Question about profanity in Screenplay

If the frequency is so profuse and overt that it becomes a distraction--to where the reader takes their eyes OFF the page and starts to ROLL those eyes, then yes, it's too much. But if it just adds to it--like Jules and Vincent at the opening of Pulp Fiction, then go with it.

Here, try this little gem.

**WARNING! SEVERE PROFANITY IN THIS LINK!**

http://www.davidanaxagoras.com/2007/06/14/daves-screenwriting-microtip-3-fuck-you/

Why not do something really original and write a screenplay that has no profanity?

Especially if there is violence and tension. Nine times out of ten in my experience, I feel amateur movies or scripts are ruined by cussing. The shock value of profanity has been so watered down in the past two decades that it seems to be camouflage for weak characterizations or sloppy writing. Let the director and actors put in the cursing if they feel it's appropriate, otherwise your screenplay risks being indistinguishable from the thousands of other laughable Tarantino copycats. Look what profanity is doing to his reputation!

Just as a warning, there is some profanity fatigue in the industry and it does turn some people off since there are a lot of amateur scripts that use profanity instead of ingenuity in dialogue. That being said, I don't think you should ever change your script for what production companies *might* be looking for and you should do what is best for your character. But as for your question about whether a profanity laced script might put you at a disadvantage, the answer is that is might.

As a side note, the profanity is more passable if it's definitely an adult script. Like a movie for adults. But if it's something that appeals to teenagers, or that they'd want to make appeal to teenagers (like Die Hard 4), then know they'll want to take the profanity out.

But i though that John McClains
catch phrase was
"Yipee Kai Hey M***** F*****"
So they take that out coz the trailer it seems to be still there?
Kev

I only use profanity when it is right for the character. Often it seems too forced, too obvious, and too easy. Cursing is used so much, IMHO, that it is losing the entire "feeling/purpose" in the first place. And, to be honest, I'm getting bored with it.

Sometimes, though, it fits and helps to define the film. Can you imagine Scarface without the f-bomb?

in Smoke Ashley Judd's minor character only had one scene and she is most memorable because her foul language was the most profane i have ever heard from a woman in a film. my jaw dropped!

i like to be creative w/profanity - ie. a police officer says, "sugar" every time he wants to say shit because his wife insists he stop using bad words around their young child OR a sweet man of the cloth or nun out of the blue says, "phuck" and then looks around (and finally up) to make sure no one heard.

I love profanity. Love it, love it, love it. Most of my scripts have at least one character -- usually more -- who can curse with the best of them.

But as character-revealing as cursing can be, it's even more character-revealing when you're creative with it. I'm always looking at a new way to make a curse sound interesting, or funny, or more brutal, or whatever fits the character speaking it and the moment. It's easy to write "I'll kick your f***in' a**." It's more intersting, for me anyway, to write "I'll introduce your teeth to the back of your f***in' throat."

Then again, sometimes a simple "F*** you" says all that needs to be said, so, obviously, there's no golden rule. But I say if you're going to use a lot of cursing, yeah, just be creative with it or all your characters will sound the same.

Dominic said:

Seanie Blue,
a main character who is at the proverbial 'bottom'. She is a partier and boozer and the question is left to people's imaginations about her use of drugs. In this life style, cursing is an everyday affair.

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Y not compare Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick in "Days of Wine &Roses" to Maggie Gyllenhaal in SherryBaby. One performance -- without a cussword -- is for the ages, while the other -- cocked and loaded -- is already forgettable. One movie will influence others, while the other will be an example of how to throw away an actress willing to perform by overdoing the cliche.

And one of the best American movies of the past few years has to be "Down to the Bone," where Vera Farmiga introduced a whole new layer of understatement to her desperate role; perhaps I am completely mistaken, but I can't remember her doing a lot of cursing in the movie.

I agree with Boo's advice to be creative. Scarface was magnificent; how many dog movies did Pacino's unfettered foul-mouthing spawn? The imitations generally seem forced. On the other hand, how could "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" have worked without Nicholson cursing nurse Ratchet (sp?) ? And the best cursing I have ever seen, bar none including Pacino, has to be Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast." For 45 minutes, I was peeing with laughter. But a lot of that wasn't cursing of one actor to another but rather Kingsley telling stories with incredibly graphic detail elaborated with curses.

And have you seen the screenplay to Scarface? I don't think there was any swearing in the original. I remember reading or hearing that Stone was shocked by Pacino's additions to the words. I know some people think Pacino's performance saved a rotten script. At least saved it from getting noticed for being vacuous, anyway.

KCpotatohead said:

But i though that John McClains
catch phrase was
"Yipee Kai Hey M***** F*****"
So they take that out coz the trailer it seems to be still there?
Kev

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I don't know if this is really a spoiler, but they cut him off in the trailer and he gets cut off in the movie too.

Watching the movie you can see there's an absurd amount of ADR and they looped a lot of lines, presumably to take out swears.

zeprosnepsid said:

I don't know if this is really a spoiler, but ......

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Yes, that's a spoiler!

At least to ME it is. I am planning to see this movie on Monday. And I truly feel that you just killed one of the "moments" for me. No held grudges. No hard feelings. I'll get over it. But PLEASE, don't do that again.


::ETA::

In the original Indiana Jones movie, there was the "moment" when Indie came face to face with the guy with the sword. Indy just whipped out his gun and shot him down. That had nothing to do with the plot, but it is considered one of the coolest moments in the whole series, and a prime specimen of flat out genius-level comic relief from cinematic history--the kind of moment that a film professor will bring up in class.

So while the plot certainly hasn't been spoiled by this revelation, Zep, a "moment" has likely been killed for me. And considering the film is a certifiable tentpole that only just opened less than 48 hours ago .... well ... 40 lashes with a wet noodle for you.

And one more thing, Mods:

Can we get "spoiler" tags here in AW?? The tags that allow bits of text to get blacked out?

My current solution for how to handle my own spoilers is one I learned from a movie web site about five years ago. That site wasn't very sophisticated in its programming, but it was heavily moderated. And THIS is what the mods there came up with as a standard and required solution for flagging spoilers:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1434532&postcount=2

I can't expect everyone here to follow that rather crude solution. So could you guys maybe talk to the techy dudes about including spoiler tags in the programming here?

Thanks!

I'm fine with one or two "f" words when watching a movie. Above that it quickly seems like a lame attempt at creating dramatic tension, on the same level as yelling and second to having a gun pointed at a character's head.

Dominic said:

I know I watch the movies with cursing all the time, but is there any taboo about screenplays having too much profanity?

I just finished my first screenplay and the main character is quite profane. In fact her first four words of dialogue include the "f" word. It is part of setting the stage for her character, but I wonder if it is too much, too fast.

I'm sure people will say 'if it's necessary, don't worry about it.' which I'm not terribly, but I wondered all the same. If nothing else, it will help me figure out how hard a time I might have getting it sold.

Thanks in advance
Dominic

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Personally, if I read (or watched it on screen) I would be slightly turned off if the first four words of her included "f...". I watched part of Smokin' Aces with my sister, and was turned off withing twenty minutes thanks to the constant profanity. When I say constant, I mean it. In the first 10-15 mintues, these two guys are in a van, and almost every other word is some sort of cussword. It got annyoing very quickly.

Sometimes a little labguage makes the character deeper (as you said, setting the stage) but too much can be REALLY ANNOYING. In an older Scorsese film Casino he loved to put the f-word in there all the time, and it bugged me big time.

So just use it when necessary, not when just trying to sound cool.

-Ed Faris.

Maybe it's a case of not what is said, but how it's said.
If the way it's expressed through the story adds to the overall quality of the film, rather than detracts from it, it should be fine.
Some movies are laced with profanities,accompanied by excessive violence.
Yet they're great films,Pulp Fiction,Goodfellas ect.
I think it was A Clockwork Orange,whereby there was lot's of "Ultraviolence" happening,yet hardly any profanities whatsoever to accompany it.
A good Story(with or without profanities) will always trump a mediocre story, stuffed full of shock value profanities, or void of profanities altogether.
Daniel.

dpaterso said:

Come now, how is someone telling you what they think might have been cut out of a scene a spoiler?

Pay no attention to what might or might not have ended up on the cutting room floor for whatever reason -- that's no longer anything to do with the film you'll be watching.

*** SPOILER ***
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Until the Director's Cut gets released on DVD, of course.

-Derek

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A movie can do without profanity.
Ex: One of the Beverly Hills Cops (No.3 I think!)
The actual movie was full of cussing but then they aired it on the TV and did a great job of editing out all the profanity. NONE of the movie was taken away and IMHO improved the movie.

I don't movies where every second word is a cuss word. It puts me off the movie no matter how good it is. It is then an endurance test to see if how long i can put up with it.

HOWEVER i do agree that if it is "appropriate" then use it. In Terminator the landlord is banging on the door. Arnie scans his data and find the "Correct Response" which was F*** O**. Now that was amusing and it fitted that scene. Anymore would not have been necessary.

SO I would say use ONLY IF YOU HAVE TO.
Kev.

The Terminator

is a GREAT example of creative (and character building) cursing.

Do what is right to tell your story.

If it is right for the character to curse, then have them curse.

Plot Device said:

And one more thing, Mods:

Can we get "spoiler" tags here in AW?? The tags that allow bits of text to get blacked out?

My current solution for how to handle my own spoilers is one I learned from a movie web site about five years ago. That site wasn't very sophisticated in its programming, but it was heavily moderated. And THIS is what the mods there came up with as a standard and required solution for flagging spoilers:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1434532&postcount=2

I can't expect everyone here to follow that rather crude solution. So could you guys maybe talk to the techy dudes about including spoiler tags in the programming here?

Thanks!

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SPOILER (Left click and drag over the "empty" spot below):

A way I learned to post a spoiler on some of the film sites I frequent is to set the text color the same as the text plane color so it just blends right in. Left-clicking and dragging over the indicated spoiler area highlights the text. But, since upon checking the available text colors I see that this really pale blue isn't available, I went with white instead. Looks like that did the trick.

END SPOILER