What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that various characters face cruel death -- their own or their loved ones'. The heroine is rejected by the law enforcement agency she serves. Later she finds herself stalked, drugged, imprisoned, and threatened with amputation by a love-struck killer. Danger of violent death/dismemberment by either slow torture (including devouring by other humans or wild animals) or quick evisceration. A hideously scarred villain's visage fills the screen. A physically disabled, disfigured, revenge-crazed character claims to be a born-again Christian, although what he practices is anything but. The rural-born Clarice Starling is taunted as "tornado-bait trailer-park white trash." Dr. Lecter expresses his love by tormenting the virtuous heroine. Slight profanity, but it includes derogatory references to female genitals. Characters dwell on revenge in various hideous forms. References to drug use. Verbal references to homosexuality, child-molestation, and sexual harassment. Fleeting nudity, among the Florence Opera chorus and in drawings and evidence photos. People are eaten by pigs, sliced with razors and medical instruments, hanged, shot, and hit by cars. One individual's brain is exposed -- while he's still alive.
- Families can talk about Agent Starling's moral stance.