I'm wanting to show this to my class, but...

I think they could handle it. There are some gruesome scenes in the second half, when the French go berserk and start murdering prisoners in jail. And the death of the Princess de Lamballes is horrible, but what the revolutionaries are doing to her isn't shown very explicitly. These scenes are over pretty quickly, though, and the rest of the time the violence is not that bad. The guillotine scenes are gripping, but there's no gushing blood or closeup views of severed heads. You see blood-washed guillotine platforms, and executioners with blood splattered over them, but the actual killing is often offscreen.

Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!

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I know you'll never see this, your question is from so long ago, but-- NOOOO. Do NOT show this to 14-year-olds. I was stunned by the horrific and inventive violence of the second half of what is essentially a docudrama. The '92 prison massacre in particular would make adults sick.