Parents' Guide to

Barbarella

By Tracy Moore, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Campy sci-fi cult classic features violence, nudity.

Movie PG 1968 98 minutes
Barbarella Poster Image

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What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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BARBARELLA is worth a watch for fans of cult flicks, old sci-fi, and the just plain weird. Although the set design, costumes, and swingin'-'60s aesthetic age well and fascinate, the plot itself and its attitude toward women and free-spirited sexuality -- with the protagonist being a sexy, up-for-sex glamazon on a mission involving a lot of weird, bizarre sexual situations, including being bitten and bloodied a lot -- feels excessively retrograde and punitive. Plus, don't be fooled by the PG rating -- there are bare breasts and lounging, beckoning, half-naked women at nearly every turn.

That said, it's not for kids. Although parents and their very mature teens may enjoy this cultural romp as artifact, the jokes, references, and frank discussions of futuristic sex (which, bewilderingly, is always assumed to require medication and machines) simply won't make sense to younger kids. Possibly, it won't make sense to anyone.

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