This movie is about everything - life after death, belief in Heaven and Hell, the breakdown in the 60s 70s of the American family, the effect of puberty on a child and a parent, loss of faith, Christianity's beginnings (the beginning sequence in the middle east is a wonderful Kubrickian omen that evil is coming - like the old traditions of the East are cursing the values of the West), what medicine doesn't know about the brain, and perhaps most disturbing, the sexuality of a pubescent. I think that's the one that bothers people the most. I'm stunned that so much taboo went into this movie. It's an amazing movie. It still makes me very uneasy to watch it.