Reviews
Manners, shock value, traditional values and freedom of speech all collide in Fuck: A Fuckumentary
By MATT COKER - OC Weekly*
A title like Fuck: A Fuckumentary should fill plenty of Edwards
Island seats for its April 23 screening as part of the 2006 Newport
Beach Film Festival. When enough people discover it's a film with such
talking heads as Steven Bochco, Pat Boone, Ben Bradlee, Drew Carey,
Chuck D., Billy Connolly, Sam Donaldson, Janeane Garofalo, Ice-T, Ron
Jeremy, Alan Keyes, Bill Maher, Dave Marsh, Judith "Miss Manners"
Martin, Michael Medved, David Milch, Alanis Morissette, Tera Patrick,
Dennis Prager, David Shaw, Kevin Smith and Hunter S. Thompson'in
probably his final filmed interview'all coming together to discuss the
word fuck, it should be a guaranteed sellout.
But there's oh so much more to Steve Anderson's documentary. Mixing
those and other one-on-one interviews with archival footage,
man-on-the-streets and clever animation by Bill Plympton, Fuck gets at
why fuck has so much power.
Hyperbole? No fucking way, dude. Not when one falsely slipped fuck
during a live broadcast can bring down a television network. Not when
mommies drive their Voyagers off cliffs upon hearing little Johnny
unleash his first fuck from the car seat. Not when the word's long and
steady creep into everyday culture has been used by some misguided
souls to deny you your constitutional rights.
"A lot of freedoms in this country are being eroded, especially
with the FCC and religious right having their way with George Bush in
office," says Anderson, who is battling the lingering effects of the
flu as he speaks on the phone just before stepping onto a plane for yet
another film festival. "Freedom of speech is something that always
needs to be debated. If not, it could slip away.
"It's like Lenny Bruce says in the film, that if you can't say fuck,
you can't say fuck the government. You can't say fuck George Bush, fuck
whatever. It's an opinion we have a right to express, and I don't want
to have that right taken away from me."
Just a breezy 93 minutes long, Fuck: A Fuckumentary is every bit as
entertaining as it is informative, which is probably why it's already
become a proven winner on the film-festival circuit since its November
debut.
"It caters to them because it's a little edgy, and festivals try to be a little edgy," says Anderson.
Depending on the company you keep, fuck can be part of casual
conversation or it can be the ultimate exclamation point to a
particularly heated exchange. As the old George Carlin routine went,
fuck somehow changed along the way from being solely a crude way to
describe sexual intercourse to a synonym for great violence, death
even. Of course, Carlin took that notion to far more hilarious
extremes, changing a standard line from old TV westerns to, "We're
gonna fuck you, sheriff. But we're gonna fuck you slow."
Anderson's film makes similar, seamless shifts from the sexual to the
violent and back to the sexual again (and even the violent sexual, as
porn star Tera Patrick and her husband, Biohazard singer and Oz star
Evan Seinfeld, are only too happy to share while describing their
various coital positionings). Perhaps Fuck's greatest public service is
dispelling the old wives" tales about the word's origins. Surely you
know folks who will swear on a stack of Bibles that fuck is an acronym
for Fornication Under Consent of the King or For Unlawful Carnal
Knowledge. Not true, not true.
But describing all things fuck over footage and 'toons is one
thing. How the hell did Anderson get all these celebrities to appear in
his documentary?
First, you have to know more about him. Anderson worked at the PBS
station in his native Rochester, New York, for several years, racking
up seven national awards for his documentaries. He moved to California
about 15 years ago for a more steady paycheck as a CNN cameraman out of
the Los Angeles bureau. Anderson sort of specialized in shooting
entertainment events for the 24-hour news channel, something that came
in handy when he decided a few years ago to chuck his news career for
his true love, filmmaking. The contacts he had made helped get his
projects launched.
His first indie feature, The Big Empty, starring actor/filmmaker
Jon Favreau, didn't lead to a 10-picture deal with Paramount, but it
did give him an appreciation for Newport Beach's film festival, which
in 2004 bestowed its Outstanding Achievement by a First Time Filmmaker
award to Anderson for Empty.
But getting stars onboard for a potboiler set in the desert is one thing.
"Well, we did get quite a bit of people questioning it, honestly,"
Anderson concedes of the pre-production for Fuck. "Of course, it was
called the Untitled F-Word Project a lot of the time, even while we
were filming, but we never hid the fact of what it was called." Since
his project put so much import on that one word, he says, "it didn't
seem honest to call it anything but that."
He says he got past a lot of image-conscious agents and managers thanks
to a Rolodex stuffed with celebrities' home numbers or their most
personal contacts, culled from his CNN days.
"I'd call people and say this is what I'm doing, this is a film
about this word and freedom of speech and broadcast decency, that we'd
kind of put this word really at the center of the debate over free
speech. I found that as soon as they heard the word fuck, people had an
opinion about it. Four simple letters in one specific order seems to be
the tipping point. People on all sides of the issue have opinions about
it."
No one was deceived into appearing in the picture, he maintains, and he
assured all participants, even those whose views clashed with his, that
any editing would preserve the gist of their arguments.
"Pat Boone was one of the first people to sign up to do the film.
You know what you're getting with Pat Boone. . . . I'm the first to say
that my own views on the subject are a little bit to the left, but I
made a promise to everyone that their points would get across. . . .
Every quote I put in there, that's what they were."
That's especially true of the words mumbled by the good doctor, Hunter S. Thompson, to whom the film is dedicated.
"I'd have to ask Anita, his widow, but as far as I know this was his
last filmed interview," Anderson says. "We filmed it five or six weeks
before he died. We spent two days at his compound in Colorado. He'd
sleep during the day and get up in the evening like it was supposed to
be 6 in the morning to us.
"The first night, he was not feeling well. But the second he went from
9:30 p.m. to 4 in the morning, nonstop. It was really a memorable
experience. Just talking on the phone with him before we interviewed
him was a trip. He kind of liked the idea of the project and kind of
took to us. After a couple of drinks, he just settled right into it."
Anderson says Thompson got the dedication not just because he
passed so soon after the film wrapped, but because the gonzo journalist
was "so inspiring. This film was kind of done in the same spirit of
what he did."
* * *
Anderson plans to follow Fuck with a return to feature filmmaking.
He has a project tentatively titled Vlad the Impaler ("Imagine if the
Coen Brothers did a vampire movie") that's generated some sniffs from
studios. Unfortunately, all his time these days is going to Fuck.
"It's kind of hard getting prepared for the next film while promoting
this film," he says. "Once the hard work is over, the hard work starts.
I guess I can't complain. I actually enjoy what I'm doing, and I hope
that one of these days I'll even make a little money."
He's also got another little Fuck project going on the side in
light of the festival screenings and a planned fall theatrical release
by just-inked distributor THINKFilm, which is obviously banking on Fuck
following the surprise success of last year's likewise-profane The
Aristocrats. Team Fuck is currently tracking how the film gets
mentioned on front pages and magazine covers and in film programs. More
precisely, they're logging whether it's referred to as Fuck, F*ck,
F**k, F*** or"swear to God, this has already happened"****.
"The only major newspaper to use the full name uncensored, and I say
major because of its size, was in Victoria, British Columbia," says
Anderson, who figures his informal survey results may appear as part of
the theatrical release or in future DVD packaging.
Noted in the current version's end credits is this tidbit: Fuck: A
Fuckumentary includes 630 uttered fucks (or fuck variations). But that
needs to be appended, Anderson says, because on further review it was
discovered that including the number of times the word fuck is seen on
screen in written form or heard in songs, the film's total number of
fuck references exceeds 800.
The frank use of fuck has liberated festival audiences, he claims.
"The very fact that people see it allows them to talk about it,"
Anderson says. "At the director Q&As, people just love to say it."
Though the film has been in the can for months, everything fuck-related continues to cross his desk.
"For the past year and a half, I have become the conduit for all
things fuck," he says. "Every friend or business associate passes along
a fuck joke or a new fuck-combination word. I'm getting one in my
e-mail box right now. It's proven to be a pretty popular word.
"One thing fuck has going for it is it's funny. At our screenings, we
get raucous laughter. We set out to make it entertaining. We didn't
want some dark polemic about free speech. But in the end, we hope it
forces people to think about when it should be used on the radio, when
it should be on TV. I'm more conservative than some in that I think
there should be limits. It's something you can say with friends at a
bar, but not in church, not at your parents'."
No, that'd just be fucking rude.
VARIETY REVIEW
By JOHN ANDERSON
From Scots national poet Robert Burns, to American comedian Lenny
Bruce; from Country Joe McDonald's give-me-an-F cheer at Woodstock to
"South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut," the offensive word that
provides the title for Steven Anderson's penetrating documentary/social
critique has either enriched or infected Western culture to the point
that we're either drowning in a "floodtide of filth" or blessed with
the best verbal relief valve ever devised by man. The only thing clear
is that this movie will have a cult following, the size of which may
depend on whether it can be advertised anywhere.
Director Anderson is out to discover where the word comes from, why it
offends so many so deeply and what possible benefit can be gained from
its use. Old wives' tales about the word being an acronym are explored
("Fornication Under the Consent of the King" is one theory, which is
pretty much put to bed by the movie's linguistic experts). The
conclusion reached is that the word's origin is unknown, but that its
very mention drives certain people into spasms of righteous
indignation.
"Every civilization has had to battle to preserve itself," says
radio talkshow host Dennis Prager, who sees the increased use of the
word as proof we're losing the battle. "Cathartic" is what TV talk show
host Bill MaherBill Maher calls it. While it's hard to defend the use
of the word as an artistic device -- especially since Lenny Bruce long
ago got most of the mileage he could out of it -- it's also hard to get
as worked up about it as do Robert Peters, of Morality in Media, or
right-wing watch dog Michael Medved. Although Anderson gives each side
equal time, the determining factor in which side the movie leans toward
is which side is the funniest. And the censorship advocates are too
grindingly indignant to be funny.
Anderson plays fast and loose with his editing -- people who may never
have been in the same room (all the interviewees are filmed solo) seem
to be having arguments, which seems like dirty pool given some of the
"exchanges." Anderson also flops his subjects on occasion, reversing
the negative so that someone who was looking right is suddenly looking
left (in Prager's case, the part in his hair moves from right to left).
In terms of entertainment, the movie is consistently amusing, often
hilarious, and energetic in its editing. Animator Bill Plympton's
interspersed contributions sparkle with wit, as usual, and comedians
like Drew Carey and wild man Billy Connolly revel in being encouraged
to use the word.
Where Anderson starts to go wrong is when he moves away from the
linguistic aspects and into its visual representation. Outtakes from
porn movies and interviews with porn stars Tera Patrick and husband
Evan Seinfeld send the movie off track.
Docu recovers its wits when Anderson starts following the word into
the U.S. executive branch to include Dick Cheney's celebrating
muttering at Sen. Patrick Leahy and the notorious vulgarity of the
Nixon and Johnson presidential tapes. So despite the protestations of
Pat Boone, who decries the rise of gangsta rap's vulgarity, the
"no-class, low-life" behavior he bemoans has been embraced by the
supposed top shelf of society. And there's no end in sight.
Ain't It Cool News Review
11/11/05
FUCK
Yep. That's the whole title. And it knows that it's a
confrontational title, a title that most newspapers can't print, and
that they certainly won't take advertising for. The whole point of the
film, though, is to make you confront that word and deal with it and,
if it works, laugh about it as well. This documentary by Steve Anderson
can almost be seen as a companion piece to this year's THE ARISTOCRATS,
but I doubt FUCK would make my wife cry. Basically, this is a fistful
of celebrity interviews about the word "fuck" and all its uses,
connotations, meanings, origins, and significance, and it also uses the
word as a springboard to the discussion of free speech. That's an
ambitious goal for a documentary, and to the credit of writer/director
Steve Anderson, he does a nice job of explaining without lecturing, and
he keeps everything light. This is a very funny film, and I'm sure part
of that is the way he juxtaposes interview subjects like Ice-T, Tera
Patrick, and Pat Boone.
The real question I have is how they plan to play this film outside
of the atmosphere of a festival. They'll never get any Blockbuster
shelf space with that title, and changing the title or self-censoring
it seems to fly in the face of what the movie's about. It's a tricky
Catch-22 for a distributor, but FUCK is a good enough movie that
someone needs to step up and figure it out.
There's just something funny about people saying, "Have you seen FUCK?"
"Last night I saw FUCK and I liked it!" "I really'uh'wanted to
see'excuse my language'uhhh'FUCK yesterday"sorry again, but I couldn't
make it." And really, that's the point of the movie. What is so bad
about a word? Who says it's bad? What makes a bad word a bad word and
what makes it so good for so many things! The film, FUCK or F**K as it
said on the marquee at the Arclight, is entertaining, fun even. The
film includes great animation sequences by Bill Plympton, interviews
with Billy Connolly, Janeane Garofalo, Dennis Prager, Ms. Manners, Ron
Jeremy and surprising images of present and past presidents flipping
"the bird", plus countless (I'm sure somebody counted) movie and TV
clips and about 800 mentions of the work fuck. Okay so it's a little
salacious, but ultimately, that's what makes it fun.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
FUCK
By Michael Rechtshaffen
That mother of all curse words -- and current FCC cash cow -- is
treated to an appropriately colorful exploration courtesy of "FUCK," a
lively and often enlightening documentary directed by Steve Anderson.
The film, which had its world premiere at the AFI Fest, brings
together an energetic panel of talking heads, from celebrities and news
commentators to politicians and linguists, along with generous film,
video and audio clips and original Bill Plympton animations to weigh in
on the highly incendiary but remarkably resilient F-word.
Although marquee placement could be tricky without a well-placed
asterisk or two, "FUCK" makes perfect, undeniably timely sense with the
right distributor. And down the road, given the theme of freedom of
speech in the present political climate, it could form a dream triple
bill with "Inside Deep Throat" and "The Aristocrats."
Anderson, who made his feature directorial debut with 2003's "The
Big Empty," breaks it all down into bite-size chapters examining the
use of the word in movies, TV shows, news, sports and, of course,
politics (including the not-so-bons mots that Dick Cheney leveled at
Sen. Patrick Leahy) accompanied by bright graphics and interesting
factoids.
And while some myths are debunked along the way -- contrary to
widespread belief, etymologists insist that the word was never an
acronym for either Fornication Under Consent of the King or For
Unlawful Carnal Knowledge -- the documentary gets the most mileage out
of its articulate group of assembled experts.
Among them are comedians Drew Carey, Bill Maher and a particularly
ripe Billy Connolly, newsmen Ben Bradlee and Sam Donaldson, directors
Steven Bochco and Kevin Smith, conservative commentators Michael Medved
and Alan Keyes, musicians Ice-T, Chuck D and Alanis Morissette, Judith
"Miss Manners" Martin, porn stars Ron Jeremy and Tera Patrick, plus the
late Hunter S. Thompson in one of his last interviews.
Then there's veteran crooner Pat Boone, who has found an inspired way
around Richard Nixon's favorite expletive by taking his own name in
vain every time he feels the need to curse, as in "Oh, Boone!"
While Ice-T, for one, jokingly contends the Boone-word could
actually catch on, somehow one suspects George Carlin won't be amending
his Seven Dirty Words list any time soon.
LA WEEKLY
*FUCK (USA)
Profound and joyously silly at the same time, this documentary about
our most potent secular blasphemy comes at its subject from every
angle: its awesome power to offend the listener while empowering its
speaker; its obscure etymological origins; its centrality to issues of
free speech from Lenny Bruce to recent FCC fines; the determination of
right-wingers to suppress it and of comedians to shout it from the
hilltops. Witnesses from all sides are consulted Pat Boone vs. Kevin
Smith; Dennis Prager vs. Ice-T and a mere monosyllable emerges as a
heavily disputed cultural totem and taboo.
*Means Recommended.
SFist
The Women's Building auditorium on Sunday night was filled with
IndieFesters cramming themselves into uncomfortable purple plastic
seats and giggling about the naughtiness of the upcoming film. Us, we
were just thrilled to see that the SFist.com logo wasn't too blurry on
the list of sponsors. (does the Coit Tower part of the logo make it
look like our site is called lsfist.com?)
SFist is proud to present the documentary F*CK, a rollicking history of
the f-word throughout history and English-speaking culture, from the
liberal and conservative view, with interviews with linguists and
filmmakers and pottymouths and porn stars -- and Billy Connolly to boot!
Before we get to the actual review, we're also thrilled to offer a F*CK
book and postcards to the winner of today's lucky raffle-o-tron. The
book will look splendid on your coffee table, and we know your mom
would love to get a "thinking of you!" note on the back of one of these
little cards! If you work with the Gothamist LLP mothership in any way,
don't register.
Before we get started, Pat Boone, on the "keep it clean for the
kids" side of the debate, suggests that in the future, instead of
dropping the f bomb, you use the word BOONE instead. To adhere to our
site guidelines, that's what we'll do for the rest of the review!
You can BOONE about a lot of things. It's not just, "they BOONED
last night," but also "don't BOONE with me, you dirty motherBOONER,"
"BOONIN'-A," "fan-BOONING-tastic," "and, dude, you are so BOONED,"
among many, many others. BOONE encompasses porn stars, edgy comedians,
not so edgy comedians, public decency debates, 60s protestors, lawyers
and regulators, and Dick Cheney -- all of whom (and many more) make
appearances in the film.
The documentary is divided into easily-digestible segments: BOONE
history; BOONE Hollywood, BOONE in grammar, and little segments on
"BREAKING BOONING NEWS," featuring newsclips about times when BOONE has
come up in public -- like when someone on the Apollo moon mission
accidentally cursed over a live microphone. The segments all start off
with little Bill Plympton cartoons, which were rad too. Kevin Smith
talks about Clerks, Miss Manners suggests how to control your kids from
cursing, furious members of Morality In Media rant about the
degeneration of society, two Europeans have sex on screen (for the
environment), Ice-T takes on the police, Janeane Garofalo feels
conflicted. There's clips of George Carlin, Howard Stern, Richard
Nixon, the first poem in which the word BOONE was used, and segments
from Scarface. And the word BOONE is used over 600 times in the movie.
BOONE is kind of like the Aristocrats without the joke (and Drew
Carey does the same little snap and smile thing here he did there!);
lots of people trying to unpack the idea of obscenity. There was a lot
of shocked gasping and uncomfortably-loud laughing in the audience at
various points, and it's really very interesting how many cultural
flashpoints can be encompassed by the word. As one critic says, "BOONE
is like Belgium. People get in so many fights there, because they're on
the way to somewhere else. It's not really about BOONE or Belgium at
all."
We will say, though, after we left the movie, we have absolutely no
urge to use any curse words at al, ever againl. If someone steps on our
toe today, we're going to say, "gee whillikers" instead.
San Francisco Bay Guardian Review
Feb. 1, 2006
The most versatile word in the English language gets amazingly
thorough treatment in Steve Anderson's Fuck. Essential viewing for
linguists and guttermouths alike, Fuck explores the history of the word
(no, it's not an acronym), its rise to prominence during the World
Wars, its importance in entertainment (Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, and
you-know-which-scene in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles all get their
due), and its cultural importance ("Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney!").
The film also features an impressive assortment of talking heads, with
everyone from Sam Donaldson (enthusiastically: "The F word is a grand
word!") to Miss Manners to Ice-T to the late Hunter S. Thompson. As the
film notes, the obscenity of champions "can be used as virtually every
word in a sentence, as in 'Fuck you, you fucking fuck.
SF Station Review
Fuck
In a similar vein, director Steve Anderson explores the origins,
misconceptions, usages, and conflagrations that have grown around one
of the world's favorite expletives. How is it that the FCC can allow
Saving Private Ryan to be broadcast on network television unedited (the
film is rife with "F" bombs), but an actor can't give someone the
finger on "NYPD BLUE"? What the fuck? Beneath Anderson's tongue in
cheek exploration are some pretty serious questions about our
constitutional rights. In an era where something construed as
"unpatriotic" can land you in the clink, uttering the word "Fuck"
suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.
E FILM CRITIC
Erik Childress
SCREENING AT THE 2006 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL: Good gosh golly " wouldn't
you love to know where the word "Fuck" came from? Gee willickers so
would I. But in my anticipation that a new documentary by Steve
Anderson would finally reveal the answer, I got sidetracked into
forgetting about how much more there is to a four-letter word that has
stirred up controversy for years. Now it's Fuck's turn for a little
payback. What garnered giggles in our youth and became a part of many
of our vocabulary (public or private) over the years gets its just due
here to dissect a culture torn apart by such trivial attributes like
letters and language. Brilliantly entertaining and so meticulously put
together on every possible level, Anderson's film should tour as part
of an encapsulating trilogy with The Aristocrats and This Film Is Not
Yet Rated into the heartland and beyond as an important statement of
where we've come and the fuckstorm we're headed for.
The question of the word's origin is dispelled pretty quickly as the
recollections usually lead to the various acronyms ("Fornication Under
Consent of the King"), some which go as far back as...1970!!! The truth
is that no one knows where the word was first uttered. Maybe it was the
first caveman to hit their thumb with a hammer or the unfortunate
surname of a royal screw-up. Whatever the case is, some of our greatest
writers have been credited with giving the word its print debut in
poetry right up to 1945's Catcher In The Rye, still banned by most
schools because of the word's appearance. Nowadays the word has a
commonplace in all forms of media and where there's a "fuck", there's
someone to call it obscene.
On any block in Anytown USA you can throw a stone and probably find
both a liberal and a prude (I mean, conservative.) To Anderson's
credit, while the film clearly leans its scale towards the left, he's
assembled a number of right-shifting talk show hosts, entertainers and
moral crusaders to weigh their two cents. Representatives from the
Concerned Women for America and Morality in Media, Inc. sound just like
their titles suggest. Five-time political race loser, Alan Keyes (who
once called Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter "a sinner" and a selfish
hedonist, only to see his own daughter come out) continues to make
little sense. Pat Boone (making no reference to his infamous heavy
metal cover album) goes so far as to use his own name as a cuss instead
of the more traditional variety. KABC radio host Dennis Prager comes
off as the most extreme anti-filth advocate to the point that Michael
Medved's answers seem rational by comparison.
Those supporting the rights of free speech and open language
outweigh the others by about 2-to-1, just as the audience actually
seeing the film will likely be. Comedians (Drew Carey, Billy Connolly,
Janeane Garofalo, Bill Maher), Musicians (Alanis Morrisette, Ice-T) and
Porn Stars (Ron Jeremy, Tera Patrick) all have natural stakes in being
able to say (or fuck) whatever they want when they need to say (or
fuck) it. But its beyond just trying to be dirty for the sake of it.
David Milch, responsible for two of the most language-intensive shows
ever to air on television (including NYPD Blue), makes such a perfect
case for HBO's Deadwood (which averages over 69 "Fucks" per episode)
that it knocks the almost obligatory criticism about its profanity to
pedantic nit-picking. The always-welcome Kevin Smith takes dubious
pleasure in beating the swear count in the South Park movie by one
"Fuck" for Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Newsmen Sam Donaldson and
Ben Bradlee offer spirited debate; the latter of whom gets masterfully
edited together with Jason Robards' F-laden take on him in All The
President's Men. But most first amendment proponents are given one
beautiful valentine with inclusion of the late Hunter S. Thompson (whom
the film is dedicated to.)
It would have been so easy for Anderson to just string together a
collection of "Fuck" scenes, but he goes into every territory that you
have in the back of your mind. You wonder if he remembers to go".oh,
and there it is. Perfect. One of the faults of Kirby Dick's Sundance
cut of This Film Is Not Yet Rated was interrupting the meat and
potatoes of his argument with the unneeded garnish of his private
investigators. Anderson sticks with his subject and then wheels out the
dessert cart. Here's Lenny Bruce and Howard Stern. There's George
Carlin. Seven dirty words down to one made federal cases out of when
Bono and Janet Jackson slipped tongues and nips during "family hour" TV
events where beer and shlong pills are hocked for profit. Even Dick
Cheney uses it and is that the evangelical Bush father-son team
flipping the bird? The statistic on the rise of FCC fines (an
organization who only acts off of public complaints) since George W.
Bush has taken office may be the most effective argument for the use of
the phrases "Fuck you," "Fuck off," and "Get the fuck out of here" then
any Constitutional amendment can spell out for you.
Few documentaries will make you game enough to start them over and
watch again immediately, but Fuck covers so much ground and does it
with such a blazon sense of humor and irony in its 90 minutes that you
wish it would just go on forever. Only missing are James Lipton's "what
is your favorite swear word?", A Christmas Story's
"Fuuuuuuudddddggggggeeeeeee" and Jonathan Lipnicki's "You said fuck"
from Jerry Maguire. Maybe in future editions since you can imagine
Anderson extending the doc by a half-hour every year (at least through
2008) until there's a permanent record of the wasted expenditure of
time and money put into someone else's definition of what's
appropriate. We can all self-censor ourselves around children (a debate
which gets the best sense of equality for both points) but at the end
of the family or any other hour it's more likely to make them giggle
than to corrupt their sense of moral fortitude. Public manners are
different than outright censorship and we'd probably all be living in a
classier society if the thought police would not just lighten up but
also recognize that opinions and morals also have two separate
identities. Fuck has all sorts of definitions and just like the
commandments handed down over the years, we have no definitive idea
where it began - but that's no reason we can't love them all equally.
After all, isn't that what this country was founded on?
TWITCH FILM
Peter Martin
Outrageously funny, Steve Anderson's documentary FUCK goes far
beyond its profane title to tell you everything you ever wanted to know
about the world's favorite epithet.
The doc packs an amazing amount of information into its running time.
From overturning urban legends about its etymology to examining the
word's place in history, Anderson uses animation by the award-winning
Bill Plympton, archival footage, news stories, and liberal quotations
from the Bible to shed light on "fuck" in the context of politics, sex,
religion, movies, radio, and television over the years. The
topic-by-topic coverage gives structure to what initially appears to be
a scattershot approach to the subject.
Anderson and his team assembled an impressive roster of celebs and
intellectual talking heads across the political spectrum from Dennis
Prager and Pat Boone to Bill Maher and Janeane Garofalo. The film tilts
to the left -- especially in segments that bounce between liberal and
conservative views with pin-point editing -- but not, I think, to the
point that right-wingers would feel unfairly left out of the discussion
(assuming, that is, that they would see any fim entitled FUCK).
Interviewees delight in the use of the word (Billy Connolly, Alanis
Morissette, Kevin Smith), ponder its coarsening effect upon society
(Miss Manners, Michael Medved), or ruefully ponder the state of civil
liberties (Hunter S. Thompson, in what may be his last interview). In
the case of Ron Jeremy and Tera Patrick, well, your imagination can
fill in why porn stars love the word.
Lenny Bruce and George Carlin are highlighted as groundbreakers, but
the doc feels right up to date, noting the controversy over Janet
Jackson's exposed Super Bowl nipple and Howard Stern's move to
satellite radio. My favorite bit is Pat Boone's creation of a new
profanity as a substitute for the offending "f-word" -- a profanity
that is picked up by Ice T. by the end of the movie and used to
hilarious effect.
The snappy pace never sags. Anderson made his narrative debut in
2003 with THE BIG EMPTY, which I described as a "sun-baked film noir"
at the time. It was quirky, worthwhile entertainment, but FUCK feels
like a quantum leap forward -- perhaps the documentary format is the
natural metier for the filmmaker, or maybe this will energize his next
project. Whatever Anderson does next, he can stand proudly behind FUCK.
Michigan State University
Film explores offensive word's meaning
By ALESSA THOMAS
The State News
What's the worst four-letter word out there & the one word you still
can't say in front of your parents even though you're not living in
their house anymore? While the choices may vary, popular opinion tends
to agree the "F-word" wins the spot as most offensive.
Director Steve Anderson explores the meaning of the word, along with
different perceptions various people and groups have regarding it
throughout the course of his documentary, "Fuck." Anderson interviews
everyone from linguistics professors and politicians to celebrities and
comedians.
Viewers get to hear various people weighing in on the famous
four-letter word, including Pat Boone, Ron Jeremy, rapper Ice-T, Judith
Martin (aka "Miss Manners") and Hunter S. Thompson.
The documentary manages to be funny and informative without
over-sensationalizing the topic. While leaning toward the opinion that
the word isn't a big deal, the documentary presents a wide range of
opinions on it. Viewers who both love and hate swearing will be able to
find aspects of the film that speak to them.
The documentary also examines the history of the word and the
various definitions it possesses. Viewers learn what is myth and what
is fact. The versatility of the word also is explored, and it turns out
there is almost never a situation where its use wouldn't be applicable.
Check out this sometimes hilarious, light-hearted look at popular language at the East Lansing Film Festival on March 25.
Movie has a lot to say about one bad little word you won't see here
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Clint O'Connor
Plain Dealer Film Critic
The world's most popular verb, not to mention noun and adjective, now has its very own movie.
This funny, foul documentary features dozens of comedians, commentators and culture-watchers
dissecting the F-word's origins, its effect on society and the never-ending debate between good
taste and freedom of speech.
Talking heads include Ice-T, Drew Carey, Judith "Miss Manners"
Martin, Ben Bradlee, Michael Medved and the late Hunter S. Thompson.
Although the film rehashes a lot of familiar ground (Howard Stern, the
FCC, the Parents Television Council) and is too obvious in its point of
view (now here's the right-wing person saying the right-wing thing), it
still has several laugh-out-loud moments.
Ice-T's description of, shall we say, satisfaction, belongs next to
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" in the movie quotes hall of
fame. Just can't quote it here.
Squeaky-clean Pat Boone offers to clean up Vice President Dick
Cheney's infamous four-letter lashing of Sen. Patrick Leahy on Capitol
Hill: "The vice president could have said to Sen. Leahy, 'Would you
please impregnate yourself as you look for an exit.' "
The evolution of the word's usage in film is charted from "M"A"S"H" (one time) to "Scarface" (182)
to "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (228). This movie sets the record: 629.
FILE THIRTEEN.COM
After the success of last year's "The Aristocrats," it seemed kind
of obvious that a lot of docs about humor and language might be made.
"Fuck" is just such a film. But instead of being a "talking head" kind
of film, with pundits and linguists discussing the word in an
intellectual and cerebral way, filmmaker Steve Anderson covers a much
broader spectrum in his visual document.
The film begins drably enough with a well abused 50's adult educational
film called "Perversion for Profit" which I have seen so many times, I
could almost recite it by heart. Thankfully, this doesn't last long and
the film opens quickly into the exploration of the world's seemingly
most offensive expletive. There are a lot of talking head type
interviews here including linguists and historians but also the likes
of Hunter S. Thompson, porn stars, Alan Keyes, Janeane Garofalo, Dennis
Prager, Sam Donaldson, Bill Maher, Miss Manners, Billy Connolly (who
calls the word "Fuck" an onomatopoeia"), Steven Bochco, Drew Carrey,
Alanis Morissette, Ice T, Pat Boone, Ron Jeremy, Chuck D, Kevin Smith,
the lead singer of Biohazard, Dave Marsh, and Michael Medved (the
latter of which I wish would drop dead of cancer). There are also your
typical "man in the street" interviews (as well as some clown in the
street, literally, interviews).
Most of these interviews are fairly typical and rarely insightful.
It's much more fun to watch Pat Boone make an ass of himself as a media
whore here (I bet if you showed up at his house with a video camera, he
would talk to you for hours). Still, "Fuck" has the capacity to make
the audience laugh (especially when Connolly is talking) and that in
itself makes it worth watching.
Filmmaker Steve Anderson uses simple animations by Bill Plympton as
well as quotes on title cards to discuss not only the word and its
origins but also the way it is referenced when someone gives the
finger, someone says "Fuck off," as well as the way it is used in music
and TV.
Of course, the word could not be discussed with mentioning Lenny
Bruce and George Carlin and these two noteworthy comedians are shown in
clips as are news stories which reference Bono, Janet Jackson, and
Howard Stern.
AINT IT COOL NEWS
FUCK
Annette Kellerman
I SO love that my first review for this year's festival is for a
film called FUCK. Fuck is my favorite expletive. Actually, doesn't it
seem as though the word fits any pretense in which it is uttered? It
can be a interjection (fuck!), a verb (go fuck yourself), an adjective
(fucking idiot). I mean, with some creatively placed prefixes and
suffixes, fuck can be used to create entire sentences...I'm sure the
talkbackers will have no problem taking it from here. In the film FUCK,
director Steve Anderson attempts to address the history, age old
questions, and taboos surrounding everyone's favorite naughty word. In
classic documentary style, Anderson combines film and TV (HBO) clips
with talking head celebrity interviews--however, in a spin on the
traditional format, "chapters" are divided by hilarious animation from
Bill Plympton, talking heads include everyone from Ron Jeremy to Pat
Boone, and everyone is saying fuck over and over again. (okay, not Pat
Boone, but you get the idea) It's great!
Starting with "man on the street" type interviews, the film begins with
the history of the word, and its seems everyone has their own version
of its origin. Fornicating Under Consent of the King, For Unlawful
Carnal Knowledge, and just about any other acronym you can imagine is
mentioned. Though the true origin of the word is questionable, the
entertainment is in the speculation.
As the film progresses, the celebrity interviews juxtaposed with
film clips featuring the F bomb actually inform as they amuse. Who knew
that NWA's "Fuck The Police" was the first work of art to ever incite
FBI interest and a subsequent "dissaproval" letter. If only they had
footage of Eazy-E reading that letter! I also learned that MASH was the
first major motion picture to utilize the word in the line, "Your
fucking head is coming right off!" (I knew Altman earned that honorary
Oscar!) Did you know that fuck has been said 861 times on Deadwood so
far?
Aside from fun facts, the film also touches on the presidential use of
the expletive in several quotes and recordings of JFK, Nixon, and even
our current commander in chief who offered one of my newest favorite
phrases, "If you're gonna fuck me, you gotta kiss me first." The doc
eventually turns to the real issues at hand- censorship by the FCC and
MPAA and how it affects our right to free speech.
Overall, FUCK was a great documentary- fun and informative without
taking itself too seriously. If you get the chance, you should
definitely fucking check it out!
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