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Topic: It: Chapter Two (2019)
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 09-07-2019 12:33 PM
I'll use profanity occasionally in social situations where that kind of language is acceptable, so I can't act like I'm some kind of super righteous person. With that being said even I get worn out by over-use of profanity in movies and TV shows.
Various "four letter words" lose their effect when used too much in a movie or TV shows. They have a numbing effect after awhile and lose any meaning whatsoever. If anything, when profanity is over-used it only gets annoying and possibly exposes writers for being really lazy.
It's one thing when a foul mouth fits a particular kind of character. If the movie is about mobsters you're sure not going to expect to hear G-rated dialog all the time. Even still, the screenwriter (and director, actors, etc) have to realize what kind of effect elements of dialog have on an audience. If you want a profanity-enhanced statement from a character to make a big impact with the audience it helps if the audience hasn't been hearing a constant stream of profanity up until that point.
In Season 2, Episode 6 of the Breaking Bad TV series on AMC the episode had a scene in a restaurant where the use of profanity had a devastating, punch in the gut effect. The main character, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is transforming into his drug dealing "Heisenberg" persona. He has a tense conversation with Gretchen Schwartz, a woman he almost married but who is now married to a former business partner. White has long been furious about selling his half of a company called "Gray Matter" to his partner for only $5000, only to later see the company and his former partner become ultra rich while he ended up teaching high school chemistry. Gretchen tries reaching out to him to mend fences (Walter bailed out of their engagement by the way). The conversation goes awry. She says, "I feel so sorry for you." White angrily replies, saying, "fuck you."
I remember my reaction the first time I watched that scene. I was staggered. Not just because they wrote "fuck you" into a basic cable TV show. It worked in multiple ways, but also helped by the fact the series was allowed only one f-bomb per season. By using that curse word of all curse words in a vary sparing way it had far more of an impact than other words frequently heard, like "bitch" or "shit."
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 09-07-2019 02:21 PM
I work in a shop where, some days, people are dropping the F-Bomb every third word and it goes virtually unnoticed. It's part of the culture in that kind of place, I guess.
Personally, I don't care but I do find it to be "low-minded."
I'll often say something like, "Go fly a kite," using the same tone of voice and the same stress on the letter 'F' that one might use when telling somebody to "F-Off."
I think it actually has more effect when said that way.
When it comes to movies and TV, I'm okay with swearing if it fits the context. The problem is that there are too many shows that use it gratuitously. I don't really mind, per se, but I do find it boring and more than a little bit grating.
The first movie that I can remember where there was swearing is "The Taking of Pelham 1:23" (1974) -- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072251/
It came out when I was around ten years old. My father used to take my brother and I to the movie theater and drop us off so that he could go out drinking.
It seemed kind of normal that cops and bad guys would swear at each other so I thought it was all right. By the same token, if one of the characters in that same movie had sworn in the wrong context I would have noticed.
Even as a kid, I knew about foul language. I grew up in an environment where swearing was common. I still understood that there was a time and a place to swear or not to swear.
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