Today’s Prayer Focus
MOVIE REVIEW

The Rock

Reviewed by: Donna Hutchcroft

Moral Rating: Very Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Action Adventure
Length: approx. 120 min.
Year of Release: 1996
USA Release:
Featuring
Director
Producer
Distributor

Alcatraz has been taken over! A group of angry Marines determined to make the military pay millions to the families of fallen comrades (lost in covert operations) have taken the tourists on the island hostage. The outlaw Marines threaten to use deadly chemical rockets against nearby San Francisco if their demands are not met.

The government sends a team of Navy Seals to break into Alcatraz and disable the weapons. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage) an FBI chemical weapons expert, has the knowledge to disarm them, but he is basically a lab rat and not a field agent. To work through the series of underground mazes in Alcatraz the FBI pardons Patrick Mason (Sean Connery), a military prisoner for over 30 years. Mason was the only man to ever escape from Alcatraz.

There are numerous bloody and graphic scenes, military style. In some men are killed by falling objects, or impaled on poles. Explosions, throat slittings and snapping necks also claim victims. There are even gruesome scenes of men dying from exposure to the deadly gas. (I think the point of death could have been made without the vulgarities of spasm-wracked bodies shown here.)

Foul/objectionable language is frequent, and one of the Ten Commandments—Thou Shalt Not Use The Lord’s Name in Vain—seems to have been forgotten altogether! Further, Dr. Goodspeed lives with his pregnant girlfriend, and a scene where they make love while wearing their bathrobes is shown.

This exciting movie has a multitude of suspenseful scenes that keep you on the edge of your seat. Humor is mixed in as well, giving the film good balance, and the audience a chance to momentarily relax with laughter.

I recommend this film only for mature audiences (over 18), and then only with the warning regarding its graphic violence. I do not recommend it for a Christian couple’s “date movie.”


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
…one thing came to mind, “whatever is pure… let your mind dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8.) This certainly wasn’t a pure movie. Even though I thought the overall plot of “The Rock” was a good idea, too much garbage affected its potential to be a great film. By garbage, I mean all the profanity (especially using the Lord’s name in vain), extreme graphic violence, and an unnecessary sexual scene (between a girlfriend and boyfriend living together). I was disappointed to see two talents (Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery) be a part of this demoralizing film. On the positive side, the one redeeming feature of this film, is that Sean Connery’s character (John Mason) seeks to reconcile his relationship with his daughter, after many years in prison. Family reconciliation is a good thing—it’s just too bad that this was a minor part of the film. Overall, this movie has too much junk to affect any Christian in a Christ-like way. My Ratings: [1/4]
Jason, age 25