Feb 19,1971
| nudity | No direct sex or nudity. In one scene, the Reverend in unconscious response to a radio announcement, gropes his wife, and a series of following scenes imply that the Reverend and his wife head to their bedroom, climaxing in a scene where his wife makes the bed, looks out the window, sees the Reverend walking toward the house, unmakes the bed and unzips her dress. There is a small sub-plot/series of throwaway gags about a woman engaging in prostitution by being a "massage therapist" - but the gag is very much through inference, and can easily go over the heads of those not looking for it. |
| violence | No bloody violence, though three characters are shot at the film's climax by accident. There is a slight implication that their wounds are not serious (the characters live throughout the scene, though there is no followup showing conclusively whether or not the characters actually indeed survive), no blood or visible wounds are shown and the scene is played for laughs. Numerous gags revolve around an elderly woman who waves a gun around, and another character whose lighter exactly resembles the same pistol. Numerous scenes of non-graphic violence played for humor are shown during the "nicotine withdrawal" sequence, including an extra kicking a puppy (who is seen to go flying due to special effects for yards), as well as numerous minor assaults. |
| profanity | The word "bullshit" is thrown around liberally by one elderly woman, and in two scenes, a word implied to be "fuck" is bleeped out in a mock news broadcast. One woman in a station wagon who is touring the town with her husband says that she isn't "going to stay on any goddamn farm." |
| alcohol | The entire film's plot revolves around a town with a high number of heavy smokers (including teenagers) that breaks its smoking habit for a month to win a prize of $25 million, and shows comically-exaggerated depictions of nicotine withdrawal, and much smoking is shown before and after the no-smoking project. There are a group of hippies in the middle of the film who drive in in a van marked "non-smoking herbs" (a sly reference to marijuana). The climax of the film has the tobacco company that has served as the film's antagonist dumping thousands of cigarettes on the assembled townsfolk in a last-ditch attempt to get them to break their vows, leading to one character (a compulsive smoker, Dr. Proctor, played by Barnard Hughes) begging everyone in town for a light, the unlit cigarette in his lips. The ending sequences show many townsfolk rejoicingly smoking (often with exaggerated ecstatic expressions). One character is the town drunkard (Tom Poston), who is seen to be drunken driving in two scenes, and is shown to be drinking from miniature liquor bottles in other scenes. |
| frightening | None of note. |
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