Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that even though this documentary includes animation and director/star Morgan Spurlock's trademark humor, it's not aimed at younger children. It deals with difficult themes -- terrorism, morality, birth, and death -- in ways that are both entertaining and sophisticated. Violence is a theme throughout the movie, coming up in conversations about terrorist attacks, suicide bombers, and U.S. aggression. Actual violent images are infrequent; conservative men in Israel who resent the film crew's intrusion act aggressively, and there are shots of tanks and armed men in Gaza. There's brief imagery of Spurlock's wife giving birth in a tub; language includes a couple of "f--k"s and other profanity.
Sexual
Content
Some images of Alexandra (Spurlock's wife) pregnant and giving birth in a tub. Some nudity, but nothing racy/sexual.
Violence
Frequent discussions of terrorism and recent terrorist acts (including attacks on the United States). When Spurlock takes self-defense training, he pretends to duck grenades and roll around to avoid gunfire; one fake scenario shows a man with his head "exploded" (red paint splatter on the wall). One scene shows conservative Israeli Jewish men behaving aggressively toward Spurlock and his cameraperson; other scenes show tanks and men with guns in Palestine and the Gaza Strip. Spurlock and his crew follow a police squad called to check a possible bomb; the object is exploded safely.
Language
Occasional language includes "f--k" (a couple of times), "bitch," "son of a bitch," and "s--t."
Social
Behavior
Spurlock chastises world leaders (especially recent U.S. politicians) and holds forth on the world's peoples "getting along." His comedy is received generously, save for a scene in Israel, where men on the street yell and gesture aggressively to get him to leave. Some animated representations of "terrorists" show them in caricatured ways (bearded, scary).
Consumerism
Starbucks (in Israel).
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
Some interviewees smoke cigarettes.
