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The Ottoman Lieutenant | 2017 | R | - 6.7.1

In 1915 an American nurse (Hera Hilmar) travels to eastern Turkey to volunteer at a hospital. She falls in love with her escort (Michiel Huisman), a Turkish army officer, while a doctor at the hospital (Josh Hartnett) falls in love with her and WWI is soon upon them. Also with Ben Kingsley, Haluk Bilginer, Affif Ben Badra, Paul Barrett and Jessica Turner. Directed by Joseph Ruben. A couple of lines of dialogue are spoken in Turkish with English subtitles. [1:46]

SEX/NUDITY 6 - A man and a woman kiss passionately, she lies back and the man lies on top of her, they continue to kiss, they each remove their tops (the woman is shown wearing a camisole and we see the man's bare chest and back), he lifts her skirt and we see her bare thigh as he thrusts and they moan (we see a bit of the top of the man's buttocks). A man caresses a woman's hair and face and they kiss passionately, and he kisses her neck. A man and a woman lie in a small boat and hug.
 A man tells a woman, "I've wanted to touch you…" and they discuss their differing religious faiths. A man touches a woman's face and then pulls away and says, "My God, I can smell him," referring to another man who made love to her.
 A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage in a couple of scenes. A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals her bare upper chest (no cleavage is evident).

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - Several soldiers are shot one at a time by a sniper in a village (we see blood spurt with each hit), other soldiers fire toward the sniper and one is struck throwing him off a hilltop and another takes over. A man shoots another man in a marketplace and a third man shoots the first man in the back and he collapses onto a market stall (we see a bit of blood spray). A man tries to shoot a man but his gun is empty; the two men fight, and one man draws a knife and stabs the other man in the abdomen (we hear a crunch and see two young boys watching from nearby). Soldiers shove and yell at a group of people near a road and we see a man shot near a tree (we hear the shot and the body collapses; no blood is seen), another person is shot (we hear the retort), and another until an officer tells the soldiers to stop and takes the remaining people with him in a truck; the officer is shot twice as he walks away (we see blood spurt and he moans as he climbs into the truck and they drive away).
 A man climbs a sheer stone wall surrounding an armory and sneaks through to find the stores; a guard holds a gun on him and a young man slits the guard's throat form behind (we see the blade move across his throat and hear a slash with blood). Men with guns ride into a camp and one man shoots at another man's feet twice until a woman speeds away in a truck and the shooting man shoots out one of the tires forcing the vehicle off the road; the woman is pulled onto a galloping horse by a man and they get way from the bandits.
 A man ignites gunpowder and runs to clear the area; several guards shoot at him as he climbs a sheer stone wall and the explosion destroys the area. We see explosions in the distance and understand that a village is being invaded. A few newsreel type scenes show battlefield encounters with explosions, hand-to-hand combat, men attack each other with bayonets, and we see dead bodies with blood in a few of these scenes.
 Two men fist fight with several blows landing and they hold each other around the throat until another man fires a handgun in the air to break them up (both men are shown with bloody faces).
 A man is shown in a surgery with a bullet in his shoulder and a doctor removes it; the man screams and there is a lot of blood pouring from the wound. Several men are shown with their hands bound behind them as they hang by the neck along a road. Several dead bodies are seen and burning debris is scattered after soldiers have attacked villages. Two dogs fight over a severed arm (we see the arm with bloody gashes). We see a village in flames as several people on horseback approach and we understand that the villagers have been attacked; we see some wounded people as they are treated by a doctor. Many refugees and wounded people are shown trudging on roadsides in a few scenes. A young boy is shown with a shard of glass in his eyelid (there is a lot of blood on his head and face) and we understand that he will lose his eye if it is not removed carefully. A man is brought into a hospital and he is not breathing; a doctor examines an abscess on his chest that is compressing his heart and lungs until a doctor lances it with a scalpel (the abscess sprays green infected fluid high into the air) and the man begins breathing again. A man with a very bloody throat wound is wheeled into a hospital and a young woman attempts to stem the bleeding until she is told that the man cannot be treated there (because of the color of his skin) and he is sent away (we see blood on the young woman's hands). We see several hospital scenes with wounded and suffering patients (we do see some bloody wounds in a handful of such scenes) as well as photos of soldiers wounded on battlefields. A young girl is shown with a fever and rash and she coughs in a hospital; we are told that she has Typhus. A woman is shown in labor and we see her bare knees as she pushes; we then see a slightly goo-covered infant wrapped in cloth. An elderly man dies in a hospital. A man sits in a dark room breathing heavily; he seems to be suffering from anxiety or something. A woman wraps a body and ties it before rolling it off a boat and into water (we see it sink).
 Russian soldiers move into a village and a man pleads with them to leave a medical facility unharmed. Two men argue about Christians being run out of Anatolia. A man confronts a woman in a crowded marketplace after another man tries to swindle her over a shoe shine. A man and a woman argue with their adult daughter about a dangerous trip she wants to take. A woman argues with a man on a men's only train car and she is told to leave. Soldiers search a chapel and a woman pleads with them to stop (they do).
 We hear that Armenians are being rounded up. Anatolia is describes as having "unspeakable violence." A woman talks about her brother having died from tuberculosis. A man talks about his parents dying. There is talk of trench warfare and poison gas. We hear conversations about a war that's coming. We hear that the Ottoman Empire joined the war on the side of the Germans and the Russians invaded the Empire. We hear about a war to end all wars. A man says, "This is no place for a woman." A man talks about having been unable to save his wife from Typhus. A man says, "We are drowning in death." A man says, "God is cruel." A man describes wounded soldiers cupping their entrails in their hands or missing a limb.

LANGUAGE 1 - 1 mild obscenity, name-calling (ridiculous, edge of nowhere, thief, savages, cowards), 4 religious exclamations (e.g. My God, Oh God, God Bless You).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man inhales Ether to help him sleep. A man carries a bottle of what appears to be wine (we do not see him drink from it), and soldiers guarding an armory appear to be inebriated and we see one man drinking from a bottle and then sharing it with another man. A man smokes a cigarette outside a doorway, and several men are shown smoking in a few scenes.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - World War I, the Armenian Genocide, historical truth, faith, customs, Islam, Bible stories (Adam and Eve, Noah), extortion, humanitarian efforts, hypocrisy, fear, disappointment, love, heartbreak, nobility, jealousy, bravery, freedom, disease, peace, death of a loved one.

MESSAGE - War is horrible for all involved.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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