cinema
“Blue” Language on the Silver Screen - !@%$#%@
Callaghan
Colorful language has long been an important tool for movie makers. Sure, it has been used as a gratuitous placeholder or as a shocking spacefiller from time to time. (Bad Santa’s bottomless bag of F-Bombs comes to mind.) On the other hand, the use of swearing has lent itself to an authentic sense of realism for many a genre (think any crime or police drama since the late-sixties). Sometimes, just sometimes, profanity can be a beautiful weapon…a weapon crafted by the blacksmith artisans (aka the writers), and wielded by the (not always so) heroic Sir Actalot on screen. In the rarest of occasions, the perfectly written explicative perfectly delivered can go well beyond the purpose of merely driving the character’s point home. It is in these instances that, instead of the dialogue reflecting how “real people” talk, we the audience are schooled in the proper use of the profane.
During the silent era, Douglas Fairbanks would hurl a “cocksucker” or a “son of a whore” (or worse) at his on-screen adversary, knowing full well that the final print would instead include a title card that read “You Scoundrel”. He and other leading men of the day were forced to curb the obscenities, however, when some deaf lip-reading audience members became flabbergasted by what they “heard”. The infamously feared Hayes Office was officially born in the year 1922. As all content censorship was largely voluntary for the next eight years, however, the occasional colorful adjective would still rear its dirty head. Then came the early 1930’s, and with them the Production Code was rolled out. Starting in ‘34, all films had to adhere to said code in order to get the all-important Seal of Approval. Make no mistake about it, some of our greatest films were produced over the next thirty years. All the same though, movie swearing went largely into the dark ages…or into the fucking dark ages, as the case may be.
Join me now, fellow filmphiles, as we take a look at the decades that followed. Along the way, let us examine the unforgettable moments in colorful language that exploded right off the screen and into the pop culture itself.
The Essential Ten
Great Moments In Cinematic Cursing History
#1 Gone With the Wind (1939)
“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
It may seem tame by today’s standards, but David O Selznick had to fight a long drawn-out battle with the Hayes Office just to insure this now-classic “damn” was left in. Keep in mind, this is the same period in which Sir Laurence Olivier (for his title role in Shakespeare’s Henry V) was forced to change the line “Norman bastards” to “Norman dastards”. True story.
#2 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966)
“Look, sweetheart, I can drink you under any goddamn table you want, so don’t worry about me.”
This Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton tour de force caused the language restrictions long imposed on Hollywood to come crashing down. The Production Code Administration reluctantly granted the film a Seal. The reason? Virginia Woolf was acknowledged as “reflecting the tragic realism of life”. This also laid the groundwork for films to be separated into either “general audience” or “mature audience” categories.
#3 The Last Detail (1973)
“Welcome to the wonderful world of pussy, kid.”
Jack Nicholson is a presence, plain and simple. As Navy lifer Billy “Bad Ass” Buddusky, he delivers Robert Towne’s colorful dialogue with unabashed frankness. This comedy showed moviegoers everywhere what “swearing like a sailor” was all about.
#4 Serpico (1973)
“You stupid fuck! You didn’t know me? You fired without a warning, without a fucking brain in your head? Oh, shit. I buy one, motherfucker, I ain’t buying it from you.”
I’m sure many of you will be surprised that Scarface wasn’t included on a list involving profanity. Sure Tony Montana rendered nearly 200 versions of “fuck, but I have come to see Scarface’s potty mouth as somewhat cartoonish. On the other hand, Pacino’s earlier portrayal of real life NY policeman Frank Serpico was a game changer in poignant realistic grittiness of the tongue.
#5 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
“Well, I don’t want to break up the meeting or nothin’, but she’s something of a cunt, ain’t she Doc?”
Jack strikes again. One of the most memorable characters of the 1970’s, Nicholson’s McMurphy is anything but looney. Talking about being ahead of its time…the word “cunt” is still considered by many the last real taboo left in our lexicon. Now imagine uttering it on a major film nearly thirty-five years ago, and winning the Oscar in doing so. That’s crazy…ah, no offense, Chief.
#6 Arthur (1981)
“Perhaps you would like me to wash your dick for you…you little shit.”
Okay, basically at this point along our trek, anything goes. It was the 80’s after all, and colorful language was becoming more and more mainstream. Nearly all foul language was becoming fair game. That is, of course, until it is spoken with dirty eloquence by legendary Shakespearian thespians like Sir John Gielgud. Playing butler Hobson to Dudley Moore’s drunken millionaire title character, Gielgud takes no guff whatsoever.
#7 Full Metal Jacket (1987)
“I’ll bet you’re the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around. I’ll be watching you.”
Okay, there’s real…and then there’s REAL. I don’t care how many method acting classes you have taken, or how long you’ve been at the Actor’s Studio honing your craft; nobody but nobody could have breathed life into the role of Gny. Sgt. Hartman the way R. Lee Ermey did. Quite simply, you can’t teach that stuff. Ermey steals the show so completely, that the second half of the film is fairly forgettable without him (except of course for the Vietnamese hooker’s immortal utterance of “me so horny” and “me love you long time”).
#8 Die Hard (1988)
“Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker”
Who could have predicted it? Who woulda thunk that a cop thriller starring a fairly popular television actor would go on to create a brand new subgenre? Furthermore, who would have believed that word “motherfucker” could sound so unimaginably cool coming from the lips of a white guy? Did Bruce Willis’ smartass remark to supervillain Alan Rickman become a national catchphrase years before “show me the money” and long after “go ahead, make my day”? Fucking-A right it did.
#9 Goodfellas (1990)
“No. No, I don’t know. You said it. How do I know? You said I’m funny. How the fuck am I funny? What the fuck is so funny about me? Tell me, tell me what’s funny!”
Certainly, if you look at the numbers, Casino outswears Goodfellas by nearly 25%. That’s all fine and dandy, but the dialogue in this Scorsese offering in infinitely more dynamic for the collective consciousness. Joe Pesci’s barraging of Ray Liotta is the stuff of legend. It will be remembered long after Pesci is as dead as Tommy DeVito.
#10 Pulp Fiction (1994)
“Say what again. Say what again! I dare you, I double dare you, motherfucker. Say what one more goddamn time.”
Samuel L. Jackson is the profanity poet laureate; the vulgarity Da Vinci; the motherfucker maestro. His true artistry is in the fact that even his most colorful lines are delivered seamlessly and are anything but contrived. It doesn’t hurt matters that Tarantino also happens to be one of the finest dialogue writers of the last quarter century. The two together? A match made in Heaven…or, if you will, a match made along “the path of the righteous man”.
Cheers,
Callaghan
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Tombstone, 1879. Legendary Dodge City marshall Wyatt Earp, his wife Mattie and his brothers come to Tombstone hoping to seek thier fortune but Tombstone is a lawless municipality inhabited by a bunch of carousing locals known as the Cowboys.
When I first thought of breaking down the shootout from Tombstone, it sounded like a good idea at the time. Little did I stop to realize that it would come in at over 125 different cuts. I can’t even bother to count the Set-ups on this break down. My mind is already mush. But there doesn’t appear too many set-ups as it is, but more one cut after another from a handful of them.
There isn’t anything to run home and scream about in terms of cinematic brilliance with this film. Rudiment direction, cinematography and score, it is the ensemble cast that makes this film such a treat, most notably Val Kilmer’s portrayal of Doc Holiday. Make no mistake, it is one of my favorite films for sheer entertainment value. But I did notice some some things worth discussing whilst breaking this apart, mainly regarding the Axis Line. This can be a major hurdle (and obstacle) for any new filmmaker. Many do not even know about it and many more just can’t seem to grasp it. It can become a complicated mess on-set especially with an action sequence.
About
Cinema Obscure is an online blog devoted to serious, and not so serious observation of cinema and the art and technology of making films; from pop-corn to art house indies, it is an obsession and dream.
Goddard said that cinema is truth 24 frames a second.
De Palma said that the camera lies 24 times a second.
I think of it as both ways.
Cinema is making a reality I choose, whether through observation or creation.
I hope you enjoy my rants and raves and from time to time, insight and opinion on the wonderful world of cinema and filmmaking.
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