May 17,2011
The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Written by alfiehitchie
nudity | Jack is about 12 years old most of the film, and its implied his new sexual desires are beginning to stir. He flirts with a girl in class, and watches an attractive high school girl go to a dance. He breaks into her house (its unlocked), and steals a revealing, silky nightgown from her drawer. He later lets it loose in the river in repentance of his act. |
violence | The father teaches his boys how to fight. "The minute you see 'em blink, crack 'em," he tells Jack. During this training, he asks both Jack and his middle son to punch him in the face. Jack tries. The younger boy refuses. Father slaps Jack in the face several times, knocking him down. When the middle boy talks back to Father at the dinner table, Father reaches across the table, grabs the kid by the shirt and lifts him out of his chair. When Jack tries to make him stop, Father half throws Jack into his bedroom and slams the door, and we hear yelling and fighting outside. Later that night, Mother - furious with her husband over the scene at the dinner table - lunges at the man; he restrains her, wrapping her arms tightly in his. "Stop!" he shouts. Through a window, Jack sees another couple arguing--the man yelling abusively at the woman. Convicts struggle against law officers and kick inside police cruisers. Jack shoots someone else's finger with a BB gun and encourages that same boy to stick his finger in a lamp socket, though there is no electricity to the lamp. |
profanity | Mr. O'Brien says "hell" once. |
alcohol | A man walks on a street as if he is intoxicated. Some men smoke while playing cards. |
frightening | The BB gun scene perhaps, even if it is brief. A mother tries to cover her young child's eyes from a man lying in the front yard having a seizure. We learn of some implied deaths in the film, including a boy who drowns. The movie has rather surreal atmosphere. |