MR. JONES (2020)
A masterful true-story drama about truth, courage, and tyranny.
Should You Watch It?
You should see Mr. Jones if you are an adult looking for a serious, well-made drama about the cost of telling the truth. Its courageous journalist exposes Stalin’s man-made famine in Ukraine while other reporters hide the truth. The film honors Truth and Duty and forcefully exposes the evils of communism, socialism, collectivism, and totalitarianism.
The film’s R rating matters. A decadent party includes explicit nudity, sexual behavior, opium, heroin, and occult associations. The famine scenes are deeply disturbing, including implied cannibalism. Some incidents involving Gareth Jones have also been sensationalized or fictionalized for dramatic effect.
Adults who can face those elements will find a powerful historical warning and a stirring portrait of moral courage. For children and young teens, choose something else. WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY is the practical answer.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESIn 1933, British journalist Gareth Jones travels to Moscow hoping to interview Joseph Stalin and discover how the Soviet Union is financing its rapid industrial growth during the Great Depression.
His investigation leads him beyond official tours and into Ukraine, where he encounters evidence that Stalin’s rule has created a devastating famine. Jones returns to London determined to tell the world, but powerful journalists and officials work to discredit him.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is a masterful and terrific historical drama. Agnieszka Holland’s direction is great, and the film’s performances are exceptional.
James Norton gives a brilliant performance as Gareth Jones. Peter Sarsgaard is also excellent as Walter Duranty, with Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Mawle turning in wonderful performances as well. Andrea Chalupa’s script creates a complex, dramatic account of Jones’s investigation, while the film’s emotional core rests in its celebration of Truth and Duty.
The Worldview
Mr. Jones presents a strong moral worldview centered on Truth and Duty. It condemns Stalin’s communist regime, international socialism, communism, collectivism, and totalitarianism, while also condemning Hitler’s National Socialism. The film presents Stalin’s forced collectivism as destructive to Ukraine’s farmers and natural resources and implies a defense of free-market capitalism. It also warns against believing that trade with brutal communist regimes can happen without human cost.
The film’s use of George Orwell’s Animal Farm strengthens its warning against socialist tyranny. Orwell’s words, “The world is being invaded by monsters,” frame a story about propaganda, political power, and the duty to speak when millions are suffering.
The film exalts courage, truth-telling, justice, and duty to the public. Its historical account is somewhat sensationalized and fictionalized, but its central moral warning remains clear. Scripture commands, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor” (Ephesians 4:25).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Very strong moral worldview supporting Truth, Duty and (implicitly) the natural law of free market capitalism but especially exposing the evils of international socialism, communism and collectivism, focusing specifically on Stalinism and communist dictator Joseph Stalin’s starvation of the people in Ukraine, which killed millions, but also condemning National Socialism in Hitler’s Germany, plus one character at a decadent party is clearly a homosexual man, and the party host tells another man that he can do anything he wants at the party (implying heterosexual or homosexual sex)
Foul Language
One “h” obscenity, no profanities, and man vomits when he realizes he’s been eating something reprehensible
Violence
Images of dead people in the snow and in a bed when a freelance journalist visits the Ukraine during Stalin’s, image of a dead teenager boy in the snow who’s upper thigh has been cut away partially to provide food for his starving siblings, man eats some cooked meat with three children, but he vomits when he goes outside and realizes he’s been eating the flesh of their older brother who died, man is chased by soldier, a man is arrested by two government agents, and talk about a journalist being murdered (the communist authorities say the man was killed during a robbery outside his Moscow hotel, but it’s implied they had him murdered because he was investigating a scandal they want to keep hidden from the world)
Sex
Partially depicted sex at a party in one scene when a man lunges toward a topless woman and when a homosexual man dancing seductively tries to seduce another man and images of partially naked women dancing at the wild party, and two clothed people at the party are kissing in a corner, plus man tries to kiss woman and hug her as they say goodbye, but she rebuffs him because he’s traveling to a dangerous place where he mostly likely will be killed
Nudity
Partial full female nudity and full female nudity of a woman dancing alone slowly, and a man going into another room in the background at a wild but languid party, and images of upper female nudity, rear female nudity, rear male nudity, and upper male nudity at the party, intended to show how decadent the man holding the party is
Alcohol Use
Some alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Some smoking and woman injects heroin at a party and offers a man some of it but he declines, plus there’s an image of several heroin needles on a table at the party;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Government lying and deceit, Russian communist government blackmails a journalist and the British government by holding some British citizens hostage.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Gareth Jones faces pressure to stay silent about suffering he has witnessed. When does telling the truth become a duty, even when the consequences are costly?
Ephesians 4:25 · Proverbs 31:8–9The film shows how propaganda can conceal injustice. How can Christians practice discernment when powerful voices tell them what to believe?
1 John 4:1 · Acts 17:11Stalin’s government treats people as tools for an ideology. What does Scripture say about the value and dignity of every human being?
Genesis 1:27 · Psalm 139:13–14Jones must choose between comfort and courageous action. Where might God be asking you to act faithfully rather than simply remain safe?
Esther 4:14 · James 2:14–17The Final Word
Mr. Jones is a masterful, courageous drama that celebrates truth and exposes tyranny. Its explicit party content and horrifying famine imagery make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For mature adults who can handle those elements, the film is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For other family viewing, explore.
