Early in the film, Perry is cleaning up in a public bathroom in his jockey briefs.

A man hires a prostitute. We see her undressing and the two of them in bed afterwards, but no nudity is shown. Another man in the room has memories of his mother with another man and she is shown undressing. No nudity is shown here either, but we do see them in foreplay.

There are also brief discussions of sexual situations including possible rape.

The film is in black and white so not a whole lot of blood is seen, but the murder is still brutal. Four people are shot at close range with shotguns (we do not see them as they are shot, but some blood can be seen on the floor).

A man tells stories of beating another man to death.

One man pulls another out of bed with a woman. He beats the woman with his belt, pulls her hair, and douses her with liquor.

The murderers plan to kill a man with whom they've hitched a ride to steal his car.

We see one man executed by hanging.

The film is notable for its usage of "bullshit", a first for Hollywood cinema at the time.

One "bs", one "p*ssy" and a few uses of "G-damn" and "Jesus" is about as coarse as it gets. "Faggot" is used as an insult, and "jacking off" is used to mean doing useless things. Several uses of milder expletives (sob, "h*ll", etc.).

Several characters smoke cigarettes throughout. Several characters are seen drinking liquor, sometimes directly from the bottle. A man is seen taking several aspirin at a time and chewing them to dull the chronic pain from a bum leg.

The scene where Perry had flashbacks to his rough childhood home life is very intense. But it is extremely well made so it should be seen

The murder scene where all four members of a family are shot is not gruesome (the shots are off screen), but the scene is very intense.

As a prisoner is being hung his heartbeat can be heard as it slowly stops.