Nowadays when we hear curse words either in movies or on TV
we cringe because we associate profanity with a poor attempt to try and make
something cooler or just give unnecessary spice to a scene in a movie. It seems for today's standard, profanity is preferable in any action movie or blockbuster to make it more
“mature”. Truthfully, no movie needs
profanity to build suspense, escalate drama, or even make it cooler; plenty of
movies where able to successfully do these things without it (like Lord of the
rings, Star wars). But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for it. Like in the movie “fridge” we just watched
today, profanity was spat out at just about every other word. But I thought this profanity had a purpose
other than to make it more mature and cooler, its purpose was to make the viewer uncomfortable and it really helped bring home the sense of lowliness
and messiness of the homeless people living on the street which in turn made
the premise of poor people helping poor people even more special. This isn’t the only movie with a good use of
profanity either, movies like Grand Torino use it to help the audience better
understand and relate with the environment that is being presented.
I guess what I’m trying to say is there is a time and place
for the use of profanity. But I feel
like nowadays it is just a given that a movie has it, and most the time for no apparent
reason. And I definitely feel like for Christians
making a film, curses and such should be used as a last resort to get a point
or mood across.
Jake, I couldn't agree more with you. I feel like profanity is something that gets thrown around so much in culture, especially film. There are, as you said times when it is important and necessary to use profane language. In the Bible Paul uses a very profane word in Philippians 3:8 when he says that he counts it all rubbish what he has done. There's no getting around what he said in the original Greek.
ReplyDeleteYou make such a strong statement that we shouldn't flippantly use language, but that, in extreme cases when there is no other word and it is not being used for shock value, that such a word is necessary.
Sometimes I wonder...In reality no one sues curses just to get a point or mood across. I think depending of a content of a film or a subject of a film, we should not be afraid about it.
ReplyDeleteSomeone questioned Hayao Miyazaki(Princess Mononoke) about violence in his Animation, and his answer was, "I want to show children the real world. I don't want to hide it or fake it"
sues=uses... lol
ReplyDeleteI agree with this point. I can think of many instances where certain words aren't necessary to convey a message, and it really bothers me at how many movies today are ruined simply by adding too many profanities. When they are used without any good reason, it actually pushes more of an audience away, where as in the opposite case, people won't skip a good story if there aren't enough cuss words
ReplyDelete