I disagree with that pretty strongly. I mean, it still would have been a good movie, but the scene of the deeply reserved King cutting loose with a huge string of “fucks” was both hilarious in and of itself, an important insight into Bertie’s character, and an interesting bit of trivia about how some stuttering impediments manifest. It would have been a shame to bowdlerizing it, just to make it “acceptable” for schoolchildren to sleep through during class instead of having a proper lesson plan.
But bowdlerize it they did.
Not the version I saw - which, if I’m following you correctly, you’re arguing shouldn’t exist.
I agree with the OP. Children shouldn’t hear profanities in movies - they should hear them from their parents. That’s the way I was raised, and that’s the way I’m raising my own damn kid.
I think there is the basic misconception that any particular movie was “made for children.” Also what constitutes a curse word varies.
It was nothing like that penis breath!
That line was added to E.T. to ensure a PG rather than a G rating.
A non-animated G rated film has a limited audience.
No, we’re not talking about Hollywood. The King’s Speech is a British film made by British people and if the filmakers are ratings in mind when they made it they’re would’ve been the BBFC’s, not the MPAA. In fact in the UK it was given the equivalent of a PG-13 rating (12A) uncut on appeal.
Exactly. I’ll decide when and where my kid learns the proper use of the f bomb. Stop indoctrinating our kids, Hollywood!
Not really.
My point is that they made it with the swearing, then decided to cut out the swearing (after the Oscars) so that it could get a lower rating and be seen by a wider audience.* Had they merely written the script so that it didn’t include the swearing, or minimized it substantially, they would not have needed to incur the extra cost, would have ended up with the same film, gotten the “better” rating (as it was, the film went from an “R” to a “PG-13”), and would have won the same awards. After all, the film didn’t win Best Picture because of the two scenes, it won B. Picture because it is the supreme example of an Oscar Bait movie.
- And I agree that most kids would have been bored by the film, but that’s not really the point here. My 10yo daughter thought the film was OK at best (we saw the “R” version).
Corrected. But the point still remains - films, even those based on real-life events, are pieces of fiction, and screenwriters (British, American. French, Indian, etc) will toss out historical accuracy if it doesn’t meet the requirements of the story they wish to tell. And, even according to the British press, TKS had its fair share of inaccuracies put in solely to service the story.
Regardless, I did not mean to hijack a thread about cursing in children’s films into a discussion about The King’s Speech. My apologies to the OP.
“Buttfucker.” Yeah, it was really out of place in the Casper movie, but there you go.
I took my son to church last night, where the priest put ashes on our forehead and said “You are but dust and to dust you shall return.” When we got back I leaned over to him and said “Did she just call us butt dust?” Apparently that was the funniest thing he had ever heard in his life. Then he ratted me out to Mommy.
The horror spoof Student Bodies did something very similar (they interrupted the movie to have a guy saying “the producers have asked me to take this opportunity to say: f— you” in the middle of the movie in order to get an R rating).
Such films are rare. The original (1971) film adaptation of the Michael Crichton book The Andromeda Strain was released with a G rating. The rating was a bit surprising to me for a science fiction suspense film that has scenes of dead townpeople in the roads.
The movie received two Academy Award nominations (Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing) so it was a somewhat decent film.
Meh. The title of a popular Elton John song. I’m sure if you listen to classic rock stations, they play that pretty frequently.
Moving to Cafe Society.
That is really awesome. Butt dust, man. I bet he just lost it.
Someone, anyone, get James Earl Jones to record him saying “testicles”. I could really use a new ringtone.
I could be misremembering, but didn’t Bambi scream “FUUUUUUCK!” during the forest fire scene?
Man, he is friendly!