Salt parents guide

Salt Parent Guide

It might be incredible if it wasn't so ridiculous.

Overall C-

Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer accused of being a Russian spy. Unable to convince her superiors that she is being framed, the agent resists arrest to begin her own unauthorized (and often volatile) investigation into the allegations.

Release date July 23, 2010

Violence D
Sexual Content B+
Profanity D+
Substance Use B-

Why is Salt rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Salt PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action.

Run Time: 100 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

Angelina Jolie is known for her strong female characters and nothing about her role as Evelyn Salt will change that. But if Laura Croft is tough in Tomb Raider, Evelyn is tougher. If Christine Collins is single-mindedly determined in Changeling, Evelyn is driven. If Jane Smith knows how to wield a gun in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Evelyn can mow down an entire squadron—all by herself. To state it simply, Evelyn Salt is like a CIA agent on steroids.

Unfortunately the film’s pacing is as unrelenting as Jolie’s character. Without a down moment for audience members to catch their breath, the story plunges forward with increasing intensity from the opening scene where a bloody, bruised and barely clothed Evelyn is tortured by North Korean nationals. And life doesn’t calm down when she is finally freed from her captors. Back in Washington D.C., she and other CIA operatives (Live Schreiber, Kevin O’Donnell, Gaius Charles) carry out their espionage under the guise of petroleum company employees. Then on the day of her wedding anniversary, a Russian defector (Daniel Olbrychski) walks into the CIA’s undercover office, fully aware of the deception. He claims to have information about an imminent assassination plot. He also accuses Evelyn of being a Russian spy.

Her coworkers’ knee-jerk reaction to the old man’s allegation results in Evelyn’s immediate confinement. (It seems that in the counter intelligence arena trust is a rare commodity.) Unable to contact her husband (August Diehl) and worried about his welfare, Evelyn blasts her way out of the building and past a team of SWAT officers using a mixture of cleaning chemicals and a fire extinguisher. From that point the chase is on as Evelyn outruns, outshoots and outsmarts every agent she encounters.

Like her male counterparts in high-grossing espionage movies such as The Bourne Identity, Mission Impossible and Quantum of Solace, Evelyn is practically bulletproof. (She does endure a small graze on her midriff after highly trained US security officers fire a hail of slugs at her.) Surrounded and about to be captured, she throws herself off of an overpass landing on the top of a moving semi. From there she jumps from one truck to another. It might be incredible if it wasn’t so ridiculous. But then any sense of reality has to be checked at the ticket counter in order to engage in this violence packed script where this female spy takes down men twice her size, breaks necks, fires through cement walls and detonates grenades with reckless abandon.

With the body count rising as rapidly as conspiracy theories about sleeper agents and government plants, character development becomes a secondary consideration. Though Evelyn’s past is briefly unveiled through a series of flashbacks, the movie suffers from so many plot holes and fight scenes that it is hard to piece together any feasible explanation for the characters’ motivations. All we know is that there is a lot of ammunition being exchanged and that the security of the nation is in a pretty precarious state.

Setting itself up for a sequel, Salt feels anything but finished by the time the credits roll. But with this new action hero’s exaggerated and aggressive portrayal of "female empowerment", it is unlikely that even a follow-up story would contain a grain of truth.

Directed by Phillip Noyce. Starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor. Running time: 100 minutes. Theatrical release July 23, 2010. Updated

Salt
Rating & Content Info

Why is Salt rated PG-13? Salt is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for intense sequences of violence and action.

Violence: Frequent and intense depictions of violence are portrayed including strangulation, stabbing, hand-to-hand fighting, point blank shooting, explosions and beatings. A bloody, bruised female character is tortured and has a liquid forced down her throat by her captors. A man attacks and kills agents with a knife hidden in his shoe. A man is knocked from a motorcycle before it is stolen. Characters fire bullets into heavy traffic. Car chases result in crashes. A man is repeatedly buzzed with a tazer. A child suffers injuries from a car accident that kills her parents. A character detonates grenades inside a boat. A captive is cuffed and repeatedly head butted by the interrogator. Characters engage in risky activities.

Sexual Content: A woman is stripped down to her underwear while imprisoned. A couple kisses and embraces.

Language: A sexual expletive is used in a non-sexual context. Numerous uses of scatological slang and profanities are included, along with a cultural slur.

Drugs/Alcohol: Characters drink a toast to their success on a couple of occasions. A man’s unfinished drink is shown. One character injects another with spider venom.

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Salt Parents' Guide

This film suggests a number of explanations for real historical events. Does that give the script a more credible feel?

Evelyn’s husband refers to her as Mata Hari, a Dutch exotic dancer who was accused of being a spy for Germany. She was executed in 1917. Do spies play a role in national security? Is there a better way to get confidential information? What is the risk of someone being a double agent?

How might this portrayal of an aggressive female assailant affect female viewers? What about male viewers?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Salt movie is December 21, 2010. Here are some details…

Salt releases on DVD and Blu-ray on December 21, 2010, with the following bonus extras:

- Theatrical Version of the movie (100 min runtime).

- Filmmaker Commentary

- Featurettes: The Ultimate Female Action Hero and Spy Disguise: The Looks of Evelyn Salt

-Radio Interview with Director Phillip Noyce

Salt: The Deluxe Unrated Edition Blu-ray and DVD version also includes:

- Three versions of the film: Theatrical Version (100 min runtime), Unrated Director”s Cut (104 min runtime), and the Unrated Extended Cut (101 min runtime).

- SALT: Declassified   An undercover look at the secrets of making Salt

- The Real Agents

- The Modern Master of the Political Thriller: Phillip Noyce”

- False Identity: Creating A New Reality”

- movieIQ

- Spy Cam: Picture in Picture Track - Discover how the stunts and action were created with pre-visualization sequences, storyboards, and behind-the-scenes interviews with filmmakers, cast and crew.

Related home video titles:

Suspecting a mole in their organization, the FBI uses an agent-in-training to help them take down a double agent in Breach, a film based on true events. In The Hunt for Red October, an adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel, the US Navy goes on high alert when a Russian sub locks in on the American coastline. In another Tom Clancy adaptation, a young director at the CIA finds himself in the middle of a terrorist plot in The Sum of All Fears.

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