Bombshell Parent Guide

One afternoon when I was sixteen, I stopped in at the fast food restaurant where I worked to pick up my paycheck. The manager handed me the check and made a crude comment. I was young and naïve and didn’t fully understand his meaning, but I was very aware that it was sexual in nature. He laughed and the other guys in the office laughed and I turned red and walked out. I have long since forgotten the manager’s name and face, but I can still remember how I felt. Stupid. Vulnerable. Humiliated.

I used to say that I was one of the lucky ones because that’s the worst thing that happened to me – I’ve never been groped or propositioned or assaulted. But I no longer see any good fortune in being demeaned because of my sex. And I’m pretty sure the protagonists of Bombshell would agree with me. Just because they weren’t beaten and raped doesn’t mean they were lucky…

Bombshell is based on the real life 2016 sexual harassment scandal that brought down Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, played on screen by John Lithgow. The film begins with veteran broadcaster Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) watching her career collapse thanks to her determination to challenge Fox’s sexist corporate culture. With a lawsuit in mind, she starts assembling evidence of sexual harassment against Roger Ailes, noting events, recording conversations, and excerpting TV segments. When Carlson’s fired, she launches a lawsuit. And waits for other victims to come forward…

Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) has a difficult decision to make. Reeling after a very public tweet-storm from presidential candidate Donald Trump, Kelly doesn’t want to rock the boat. She also experienced sexual harassment from Roger Ailes, but the episode is in the past, and Kelly doesn’t want to jeopardize her job or those of the employees on her show. But as Kelly grapples with her conscience, a young evangelical journalist, Kayla Pospisil (a composite character played by Margot Robbie) comes into Ailes’ orbit. And history repeats itself.

Bombshell tackles a critically important social issue – sexual harassment – without putting any sex on the screen. There is no nudity and no explicit descriptions of sexual activity. (Although there are two partially clothed, post-coital scenes unrelated to Roger Ailes’ peccadilloes: one involves a husband and wife, the other two women.) There is, however, an abundance of profane, crude, vulgar, and sexual language. Bombshell contains over three dozen sexual expletives and other crude terms for sexual acts and over two dozen terms of deity, some of which are combined in phrases that will doubtless offend religious viewers. There are also scatological curses, anatomical terms, and mild swear words. The excessive amounts of profanity push this production into Restricted territory. And that’s unfortunate because this is a movie that raises critically important issues and could be used as a starting point for meaningful discussions with teenagers.

Viewers of every age will surely empathize with young Kayla Pospisil, flushed with shame, when Ailes tells her to raise her skirt so he can check out her legs. “Television is a visual medium” he says, staring greedily and breathing heavily, as her skirt rises above her underwear. And audiences will also nod along with Kayla when she accuses Megyn of betraying her and other victims by failing to come forward earlier about Ailes’ predatory behavior. Bombshell is very clear in condemning Ailes but it doesn’t shrink from pointing out that plenty of women enabled his continued abuses – from his secretary bringing women into his office, to his wife defending him, to Fox personalities such as Greta Van Susteren and Jeanine Pirro who attack Carlson, Kelly and the other women who come forward. This film isn’t just a cry against male sexual entitlement, it’s a call for female solidarity against harassment, assault and other forms of victimization. Hopefully, it’s a call that will be heard.