THE OATH

Name: THE OATH
Item: THE OATH
Author: Admin

"Thanksgiving Holiday Goes Horribly South"

Family Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

THE OATH is a dark comedy set in the near future. Ten months before Thanksgiving, the President announces a nationwide oath will be available for every citizen to sign, pledging their loyalty to him. Mason and his wife, Kai, agree not to sign the pledge. When Mason’s family comes to celebrate Thanksgiving with them, Mason can’t resist arguing with his conservative family members about the oath and political issues. Things get heated during the holiday meal, and even more heated when two government agents appear wanting to question Mason about an allegation that he’s trying to stop someone from signing the oath.

THE OATH is an unpolished movie that tries to comment on the current political divide in America. It has a few funny, positive moments about what happens when families argue politics during Thanksgiving. THE OATH ends on a kumbaya moment. Despite this, the movie leans left. For example, the most conservative character, the brother’s girlfriend, is depicted as the most ignorant. THE OATH also contains some excessive violence and lots of excessive foul language, plus a line mocking belief in God.

Content:

(HH, PCPC, B, AB, LLL, VVV, S, N, A, D, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Humanist, left-leaning worldview about a clash between liberal and conservative family members during Thanksgiving holiday, with some politically correct elements where the most conservative character is depicted as the most ignorant, but movie’s ending says people shouldn’t let politics divide them to the point of anger and violence, and liberal protagonist apologizes for his poor behavior and is protective of his family, but he also mocks God during a prayer by saying God isn’t something he believes;

Foul Language:

At least, 102 obscenities (including many “f” words) and 11 profanities (including several strong ones), a homosexual slur is mentioned, characters make obscene gestures to other people several times, and some toilet humor with descriptive language;

Violence:

Some very strong and strong violence includes character gets blood on her face when someone is shot, characters hit and punch and choke one another, characters threaten to shoot other people, a character is tasered, characters are tied up with duct tape, and references to rape;

Sex:

Opening scene shows a married couple in bed about to have marital relations;

Nudity:

Brief upper male nudity;

Alcohol Use:

Alcohol use and one comment about being excited to drink beer;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Characters smoke a joint of marijuana; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Strong miscellaneous immorality includes strong family discord, disrespect for other’s political opinions, gossip, racist comments, kidnapping, physical assaults and attempting to sweep those assaults under the rug, and a character exhibits extreme selfishness and pride.

More Detail:

THE OATH is a dark comedy set in the near future that follows one family gathering together for the Thanksgiving holiday during a polarizing time in the United States. THE OATH has some funny, positive moments promoting trying to get along with people despite political differences, but it does lean left and contains excessive violence and especially excessive foul language.

Ten months before Thanksgiving, The White House announces that a nationwide oath will be available for citizens to sign, pledging their loyalty to the president. No repercussions will take place if citizens don’t sign it, but for those who do, there will be perks such as tax benefits. Signing for the oath will end the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. A married couple characters, Mason (Ike Barinhotlz) and Kai (Tiffany Haddish) decide right then and there not to sign and set an example of holding to your convictions for their young daughter.

Flash forward to the Monday before Thanksgiving, where THE OATH follows the events from that Monday to the following Saturday after Thanksgiving. Kai and Mason plan to host the Thanksgiving holiday for Mason’s family. Mason’s parents, his brother Pat, Pat’s girlfriend Abbie, and his sister with her husband and two children arrive. Mason has a hard time holding back his thoughts about the state of the country and his distaste for the oath from his rather conservative family members. Things get heated during the holiday meal, and Kai reveals that she signed the oath without Mason’s knowing. Mason leaves the dinner table in an upheaval and spends the night sleeping in his car in the driveway out of protest. The two make up the next morning but then things get out of hand.

Two agents from the Citizens Protection Unit appear, wanting to ask Mason about trying to prevent someone from signing the oath. Mason doubts their authority to question him. After some back and forth dialogue, the CPU agents end up being hit over the head and down for the count. The next scene shows the CPU agents essentially kidnapped in Mason and Kai’s living room, one tied up, and the other unconscious from a severe blow to the head. The more aggressive agent tied to a chair deliberately exacerbates Mason’s rage, and Mason is conflicted about setting them free and nervous that he might get hurt if he does.

Can this situation get any worse? It can, and it does.

THE OATH has a few funny moments. The best moments play off the idea about political disagreements when families gather together to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. The movie is shot less professionally than a typical Hollywood movie, but that won’t deter viewers from being entertained by the movie in general. That said, the movie’s frequent foul language detracts from the script’s witty humor. THE OATH also contains some extreme and intense violence that’s a bit unbelievable.

THE OATH ends on a kumbaya moment, where the liberal-leaning Mason apologizes for his poor behavior. Despite this, the movie leans left. For example, the most conservative character, the brother’s girlfriend, is depicted as the most ignorant. Also, at one point, Mason mocks the idea of praying to a God that Mason doesn’t believe in himself. Overall, therefore, MOVIEGUIDE® labels THE OATH excessive and unacceptable.