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Broken Trail

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 14, age appropriate for kids over 15; suggested age 14.
  • Is it any good?

    3.0
  • Common Sense says

    Lauded miniseries doesn't glamorize the old West.

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 14–15

The good stuff

  • Messages:

    Robert Duvall's character is almost too good and modern in his attitudes to be true, as he treats the Chinese in gentlemanly fashion and shoots a couple of white men on sight just because they're notorious Indian killers. Though he claims to have given up on happiness with females, he's still chivalrous when it counts. The other men in his posse follow in line.
 

What to watch out for

  • Violence:

    Men and horses shot down. One man hung (off-camera). Men and women are brutally beaten. Cattle branding in closeup. A woman is trampled by stampeding horses.
  • Sex:

    Prostitution and sexual slavery as a business is a major part of the plot. Besides talk of venereal disease, there are some bosom-bulging tight corsets and brief nudity (not in a typical sexual context, but young Chinese women are inspected by a would-be buyer).
  • Language:

    "S--t" is as severe as it gets.
  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Drunken cowboys, in and out of saloons, though some of the imbibing is friendly and social.
 

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.

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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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