The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

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Edward and Bella on honeymoon in bed. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 – Edward and Bella are finally able to walk down the aisle and after consummating their marriage on their honeymoon, Bella finds that she is suddenly pregnant. Not knowing what the offspring of a human and a vampire could be, the newlyweds contemplate their options while the Quileutes wolf pack decide to attack before the baby is even born.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011) – Director: Bill Condon

Is Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 appropriate for kids

Rating: 12

Running Length: 117 mins

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner

Genre: Romance, Horror

REVIEW: ‘THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 1

The fourth instalment of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 suffers from the finale of the saga being split into two. As the action is being saved for the final film, ‘Part 1’ once again focuses entirely on the romance between Bella and Edward as well as the unnatural pregnancy between a human and a vampire. Jacob is still the jealous corner of the love triangle but his character is given some more depth when he has to work with Edward in order to keep Bella safe from his wolf pack.

While ‘Twilight’ and ‘Twilight: New Moon’ were both very slow to get anywhere, thankfully ‘Breaking Dawn – Part 1’ starts with the wedding and moves to the honeymoon relatively quickly. The mortal concern that both Jacob and Edward display over the consummation of the marriage (which, because of Edward’s strength, could kill Bella during their intimacy), is oddly never realised as Bella suffers only a few minor bruises that she didn’t even realise were there – thus rendering this potentially dramatic storyline rather moot (although it does lead to Edward feeling overly guilty). The rest of the movie explores the possible consequences of the pregnancy and different options that the couple face, before ending on a drawn out sequence of the consequences of Bella’s decision.

CONTENT: IS ‘THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 1’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

The majority of concern that adults are likely to have when deciding whether ‘Breaking Dawn – Part 1’ is suitable for children will come from the sexual content. When Bella and Edward get to the house that they are staying in for their honeymoon, Bella asks Edward to give her a few minutes and while he goes outside to swim in the sea, she gets herself ready. When she goes out to Edward, she decides to go out naked but with a towel wrapped around her. Leaving the towel on the sand, she joins Edward in the water. The nakedness isn’t gratuitous but they are seen to kiss. The scene cuts to them being intimate in bed, which Edward promptly destroys due to his super-human strength. After realising that he has hurt Bella during their love-making, Edward feels incredibly guilty and is determined not to do it again. Bella then tries various methods of seduction, including wearing revealing underwear in bed but is only successful when she pleads with him.

When the pregnancy is discovered and it is possible that the baby could be an evil demon, Edward tells Bella that his ‘father’, Carlisle, will ‘get that thing out’. Bella is unhappy with the idea of abortion and decides to have the baby, regardless of the consequences. The baby hurts Bella while she is carrying it, breaking her ribs and ‘crushing her from the inside out’. It also craves blood so Bella is given some human blood to drink, saying that it tastes good.

When Bella goes in to labour she is unable to give birth naturally so she has to have her stomach cut into (without anaesthetic). The camera is shot from Bella’s point of view, lying down, and therefore this part is not visually graphic but she is seen to be in extreme pain and there are gratuitous ripping and tearing sounds. There are additional complications so Bella (and the audience) see Edward move his head down to bite the baby out of her stomach. When he stands upright, he has blood all over his mouth. Trying to help her, Edward uses a huge syringe to inject Bella with his ‘venom’ (which we have been told will turn her into a vampire and therefore save her life). He then bites her all over her arms and legs, leaving bloody marks.

There are other moments of sexual content and violence, however we feel that the highlighted scenes are the strongest examples in this movie and the other moments are similar to what has been seen in the previous three movies. We therefore feel that if children are ok to watch these scenes, they are likely to be fine with the rest of the movie.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?
VERDICT: IS ‘THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 1’ FOR KIDS?

‘Breaking Dawn – Part 1’ has the most questionable content of the ‘Twilight Saga’ due to Bella and Edwards newly intimate relationship. While this could be expected of a story about newlyweds, the fact that sex has hardly been an issue in the other films could mean that the sheer amount in this film may be a little surprising. We would therefore recommend this movie for ages 12 and over, the violence and gore of the childbirth should not be a problem for this age group.

  • Violence: 2/5 (the focus is mostly on Edward and Bella’s marriage and pregnancy although there is a small amount of violence with the wolves and the Volturi (the vampire elite class that rule over their race) appear at the end, killing a young woman off-camera.)
  • Emotional Distress: 3/5 (a tragedy befalls the couple and everyone around them is devastated. Also, when Bella finds out that the baby could kill her, she speaks to her dad and, not wanting him to know, she asks him to remember her ‘how she was’)
  • Fear Factor: 2/5 (the wolves may be a little scary as they are very aggressive)
  • Sexual Content: 5/5 (the first third of the movie has the most sexual content with Bella and Edward on their honeymoon and there are various shots of the couple in states of undress – being mostly bare backs or side shots)
  • Bad Language: 2/5 (a few mild and moderate words used)
  • Dialogue: 2/5 (Bella sarcastically asks Edward whether he is a virgin. Soon after, she asks him whether there will be strippers at his bachelor party but he assures her that he and his brothers are going hunting for animals)
  • Other notes: Deals with themes of love, marriage, pregnancy and dealing with the consequences of your actions.

Words by Laura Record

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1 reply
  1. unhappy customer
    unhappy customer says:

    this movie is absolutely not suitable for children of any kind … yes they wait to be intimate until they are married and that’s good and honestly that wasn’t the bad part.. the awful part was the pathetic c section that they shot where they constantly are raising the camera to show multiple bloody sites and not only once but several times. I have watched all of the rest of them and up until now have not had a problem especially for an OLDER teen audience but this one movie is disappointing and pathetic at the lack of thought behind their actions on how they filmed the labor scenes. would not and will not be watching again because of that. very gruesome and honestly frightening. like why would you put that in a movie where you know the audience is young teens and etc who have not had birth anyway and you decided to make the best of it by portraying the worst possible thing imaginable? the camera really did not need to constantly show different views of this ‘tragic’ labor and what it does to her body. if these scenes were shot in a different way it would have been better. enjoyable like the others of the saga.

    Reply

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