Anyone feel some movies have way too much cursing in?

H

harmonica44

Such as The Big Lebowski or The Departed. Does it have to be that much? I was reading some dialogue in an old script I wrote, and felt it wasn't serious enough. I then changed it by adding a lot more cursing, and thought yeah.... it's tougher and more compelling now. Maybe that's why some movies have it constantly. The thrillers think it will add drama, and the comedies think it will add more laughter. But it is rather annoying, and can make a movie unnecessarily awkward to watch with say... your parents for example.

Some movies are suppose to not be watched with your parents or family, but it should be because of material that matters to the plot, rather than redundant constant profanity. And there are other ways to write more compelling or funny dialogue, than to have constant cursing. So what's the point of it?
 
Honestly, I'm embarrassed by how much cursing is in my debut feature. I didn't intend it that way. I definitely wrote it "Rated-R", but every curse word I wrote was included if, and only if, I truly thought the character, in that situation, would use a curse-word.

But then, when we shot it, with my very liberal style of letting/asking actors to paraphrase what is written, more and more of them snuck in, unnoticed. When you're only shooting a couple lines of dialogue, what's an f-bomb or two?

I didn't notice how many we shot, until it came time to edit. Yikes! No, it doesn't make the dialogue better, or more serious.

"The Big Lebowski" and "The Departed"? I guess they have a lot of cursing, but I don't remember noticing, when watching. So, I think their use must have been natural, and fitting of the characters/situations. In other words, I think in those movies the cursing is genuine. It fits.
 
Seriously, though...

In all honesty it depends upon the story.

What if Jules Winnfield's wallet was named "Bad Boy"?
That'd be pretty mother fucking lame.

pulp-fiction-wallet.jpg


However, on the other hand when "The Informant!" garners a MPAA rating of R exclusively for language I feel that's pretty goddam stupid of the writer, director and producers as language brings zero to that kind of story.
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810035860/details

"Logline: Mark Whitacre wears a wire to record corporate honchos who are illegally fixing the price of food additives. But, unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn't been quite so forthcoming about how he's helped himself to the corporate coffers."

Hell, yeah! I can (not) see where this bitchass story DEEE-MANNN-Ds some strong goddammuthrflipflopping language!

Habaneros will always make a steaming pile of dog shit mucho mucho bettah! Right?



Personally, I'd have a hard time writing and directing something I'd be embarrassed for my kids to see or hear, no matter their ages.


PS. get yours!
 
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I have a tendency to write tons of profanity into my scripts initially, but I'm pretty good about editing a lot of it out in subsequent drafts. But seriously, people swear in real life, sometimes a lot. So if I feel like my characters would swear in real life, then they swear in my script.

On a related note, I tried to get my parents to watch Pulp Fiction with me (I'd already seen it) when I was 12...that was interesting...they made it about ten minutes in before they turned it off. :hmm: (They never banned me from watching it, just said they had no interest in watching it with me.)
 
Yeah I'm not saying you shouldn't have any, sometimes it's alright like that Pulp Fiction example. The Informant didn't really have a lot so I'm surprised it got an R, but I guess they did say Motherf###4, and if you add mother too it, the MPAA takes it seriously. In 24 there is hardly any even is high stress situations, and audiences still find it convincing.
 
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for me it just smacks of immature, indie dreck writing. Not personally a big fan. Don't have a problem with it, just think it's an easy fallback for a writer.
 
^Agreed.
A lot of indie films use swearing to fallback on to make the situation cooler or more intense. All this does is show lack of skill. Now it can work sometimes like with your examples 'The Big Lebowski' and the departed.

First, I think 'The Big Lebowski' is one of the greatest comedies ever made.

Second, their characters would speak like that, it's true to their characters, who live in crappy parts of LA. One is an ex war veteran who's gung-ho with war and everything about it. The other is an illiterate, aging pothead, who just gets by with life, no ambitions. Also notice how Donny never swears, he's just an innocent childlike man who just wants to bowl and hang with his two friends.

It makes sense they are going to swear all the time. in indie film, usually, there is no character, just "actors" reading the lines, so when swearing is added, it makes it sound even more amateurish. Too many indie films have every character swearing...and that is that.
 
I said usually. Sometimes I'll see an indie film that really draws me in with good acting, but most of the time, to me, they're just actors, not the characters they're suppose to be.
 
Shut the fuck up, Donny!

Fuck sympathy! I don't need your fuckin' sympathy, man, I need my fucking johnson!

Fucking dipshit with a nine toed woman.

an thats all i gotta say :lol:

Love the Big lebowski
 
I think in a certain context it makes sense. I know people that use a curse word in every other sentence. I have a professor who says shit at least 30 times in a lecture and he's the PHD academic type.

I think it kind of works in The Departed but in The Big Lebowski, which is one of my fav comedies, it isn't used to portray but rather to punctuate. It's a quick way to make a gag funnier. It raises the stakes and heightens the emotions. A lot of films though, do through it in out of context and in that case it is lazy writing.
 
I'd be curious to see what people thought about District 9, then. It was indie in some respects, but obviously not all. Most of the lines were improvised, so does that make a little excess more excusable?

I'm kinda interested to see some more opinions...
 
Ponty301 said:
Donny: What do you need that for, dude?
Click to expand...

LOL

I do have to dissagree about The big Lebowski language..i think its brilliant writing and tru life dialoge that is actually engaging. Its a Choen brothers movie! They are all like that. Like any Choen Bros. film you have to watch the movie more than once to see the other stuff going on. Example the Dude tends to repeat what he hears in the the back ground. When the George Bush speach about "this agression will not stand" is on the tv in the begining, the dude repeats this quote a little later on in the movie. He does this several times. Or when Donny bowles he hits a strike every time...except...once and he dies shortly there after. The big Lebowski is not a good film to use for this debate. This flim as with all the other Choen Bros. has so many subtle things going on that the launage is only a small part. Might have been better to mention a film like Kids or summer of sam is a perfect example, or any trash spike lee film :hmm:
 
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Well I picked The Big Lebowski, cause it had possibly the most I've ever heard in a movie. I know it was part of the characters, but I mean... In Hannibal (2001), they didn't show Hannibal, snack on human every two minutes. Just because a character has something about him, doesn't mean they have to show him or doing or saying the same thing every minute or even more, when it comes to cursing, in The Big Lebowski. We get it, no need to hammer it in our faces, all the time. A little restraint and moving on to the rest of what the dialogue or character is about, is good.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i93-u39XV7I

I have nothing else to add.

(Though it is interesting to see where people's priorities lie - I'd have much more of a problem shooting torture porn than excessive swearing.)
 
This is why we have Disney and George Lucas, folks. ;) My opinion is they are just words that have an appeal because it is forbidden.

Does anyone feel that drivers use too many hand gestures? :P
 
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