SATURDAY NIGHT
A brilliant second half can't outrun a blasphemous heart.
Should You Watch It?
Let's be honest about both halves of this. As filmmaking, SATURDAY NIGHT has real merit — its final fifty minutes are a rollercoaster, and its young cast embodies SNL's original legends with uncanny energy. That's why the stars are what they are.
But the stars are not the verdict. This movie spends roughly five minutes on a blasphemous assault against God, the Virgin Mary, Jesus and the Gospel — comparing the Virgin Birth to rape and the crucifixion to God mutilating His own son — and caps it with the cast sarcastically chanting "Hail Satan." Add more than 100 obscenities, at least six profanities using the name of Jesus, overt cocaine and marijuana use, and lewd jokes throughout.
So here is our answer: skip it. A film can be well-made and still be one you should walk away from, and this is that film. The craft is real; what the craft serves is worse.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESOctober 11, 1975. In the ninety minutes before SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE goes on the air for the very first time, everything backstage is falling apart.
Creator Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) has landed the 11:30 slot NBC had been wasting on reruns, and the pressure is crushing. Lights explode. A brick wall collapses. Its most subversive star won't sign his contract. Two network executives keep threatening to pull the plug and run a rerun instead. Somehow, Michaels has to turn chaos into television history before the clock runs out — and that's where we'll leave you.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars, and here's the split down the middle. The first hour risks being genuinely annoying: the camera swerves and swoops through the backstage halls until you feel as dizzy as Michaels looks, and the dialogue comes in such fast, serious snippets that the film never sets up a real laugh.
Then something turns. An electric showdown between Michaels and the two NBC executives — define the show now or stay off the air — rallies the whole enterprise, and the final fifty minutes play brilliantly, one thing after another going right in surprising ways. It builds like a ROCKY movie, but about comedians.
Director Jason Reitman interviewed as much of the original cast and crew as he could, and it shows: nearly every character gets a moment to shine. SNL's multi-generational fans will be thrilled. More casual viewers may not connect. A strong second half — attached to an unforgivable one.
The Worldview
At its core, SATURDAY NIGHT is a humanist, politically correct film that celebrates the counter-culture spirit of the late 1960s and early '70s. It admires the leftists, hedonists and social malcontents who built that world, and it presents their rebellion as liberation.
That worldview turns openly hostile in one extended sequence. The show's head writer squares off against NBC's censor — a strict Christian woman — and the film spends about five minutes taking comic shots at supposed Christian uptightness before descending into outright blasphemy. It compares the Virgin Birth to God raping Mary and the crucifixion to God mutilating His own son, and it ends with the cast sarcastically chanting "Hail Satan" as the censor leaves. It's not incidental; it's part of the film's central viewpoint. Even the historical George Carlin monologue it recreates was an overt attack on the idea of God. The argument may well have happened in real life — but that is no excuse for staging it as mockery.
This is the reason a well-crafted film earns our lowest content rating. Scripture doesn't treat contempt for Christ as edgy comedy. "Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words," Jesus said, "of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father" (Mark 8:38). A movie can be clever and still stand on the wrong side of that line.
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
CONTENT: (HHH, PCPCPC, AbAb, PaPa, LLL, V, SS, A, DDD, MM):
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Pagan politically correct worldview celebrates the counter-culture in 1975, plus a big scene of graphic verbal blasphemy attacks God, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, the Incarnation of the Word of God, and the Gospel as well as compares the Virgin Birth to God raping Mary and the crucifixion of Jesus to God mutilating his own son during an argument between the head writer of a new TV program and a Christian NBC censor, and the sequence ends with the cast of the TV program chanting “Hail Satan” sarcastically to the censor, plus some strong pagan, hedonistic, immoral behavior
Foul Language
At least 102 obscenities (including at least 60 “f” words), six strong profanities using the name of Jesus, and one GD profanity
Violence
A man jumps another man and punches him repeatedly (not graphically depicted and no blood), man angrily topples a show set and starts throwing blunt objects at others
Sex
No sex scenes, but there are references to a situation where one comedian is sleeping with a married female writer in a rocky marriage with the program’s producer, a verbal argument features several strong sexual references, there’s a crude slang reference to group male self-abuse, and several other strong and lighter sexual double entendres
Nudity
No explicit nudity shown, but it’s implied that a man unzips his pants and exposes himself to a man and a woman
Alcohol Use
Some casual beer drinking
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Many characters smoke cigarettes, one man tells a younger man to try his marijuana and the younger man walks around in a paranoid stupor, a man is seen snorting liquid medical cocaine with a mountain of cocaine next to him;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Lots of arguing and exchanged insults, disrespect by an actor towards his superiors that nearly caused the show to be canceled, and black man sings a funny sarcastic song about “killing all the whiteys I see.”
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
This film stages mockery of Christ as comedy. Why does Scripture treat the name of God with such weight, and how should we respond when it's used carelessly?
Exodus 20:7 · Psalm 139:20The movie celebrates a counter-culture built on rebellion and self-expression. Where does true freedom actually come from, and how is it different from the "liberation" the film admires?
John 8:34–36 · Galatians 5:13One of the original cast members' real-life drug use eventually killed him. What does the Bible say about the difference between the pleasures the world sells and the life God offers?
Proverbs 14:12 · John 10:10A gifted film can still serve an ugly purpose. How do we discern the difference between admiring craft and endorsing what that craft is used to say?
Philippians 4:8 · 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22The Final Word
There's talent here — a cast that shines, a second half that soars. But talent isn't the question. A film that spends five minutes mocking God, Mary and Christ and chanting "Hail Satan" has told you what it worships, and no camerawork redeems that. So our answer stands: skip it. For a movie night that honors your family and your faith, start with our latest family-friendly picks.
