K.D. Lightner
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,354
- Location
- Des Moines, IA
Just think: my mother's generation was shocked, when Clark Gable spoke, in GWTW, the most famous line in movie history, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a (expletive deleted)!" Tame word now, but my mother says it was quite shocking in her time.
Usually, people would get around it. When Brando, in One-Eyed Jacks, called some outlaw a "scum sucking pig," it was just as nasty as anyone could utter onscreen at the time.
I recall seeing, in my time, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, where most of the stage play language was intact. I was in the theatre, so was used to vulgar language onstage and back stage. However, until VW, I don't recall hearing it in the movies.
After that, it took off. Sometimes, it has to do with the characters and the locations: outlaws, mean streets, gangsters, hipsters, bad dudes, angry cops. It is harsher when women say the words, as, I think, people don't quite expect it. When Helen Mirren yelled the "F" word out at her staff, it was shocking, but tough, gritty, and true-to-life. When Bruce Willis uttered the same word (adding "me" to it) looking down a elevator shaft, it was funny.
When I saw the movie version of Glengarry, Glenn Ross, I thought, well yes, the language is rough (I swear every other word was the "F" word), but that is David Mamet for you, and that is the way these guys, under such pressure to sell, sell, sell, would talk. I would talk that way myself if I had to have a job like that. I have to concede the language bothered me because it was too much of one word.
As for the famous "F" word, I recall hearing or reading, that in word etymology, words took on vulgarity in relation to the class of people uttering them. Say a nasty word -- it is probably gutteral and is considered bad or dirty. If you say the Latin word for it, it is considered scholarly, medical or good language, say the French word for it, probably also decent language.
In early post-Norman conquest England, the upper class spoke French, the clergy and educated people spoke and read Latin, the lower classes spoke a Germanic gutteral language that became, over time, English.
It is true of non-dirty words, too. A courtesan sound romantic, a prostitute sounds clinical, a whore sounds really low-class.
So, class, culture and a whole lot of things go into what is, and isn't, considered profanity. I don't mind it in the movies if it is true-to-life or if used, even, for humor. I don't like anything over-used, including nasty language.
Mother remembers when her father reprimanded her for saying the word "Jazz," because, early in the last century, it meant the same as the infamous "F" word, but was also a growing musical form. The music won out. Now, hardly anyone is alive who thinks "jazz" is a dirty word.
karol
Usually, people would get around it. When Brando, in One-Eyed Jacks, called some outlaw a "scum sucking pig," it was just as nasty as anyone could utter onscreen at the time.
I recall seeing, in my time, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, where most of the stage play language was intact. I was in the theatre, so was used to vulgar language onstage and back stage. However, until VW, I don't recall hearing it in the movies.
After that, it took off. Sometimes, it has to do with the characters and the locations: outlaws, mean streets, gangsters, hipsters, bad dudes, angry cops. It is harsher when women say the words, as, I think, people don't quite expect it. When Helen Mirren yelled the "F" word out at her staff, it was shocking, but tough, gritty, and true-to-life. When Bruce Willis uttered the same word (adding "me" to it) looking down a elevator shaft, it was funny.
When I saw the movie version of Glengarry, Glenn Ross, I thought, well yes, the language is rough (I swear every other word was the "F" word), but that is David Mamet for you, and that is the way these guys, under such pressure to sell, sell, sell, would talk. I would talk that way myself if I had to have a job like that. I have to concede the language bothered me because it was too much of one word.
As for the famous "F" word, I recall hearing or reading, that in word etymology, words took on vulgarity in relation to the class of people uttering them. Say a nasty word -- it is probably gutteral and is considered bad or dirty. If you say the Latin word for it, it is considered scholarly, medical or good language, say the French word for it, probably also decent language.
In early post-Norman conquest England, the upper class spoke French, the clergy and educated people spoke and read Latin, the lower classes spoke a Germanic gutteral language that became, over time, English.
It is true of non-dirty words, too. A courtesan sound romantic, a prostitute sounds clinical, a whore sounds really low-class.
So, class, culture and a whole lot of things go into what is, and isn't, considered profanity. I don't mind it in the movies if it is true-to-life or if used, even, for humor. I don't like anything over-used, including nasty language.
Mother remembers when her father reprimanded her for saying the word "Jazz," because, early in the last century, it meant the same as the infamous "F" word, but was also a growing musical form. The music won out. Now, hardly anyone is alive who thinks "jazz" is a dirty word.
karol
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