Swearing severity in film

MileCreations

MileCreations

This is obviously a NSFW thread.

Mostly out of curiosity, I was wondering how others around the world rank differing profanities particularly in film. It's amazing what a single word can do to skew the rating of a film and I just wanted to find out what other individuals/countries.

To you what is an overused profanity in film? What has no affect on you as a viewer? etc
 
Consider this... what has more emotional impact... a gangster dropping F-bombs in every other sentence... or say a priest or mother who is a moment of despair lets out the only curse word of their lives?
 
It depends. Most times, I think that swearing in films comes off as cheap. I think that the writer is being lazy. Whatever it is, I appreciate it more when there is some style to it. Personally I find both kinds of writing to be funny or effective:

"I'm a mushroom cloud laying motherfucker, motherfucker!"

"Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, toffee nosed, malodorous pervert!"
 
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Scoopicman said:
It depends. Most times, I think that swearing in films comes off as cheap. It think that the writer is being lazy. Whatever it is, I appreciate it more when there is some style to it. Personally I find both kinds of writing to be funny or effective:

"I'm a mushroom cloud laying motherfucker, motherfucker!"

"Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, toffee nosed, malodorous pervert!"
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So what did you think of the scene in The King's Speech, where it was also 'relevant' to the story?
 
I saw on the netflix reviews a lot of people were complaining about all the cursing in "The Heat" with melissa mcarthy. I didn't even notice. Not a big deal to me one way or another
 
It seems like generally, since most films nowadays are some variety of PG, that swearing is few and far between. The prudes have largely won. Since there's hardly any profanity in film anymore, save for the handful of R films, usually comedies, I can't say any one of them is overused.
 
MileCreations said:
So what did you think of the scene in The King's Speech, where it was also 'relevant' to the story?
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Sorry, I've only seen this version and it's excellent. :yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnxNnJYziMY


I think I can answer your question, though - I'm comfortable with just about anything relevant to a story.


sfoster said:
I saw on the netflix reviews a lot of people were complaining about all the cursing in "The Heat" with melissa mcarthy.
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I thought she was over the top, in general. Her dialogue style was like having too much CGI in a movie - calling too much attention to itself. On the other hand, I was watching WE'RE THE MILLERS and I was cracking up because of some of the language.
 
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It's a matter of taste and business.

If you have 3 or more F words in your film, it will be rated R in the US. Since some people don't like profanity, distributors may not be willing to pick up your film, since they won't make as much money if people don't go to see it. Also, selling to TV in the US will be a problem as profanity is not allowed.

But if you don't intend to make a killing off your film, and find the F word relevant to your film, artistically or story-wise or otherwise, your film will be fine in Canada. (The Sopranos, for instance, was broadcast without editing for violence or profanity, from a public station).

Re: The Kings speech. I was watching a director's talk thingy and the director of the King's Speech said that they argued in the UK that the F word was relevant to the story, and the censor board relented. In the US they were still fighting because there were more than 3 F words. I don't know what happened of their appeal in the US.

Artistically, I personally think it's fine. Most people it seems, don't. I swear a bit. Almost everyone I know swears in some capacity. It's strange for me to watch a movie where everyone says gosh darn all the time. On the other hand, my brother just stopped swearing, since he now has kids who pick up every word he says. So I guess it depends on your situation.

Cheers :)
 
I've always understood that those who don't like hearing swearing are immature people who can't handle simple words. So, to me, PG and PG-13 ratings are less useful to children, who usually don't care, and more for those people.
 
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