Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this Spike Lee film is an intense study of racism as it existed in an urban U.S. neighborhood during the late 1980s. There are many angry racial confrontations using provocative, coarse language and highly-charged racial taunts, including constant use of "n----r." Violence realistically depicted includes: a riot, fistfights, a crowd setting fire to a restaurant, a man being choked by police using a baton. One sexual scene shows a couple during foreplay and uses extreme close-ups of a woman's body parts: her legs, her breasts, her neck. A leading character drinks beer continuously.

Sexual Content

One seduction scene in which a couple engages in repeated kisses, followed by extreme close-ups as the man begins to undress his female partner and then seductively runs ice over her bare breasts, legs, and thighs.

Violence

A fire hydrant sends gushing water into a crowd, nearly causing a riot when police and fire fighters turn their high-pressure hoses on those who've gathered. Several tense scenes are played when groups of angry Brooklyn residents confront and threaten each other. Finally, the entire neighborhood erupts as barely-controlled, intensifying fury sets blacks against whites. The street is ablaze with violence: a man is killed when police put him in a choke hold; rioters set fire to a business; vicious fist fights take place, as well as an attack with a baseball bat.

Language

From beginning to end, the harsh and offensive language is non-stop. The f-word in various forms is heard literally hundreds of times. Also constant use of "motherf----r," "s--t," "ass," "hell." Racial slurs are frequent with taunts and insults to Italians, Jews, Puerto Ricans, and above all, African-Americans. The "n" word is heard persistently.

Social Behavior

Thought-provoking and complicated: Blame and anger lie just below the surface of civility in humankind, often taking the form of racial prejudice; no matter what previous relationships have been formed, decency and morality disappear when basic, crueler instincts are set free.

Consumerism

Miller Hi Life Beer.

Drugs / Tobacco / Alcohol

Beer drinking in various scenes. A leading character begins drinking beer very early in the morning and is intoxicated throughout the film.