground; he whimpers and we see blood in his mouth and a man embraces him and stabs him, killing him (we hear the crunch).
► Many armed people face off in a field: one side launches many arrows after the other side sets bundles of hay on fire causing smoke to fill the air, the men use a wooden barricade to protects themselves from the arrows, men on horseback ride through the smoke carrying spears and the men behind the barricades push blades through, stabbing the attackers (blood spurts); a crossbow is used and men are struck (we see blood), men are slashed and stabbed, boulders are flung knocking men down and they moan (one man’s hand is shown crushed flat in a blood-soaked glove).
► Many men fight and a man is stabbed as he enters the area from a closed door (he falls dead), many heavy blows land, people are stabbed and speared, and arrows strike with a lot of blood, squishing and crunching; a man’s throat is slit (blood spurts) and part of a man’s arm is cut off (we see the remaining bloody flesh); a man is thrown over a wall and crashes onto rocks below (blood spurts), another man is thrown off the wall and we see him land in water still alive, and a woman stands on a wall and lets herself fall into the water as two men fall in the water and fight (one man hits the other man in the head with a rock and he sinks motionless); the woman is pulled out of the water and spits out water as she revives (we see blood seeping from a head wound).
► A man scrambles down a hillside and stabs a man in the back, slashes another man and cuts his head off with a sawing motion, as other men watch in terror and run away (we see blood and the severed head). Many men fight in a cave, one man bites the nose off another man’s face (we see the bloody result), another man is slashed across the face and eye (we see blood and his damaged eye), and we see more fighting with stabs and slashes and bloodshed. A man is stabbed and the blade seems to be pulled up in his abdomen twice (he bleeds from the mouth but does not die), he lies on the ground with blood in his mouth and his attacker stands over him with a sword (he does not stab him again). A man is stabbed through the back and falls dead (we hear a crunch and see the blade move through his chest). A man on his knees is stoned by other men and we see his very bloody face; one man pounds a large rock down on his head killing him.
► Two groups of men fight with stabbing and slashing in a tunnel near a lion’s cage, and one man is wounded and leans against the cage; the lion bites him through the bars, pulls an arm off and we later see the lion biting the man’s head. A lion’s cage is opened and it lumbers out toward men as they run away; one man is grabbed and bitten (we see his head in the lion’s mouth); another man is attacked from behind as he pounds on a locked door.
► We hear swords clanging and see people fighting as men on a ridge plan to attack; one man with a crossbow shoots a horse in the hindquarters and it runs away pulling a carriage with a man inside. Several men in an enclosed courtyard are fired on by archers and they are all struck and killed (we see blood). People protest a man being bound and taken away; a woman stabs one man in the back and the other people attack the men, killing them with slashes and stabbings. A man with a bloody wound and blood pooled on the ground around him dies. A man tries to spear another man inside a carriage and the man in the carriage shoots him with a crossbow arrow (blood spurts). A man is held on his knees and with a blade to his throat as he is questioned. A couple of men on horses are pushed off a ledge and into water below and one of the men swims to the bank and is shot in the head by an arrow as he climbs out of the water (we see blood), and one man is stabbed a few times in the water (we see blood in the water). A man is struck in the mouth with an arrow and falls dead just before he gives information (we see blood).
► A man is shown with an arrow in his abdomen and blood seeps from the wound; he dies. Several scenes show bloody and mangled bodies strewn on the ground after violent encounters. A man’s body is seen on a spike with the point through his mouth as a bird pecks on his face. A body is tied to the back of a horse and dragged and we see a trail of blood in the dirt. Many dead bodies hang from tree limbs and we see discolored flesh on their faces and feet.
► Men attack a village, beating people and burning houses and we see charred bodies; a woman is slammed against a table, her dress torn open and she is raped by a man (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details). A teen boy is hanged from a tree and his mother lunges forward trying to stop it but she is struck in the face and knocked down; we see the boy hanging and gasping as a man fights with several men and he is struck and prodded with spears and eventually bound; the boy is cut down and regains consciousness. Men attack a man and a woman, and the man is beaten and left tied to a tree with his bloody wounds exposed until another man finds him and releases him.
► A man throws a rock into another man’s chest knocking him to the ground, breathless; he struggles to breathe as a young man threatens the first man with a knife and a woman is grabbed by other men. A man punches another man in the face. A woman is taken to a room in a church where she is grabbed by a man, gagged and taken away; we see her later hidden under a pile of dead bodies in a cart (we see blood on the bodies).
► A wounded man and a woman swim away from fighting men and the man does not surface; the woman goes back to help him, rats skitter around the area and the man coughs and spits water; the woman cleans a bloody wound on his face and presses wriggling maggots that she retrieves from a dead rat’s open abdominal wound onto the open gash and wraps it with a cloth. Vicious dogs bark and snarl while tracking someone. Raw meat is cut up and thrown into a lion’s cage as it roars and paces.
► A woman washes blood form her hand after stabbing someone. A woman grieves over a dead man’s body. A woman has a large scar on the side of her face (like a burn) left by a violent encounter with a man. A man takes a ring off a woman’s finger to keep her from being identified. A woman runs away from a camp and hides until a man finds her and takes her back. A woman leaves a recovering man in a cave and is grabbed by other men outside the cave.
► A man puts seeds on the ground near and around dead bodies and graves saying, “Death brings life,” in several scenes. A woman yells and protests acts of violence in a few scenes. We hear about the death of the Bohemian King and Charles IV and that everything was in chaos as we see dead bodies strewn on the ground and people beating other people; we also hear about a plague.
► A man threatens a child by saying, “Maybe we should let the dogs play.” A flashback shows a wounded boy pleading (we see blood on his mouth) with his father top kill someone. A woman tells a man that she was kept alive to tell him that his brother would be killed if a kidnapped woman was not returned. A young man asks a man if he killed a boar with his bare hands, how many people he has killed and if he is going to kill someone. A man is told to kidnap a woman and he says, “We don’t kidnap women.” People are shown praying before battles and one man pleads, “Forgive us for what we are about to do.” A man talks about another man being a box of bones. A young man says that his mother died of the plague. A man tells another man that he should pray for forgiveness for failing to kill another man. References are made to plundering and other acts of violence “In the name of God.” A woman protests an act of violence against her in a “House of God.” A woman threatens a man saying, “My fiancé will take it [a ring] off your corpse.” A woman says that the church twists things that are written in the Bible. A woman says, “Nobody wants to be here, but we can only take so much.” A man says, “If father were alive he’d be ashamed you were his son.” A woman talks about her mother dying. A man talks about a woman being hanged for killing a hawk.
► People practice and train using swords and other weapons in a few scenes. A young man practices throwing rocks using a shepherd sling in a few scenes. A man wears a boar’s tooth around his neck and gives it to his nephew. A woman spits on another woman. People spit in a few scenes (we see saliva).

Medieval LANGUAGE 2

 – 1 scatological term, 2 mild obscenities, name-calling (insane, thief, heretics, morons), 10 religious exclamations (e.g. we’re doing God’s work here, God’s will, God will deliver her to me, my Lord, the King’s law is God’s law, Jesus, in the name of God, God’s warriors, pray to God). | profanity glossary |

Medieval SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman offers men drinks in goblets (presumably alcoholic), a man drinks from a flask in several scenes and denies another man a drink when he asks, and people drink from mugs and talk loudly in a drinking establishment.

Medieval DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Violence, tyranny, power, greed, promises, civil war, hate, blackmail, treason, freedom, faith, hope, honor, marrying for love vs. arranged marriages, the greater good, fighting for justice, revolts, raping, pillaging.

Medieval MESSAGE

 – Fighting for freedom and justice is a bloody road to take.