Steve McQueen stars as a nice jerk in Northern Mississippi in 1905. However, the focus of the film really is on young Mitch Vogel and is about his initiation into the sluttier side of life. Odd that despite his prominence in the film he received such low billing. This is a coming of age story about the South from William Faulkner and while in many ways it is a family film, the themes that appear in it make it far from family-friendly. This is certainly not a Disney flick! Now for older kids, it's probably okay but with the sexual content, whore house setting and morally shaky lead characters, it's a bit problematic for the younger crowd.
Now if you ignore all the debauchery in this film and the cliché about "hookers with hearts of gold", then it is an excellent character study and does have some lovely performances and is finely crafted--just don't let your kids internalize the messages or you'll be sorry!
Now if you ignore all the debauchery in this film and the cliché about "hookers with hearts of gold", then it is an excellent character study and does have some lovely performances and is finely crafted--just don't let your kids internalize the messages or you'll be sorry!