Handmaid's Tale, The

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  • Handmaid's Tale, The -- Muddled fable about a fascist state of the near future where pollution and radioactivity have made most women barren and the fertile few are enslaved as "handmaids" to breed children for the state's rulers. Though director Volker Schloendorff's visuals summon up the image of Nazi Germany, the story of one particular handmaid (Natasha Richardson) gets lost in a dreary depiction of a dehumanized, male-dominated world. Several excessively graphic simulations of sexual intercourse, brief nudity, some rough language and an ambiguous treatment of religion as contributing to a repressive society. (O) (R) ( 1990 )




    Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

    The classifications are as follows:

    • A-I -- general patronage;
    • A-II -- adults and adolescents;
    • A-III -- adults;
    • A-IV**
    • L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
    • O -- morally offensive.
    ** Discontinued classification. All archived movies that were originally in the A-IV category are now classified as L.
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    Office for Film and Broadcasting | 1011 First Avenue, 13th Floor, New York, NY 10022 | (212) 644-1880 © USCCB. All rights reserved.