Till | 2022 | PG-13 | – 2.6.3

Why is “Till” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “thematic content involving racism, strong disturbing images and racial slurs.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of kisses and hugs, a description of an implied sexual assault, a teen boy being dragged out of a house at night and the sounds of a beating, images of the bloated and broken body of a teen boy that we see several times, many arguments, discussions of racial hatred and White supremacy and the violence that it perpetuates, and some moderate language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Set in 1955 and based on the true story of Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall), the 14-year-old boy from Chicago that was murdered while visiting relatives in Mississippi. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler), would go on to become a powerful voice in the Civil Rights Movement. Also with Frankie Faison, Haley Bennett, Whoopi Goldberg, Sean Patrick Thomas, John Douglas Thompson, Gem Marc Collins, Diallo Thompson, Tyrik Johnson, Enoch King, Carol J. Mckenith, Elizabeth Youman, Keisha Tillis and Elizabeth Wright. Directed by Chinonye Chukwu. [Running Time: 2:10]

Till SEX/NUDITY 2

 – A man and a woman kiss and hug in a couple of scenes. A man and a woman hug. A man caresses a woman’s shoulder to comfort her.
► A woman in a courtroom testifies that a man entered her store at night and implies that he sexually assaulted her; she demonstrates that he grabbed her hand, then held with her hands behind her back and leaned her forward, as she says the man said, “How about a date baby,” and, “Don’t worry, I’ve been with White women before.”
► A teen boy tells a woman that she looks like a movie star and later whistles at her; the compliment is not well received (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A woman asks a man to go on a trip with her to get her mind off her teen son being away from home. A man quizzes a woman about whether she and a man are married and what happened to her husband.
► A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage in a few scenes. A woman wearing a full slip that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders sits on the edge of her bed. We see the bare chest, abdomen and legs of a dead teen boy (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).

Till VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – A woman and two men stand over a table where the woman’s son’s body is covered with a sheet: the two men hold handkerchiefs over their faces (an odor is implied), the woman tells one man to remove the sheet and she and one of the men gasp at what they see; we see the body bloated and badly discolored with a gaping wound on the head and disfigured facial features and the woman touches the body gently and wails in grief. A reporter photographs the body of a 14-year-old boy and we see the images published in a newspaper. A woman demands an open casket funeral for her son so that everyone can see what racial hatred did to her son; we later see many people gathered outside a church and walking through a viewing of the body.
► Several men pound on a door and demand to see a teen boy, they refer to him as, “The one that did the talking,” and man inside the house tries to dissuade them until they break through the door and search the house with flashlights; a teen boy is told to get dressed and is dragged out of the house by the men, as a woman and a man try to stop them but they are threatened with a gun and the teen boy is put in the back of a truck as one man says, “We want to teach him a lesson,” and they drive away. We hear men’s voices yelling, we hear a teen boy crying out and several blows as the boy is being beaten (we do not see the beating); the next day we see a few men in the distance carrying something heavy wrapped in a tarp and put it in a truck. Three people, one with a gun, go to the door of a house to take a young man to testify at a trial; the young man runs out of the back of the house and the man with the gun chases him onto a dirt road where they are cut off by a car (no injuries are seen).
► A teen boy walks through a general store and reaches into a jar of gumballs, and when he pays the clerk, he remarks that she looks like a movie star and she seems alarmed; he leaves the store, she rushes to the door and the boy whistles at her causing her to become enraged and run to her car for a gun, as the boy and several others speed away in another car and the woman points the gun at them. A woman and two men walk toward a courthouse and several young boys fire off cap guns or firecrackers making them flinch as they enter the building and the boys laugh. Two men and a woman are frisked as they enter a courtroom; the woman tells the man about to frisk her, “I dare you.” A man with a gun patrols the hallway of a building.
► A man in a courtroom identifies another man as the man that kidnapped and murdered a teen boy. A man in a courtroom says that he believes that a woman and the NAACP plotted the story of a teen boy being murdered and that the boy is still alive somewhere. A young woman tells a woman that her teen son’s body had been found in a river; the woman collapses. A woman is despondent after she hears that her teen son is missing; she meets with attorneys and influential people that can help her with the search; they discuss plans in a few scenes. A young man reprimands a teen boy for his behavior and says, “They’re killing [derogatory term deleted] for less than what you did.” A security guard in a department store suggests that a Black woman find shoes in the basement of the store and she asks if he tells the other customers in the store about them. We hear news reports about a teen boy being kidnapped and then found dead in a river. We hear several news reports and two of them detail two Black men being murdered in Mississippi. People talk about many people trying to stop Black people from advancing with any means, “short of violence.” A man tells a woman that Mississippi will not send her son’s body back to Chicago and she demands that he make them. A woman talks about not wanting her young child to live in fear. A woman describes telling her teen son to “humble himself” in front of White people if necessary. A woman yells at a man for not using his gun on the men that took her son; he says he had to choose. A woman yells at a man when he encourages her to use the murder of her son to advance awareness and put pressure on the Justice Department to make lynching a federal crime. A woman tells reporters gathered outside a building that what they smell is the body of her son and that the circumstances of his death, “Wreak of racial hatred.” We hear that after the verdict was announced in a courtroom, the accused laughed and cheered. A man convinces a woman to testify to the identification of her son’s body. A woman becomes upset about questions a man asks her about her relationship with a man and what happened to her husband. A woman worries about her teenage son leaving Chicago and going to Mississippi to visit family; she tells him, “They have a different set of rules down there.” A young man reprimands a teen boy for not working and says that he is going to get them in trouble. A woman frets in several scenes and says that she and her teen son have never been apart for as long as he is going to be away. A woman says that her teen son was born breach.
► We glimpse a few newspaper clippings and letters that we understand is hate mail a woman is receiving. We see the photo of a teen boy on the front page of a newspaper. We read that Medgar Evers was murdered outside his home and in front of his family. We read that the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act was signed in 2022.
► A woman watches a coffin being unloaded from a train, she rushes toward it and wails in grief, pleading for them to open the box and that he can’t breathe; she cries, “Get him out of the box.” A teen boy appears to have a speech impediment.
► A teen boy collapses in a field while picking cotton with others, then gets up pretending to be a monster and attacking a younger boy for laughs. A teen boy swats a bee between his hands while working in a field.

Till LANGUAGE 3

 – 2 mild obscenities, 21 derogatory terms for Black people, name-calling (freak show, so-called men, hicks, uppity, belligerent), exclamations (shut-up, don’t talk back), 1 religious profanity (GD), 7 religious exclamations (e.g. Lord have mercy, oh Lord, oh God). | profanity glossary |

Till SUBSTANCE USE

 – Men smoke cigarettes outside a store, a young man smokes a cigarette, three women smoke cigarettes and play cards in a woman’s home, a man holds a pipe in his hand (we do not see him smoke), people smoke in a courtroom, and a man smokes a pipe in his home.

Till DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Racism, murder, white supremacy, lynching, justice, unequal justice, decency, character, voter registration, hate, racism in Southern United States, the Civil Right Movement, the Civil Rights Act, Medgar Evers, the NAACP, Anti-Lynching legislation.

Till MESSAGE

 – There must be freedom for everyone or freedom fails.