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Broken Trail
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Is it age appropriate?
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Not age appropriate for kids under 14, age appropriate for kids over 15; suggested age 14. -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
Lauded miniseries doesn't glamorize the old West.
Why We Rated This 
for Ages 14–15
The good stuff
What to watch out for
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Violence:
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Sex:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
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Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
What Parents Need to Know
About Broken Trail
Parents need to know that much of the plot concerns prostitution and sexual slavery as a business. Besides talk of venereal disease, there are some bosom-bulging tight corsets and brief nudity glimpsed in a group of young Chinese women as they are being inspected by a seedy client. It is never made glamorous, though. Neither is the depiction of life in the old West. It's shown as rough and often violent -- where a lame horse is summarily shot in the head, not taken to a vet.
Read our full review by Charles Cassady Jr.
Families Can Talk About
- Families can talk about the authenticity of the old West setting. As opposed to more lighthearted "oaters" like old-time singing-cowboy movies, The Wild, Wild West or Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon, there is mud and dirt on this trail, a horse that develops leg trouble is shot to death, and when gun battles begin the Chinese characters duck and cover -- rather than bust out into kung fu. Do your kids prefer this vision of the West, or Hollywood's standard fantasies? While this is one Western that gives due credit to the large numbers of Chinese settlers in pioneer America, you might mention that blacks (not very visible here) also comprised up to a quarter of all working cowboys. One of the girls in this movie is subjected to the practice of footbinding, which could open up discussions about the devaluation and exploitation of women across cultures.
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