Which of the five Best Picture nominees do you think contains the most naughty words? I know, I couldn’t give a sh– either, but the Family Media Guide does, so they’ve chronicled the incidences of smoking, profanity, sexual content, and violence in Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Munich.
Mar 1
2006
09:42 PM ET
Too much profanity in movies? F-- no!
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Wow…I wish I had that much free time on my hands!
Kyle, exactly. It is true the F-word has been chewed a lot more than bubble gum, and no screenplay writers cannot think of any creative word other than the F-word, so it is put in. It’s trite, it’s pointless. . . it’s just a stupid word for adults to use pointlessly. Hell, playwright David Mamet uses it in all of his plays. lol. Look, do kids hear it? Not unless they hear their parents argue at night. Sometimes as a librarian I have to tell the teenagers to choose their words wisely because mothers take their 3 year olds to the library. Until we can think of another stupid and offensive word to wear out, the F-word stays.
To Family Media Guide: WHO CARES?!!!!!
One of the (many) problems with pointless lists like this is that they provide no context for anything. There’s a big difference between hearing a person use the F-word constantly because they’re idiots with an extremely limited vocabulary and hearing someone use the F-word because they’re shocked or amazed. If a movie uses profanity, does it seem like a natural reaction to a situation (“holy s***, somebody killed my girlfriend”) or is it an example of Raging Bull overkill (“the f***ing restaurant doesn’t f***ing serve scrambled f***ing eggs”)? I could care less about profanity if it’s used realistically, but if every character curses because the writer’s an untalented hack who has never heard an adjective that can’t be replaced with a curse word, then warn me before I spend my time or money watching a movie I’ll despise.
To the FMG :- I don’t give a s#@t!!
F@&* the FMG!!!
Tommy Marx: Very well said.
Damnit, now I have a Styx song stuck in my head.
I find it fascinating that certain words in a language are handed down through history as being bad. Why? Is it just tradition? Is it just something to be able hang over kids’ heads when they use them growing up? Weird. There’s like 100 words for poop, but 1 word that means the same thing is kept as being bad. LOL Anyway, orgs like the FMG wish for a pure, perfect, fantasy world, where entertainment does not reflect real life at all. They rather have nice, clean, artificial movies, sheltering everyone and making us safe from the harsh reality of life. But I guess it is nice of them to do what they do in order for concerned parents to be informed in order to protect the children. As long as that is the only reason.
Fuck it.
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None of you are getting the point. Profanity is hostile language, with meaning that is sometimes violent, sometimes obscene, sometimes sexist. It’s the fact that that kind of language is spreading very rapidly throughout American society that is the concern…it’s not an issue of censorship, it’s an issue of our culture deteriorating.
None of you are getting the point. Profanity is hostile language, with meaning that is sometimes violent, sometimes obscene, sometimes sexist. It’s the fact that that kind of language is spreading very rapidly throughout American society that is the concern…it’s not an issue of censorship, it’s an issue of our culture deteriorating.
I have no problem with the **occasional** use for the “f-word” (or any other profanity), but the FMG has a point – if a movie overuses any swearwords, then I want to know that the kids shouldn’t be around when I watch it.
I find the IMDB immensely useful for this. They usually have a “parents guide” that advises on sexual content, violence, profanity, alcohol/drugs, and intense scenes. You can take their comments seriously or leave them alone, but at least you have the information to work with.
Frankly, I think things have gone a little overboard. The “golden age” of Hollywood produced a lot of good movies with little or no profanity. Audiences were truly shocked when Gable told Vivian Leigh that he didn’t “give a da**”. Casablanca and Citizen Kane managed to make their points (and the Top 100 list) without swearing. Are actors and writers now so bereft of ideas and technique that they can’t put across the idea that “I’m annoyed” without cursing like sailors?