Fuck (2005 film)

For the 1969 film by Andy Warhol, see Blue Movie.

Fuck
Fuck film poster
Directed by	Steve Anderson
Produced by	Steve Anderson Steven G. Kaplan Gregg L. Daniel Bruce Leiserowitz Jory Weitz
Starring	Steven Bochco, Pat Boone, Ben Bradlee, Drew Carey, Billy Connolly, Sam Donaldson, Janeane Garofalo, Ice-T, Ron Jeremy, Bill Maher, Judith Martin, Michael Medved, David Milch, Alanis Morissette, Kevin Smith, Tera Patrick, Hunter S. Thompson
Cinematography	Andre Fontanelle
Edited by	Jayne Rodericks
Production company	Rainstorm Entertainment
Distributed by	THINKFilm
Release date	November 7, 2005 (2005-11-07)
Running time	93 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Fuck (styled as FUCK, F★CK or F*CK) is a 2005 documentary by director/producer Steve Anderson and Rainstorm Entertainment about the social, political, personal, historical, linguistic and artistic significance of the word fuck. The documentary begins with a segment of the 1965 propaganda film, Perversion for Profit. The film features commentary by a variety of individuals, including Kevin Smith, Steven Bochco, Janeane Garofalo, Chuck D., Ron Jeremy, Bill Maher, Michael Medved, Alan Keyes, Judith Martin, Drew Carey, Alanis Morissette, Ice T, Pat Boone, and Billy Connolly. Analysis from a scholarly perspective is provided by academics including linguist Reinhold Albert Aman, journalism analyst David Shaw, and other language experts. The film notes that the earliest finding of fuck in the written word format was in 1475, in the poem "Flen Flyys". Fuck dispels the perceptions that the word was original formed as an acronym. The word was used in literature by noted writers including Robert Burns, D.H. Lawrence, and James Joyce. The film explains that fuck established its current form of usage throughout World War I and World War II; the word made its entry into the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. The documentary argues that fuck is an integral part of societal discussions surrounding both freedom of speech and censorship.

Music featured in the film includes "Shut Up and Fuck" by Betty Blowtorch, "Fuck Tha Police" by NWA, and "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen. Filmmaker Steve Anderon first became inspired to make a film about the word fuck during his experience as a writer. He deliberately chose to title the film simply "Fuck", despite foreseen problems with advertising and marketing this title. Bill Plympton provided animation sequences to illustrate key concepts in the film. The documentary was first shown at the AFI Film Festival on November 7, 2005 at the ArcLight Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. It was subsequently shown at the Florida Film Festival, and at screenings in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, California, and New York City, New York. The DVD for the film released in 2007 includes an optional "Fuck Counter"; audio commentary by the director; trailers for Shortbus, Farce of the Penguins and The Aristocrats; deleted scenes and extended interviews.

Fuck garnered mostly mixed reviews from film critics. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports the film as holding an overall 56% positive approval rating based on 72 reviews, with a rating average of 5.8 out of 10. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 0–100 reviews from film critics, the film has a rating score of 58 based on 23 reviews, classified as a generally mixed or average reviewed film. In his book, Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties, Professor Christopher M. Fairman of the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University called the movie, "the most important film using fuck". The American Film Institute reviewed Fuck and characterized it as a film about freedom of speech, observing, "Ultimately, FUCK is a movie about free speech. ... Freedom of expression must extend to words that offend. Love it or hate it, fuck is here to stay."

Contents

Fuck begins with a segment of the 1965 propaganda film, Perversion for Profit. A clip from Spongebob Squarepants observes that the word can be utilized as a form of "sentence enhancer". The documentary features commentary by a variety of individuals, including Kevin Smith, Steven Bochco, Janeane Garofalo, Chuck D., Ron Jeremy, Bill Maher, Michael Medved, Alan Keyes, Judith Martin, Drew Carey, Alanis Morissette, Ice T, Pat Boone, and Billy Connolly. There are 857 instances of the word fuck used during the movie.

Fuck begins with a segment of the 1965 propaganda film, Perversion for Profit.

Analysis from a scholarly perspective is provided by academics including linguist Reinhold Albert Aman, journalism analyst David Shaw; in addition to other language experts including Jesse Sheidlower of the Oxford English Dictionary. American linguist and Stanford University professor Geoffrey Nunberg notes, "You could think of that [word] as standing in for most of the changes that happened in the 20th century, at least many of the important ones."

The film features writer Hunter S. Thompson in what is believed to be his final documented interview. Fuck includes archival footage of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, in addition to analysis of the word's usage in popular culture ranging from the film M*A*S*H directed by Robert Altman, Scarface by filmmaker Brian De Palma, and Clerks directed by Kevin Smith. Carlin's 1972 monologue "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" is excerpted in the film.

Journalist Sam Donaldson comments on the versatility of fuck, "It's one of those all-purpose words." Bill Maher notes, "It's the ultimate bad word." Maher observes that it is thanks to comedian Lenny Bruce that comedy clubs in the United States have become "the freest free speech zone" in the country. Comedian Billy Connolly points out that fuck, "sounds exactly like what it is." Connolly notes that the emotional moment when one utters the phrase, "fuck off" cannot be translated. He asserts that if an individual is in Lhasa, Tibet at the airport and someone is fiddling with their luggage, simply yelling "fuck off" will effectively communicate that they should cease and leave the area. Alanis Morissette comments, "The f-word is special. Everybody uses the word breakfast, but not everyone feels comfortable using the word fuck so there's an extra power behind it." Lenny Bruce is quoted as observing, "If you can't say fuck, you can't say fuck the government." Pat Boone tries to argue for less usage of the word in society, and points out that he uses his own name, "Boone", instead of the word. Those in the film criticizing usage of the word fuck utilize an argument commonly referred to as "Think of the children".

Fuck points out that the initial usage of the word is unknown to scholars. The film notes that the earliest finding of fuck in the written word format was in 1475, in the poem "Flen Flyys". Fuck dispels the perceptions that the word was original formed as an acronym for "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" or "Fornication Under Consent of the King". The word was used in literature by noted writers including Robert Burns, D.H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), and James Joyce. The film explains that fuck established its current form of usage throughout World War I and World War II; and was subsequently used by General George S. Patton in a speech to his forces who were about to enter France. Fuck notes that the earliest usage of the word in a movie supported by a large studio production company was in the 1970 film M*A*S*H. It made its entry into the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. The film includes a segment of the 1987 movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles with actor Steve Martin in which fuck is used for comedic effect in serial repetition. Fuck points out the suggestive title of the 2004 film Meet the Fockers, which went on to become the most financially successful live action comedy film to date.

The director analyzes the usages and connotations of fuck, in addition to the feelings it evokes on multiple levels. Steve Anderson argues that fuck is an integral part of societal discussions surrounding both freedom of speech and censorship.

Music

Fuck includes songs with similarly-themed titles including "Shut Up and Fuck" by Betty Blowtorch, "Fucking Fucking Fuck" by Splatpattern, and "I Love to say Fuck" by Murderdolls. Sam Peczek of Culture Wars commented on the film's music selections, "Oddly enough, the background track which sutures many of the interviews throughout the film is reminiscent of (what one might imagine) a soft-porn soundtrack might sound like; slightly buoyant but intentionally bland and forgettable. To punctuate and enhance the wordplay taking place on screen, Anderson has sourced an extensive soundtrack of much less understated tracks".

Track listing

Fuck (2005) by Steve Anderson

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"All Things Bright and Beautiful" (Susan Skup, vocalist)	Anglican hymn
2.	"Hot Dog Man" (Antony W. Lee, vocalist)	Carvin Knowles
3.	"Don't Fuck With My Freedom of Speech" (Patrick Delaney and Steve Anderson, vocalists)	Carvin Knowles
4.	"Vendetta" (performed by Carvin Knowles, Joel Kleinberg and David Uebersax)	Carvin Knowles
5.	"If I Had The Copyright (The F-Word Song)" (performed by Carla Ulbrich)	Carla Ulbrich
6.	"Porn King" (performed by The Funky Filter)	Dany Almeida
7.	"Revolution Starts Now" (performed by Steve Earle)	Steve Earle
8.	"I Can't Say These Things" (performed by Red Peters)	Ed Grenga, Arthur Johnson, Michael McMahon and Douglas Stevens
9.	"Shut Up and Fuck" (performed by Betty Blowtorch)	Bianca Butthole, Sharon Needles, Blare N. Bitch and Judy Molish
10.	"Fucking Fucking Fuck" (performed by Splatpattern)	Walter Fischbacher, Elizabeth Lohninger, and Pete Macnamara
11.	"Chicken Rhythm" (performed by Slim Gaillard)	Bulee Gaillard and Harry Squires
12.	"A Chat With Your Mother" (performed by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer)	Lou and Peter Berryman
13.	"Don't Fuck Around With Love" (performed by The Blenders)	Claude DeMetrius and Joseph W. Burns
14.	"Hallelujah Chorus" (courtesy of DeWolfe Music Library)	George Frederic Handel
15.	"Bad Word For A Good Thing" (performed by The Friggs)	Dean Roher and Ben Vaughn
16.	"Fuck Tha Police" (performed by NWA)	O'Shea Jackson, Andre Young, and Lorenzo Patterson
17.	"Surfin' Bird" (performed by The Trashmen)	Al Frazier, Sonny Harris, Carl White, and Turner Wilson
18.	"I Love To Say Fuck" (performed by Murderdolls)	Joey Jordison
19.	"F The CC" (performed by Steve Earle)	Steve Earle
20.	"The Closing Song" (performed by Red Peters)	Joseph Vercillo, Ed grenga, Douglas Stevens and Arthur Johnson
21.	"Love Muscle" (performed by The SEX-O-RAMA Band)	Carvin Knowles
22.	"Stiffed" (performed by The SEX-O-RAMA Band)	Carvin Knowles

Production

Inspiration

The film incorporates animation by Bill Plympton to illustrate key concepts.

Steve Anderson made his directorial debut in 2003 with the film The Big Empty. He first became fascinated by usage of the word fuck during his experience as a writer. In an interview with CanWest News Service published by National Post, the director explained, "It's an amazing word. I don't know any other word that's so versatile. When I first thought of the idea, I said it as a joke. I said we should do a documentary about the word fuck. Almost as soon as I said it I realized that this could be a really good idea and most of all because I was really intrigued by the word. I just don't know any other word you can use in so many different ways and so many different contexts."

The filmmaker was quoted in The Observer, that he "was always amused by the word fuck. I thought it would be great to look at the word in all aspects of popular culture. Some people are very offended by this simple word, but that's the power it has. Some people are intrigued by it - others run for the hills. 'Fuck' polarises public opinion."

Anderson expounded to the Los Angeles Times on the confusing forbidden nature of the word fuck in the face of increasing pervasiveness of euphemisms for it, "The word itself is taboo, yet you can refer to it in hundreds of ways so that even children get an idea of what you're talking about." In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Anderson stated his view that film directors should not allow censorship: "Filmmakers want to tell their story in every way, and [censorship] is certainly something they would fight against."

The director stated he wished the film would provoke a greater debate about freedom of speech, "I'm hoping people will debate what they think's appropriate. How should you deal with your children with it? How should it be on television? Should it be on NYPD Blue? Do we need it there? Or is it okay that there's a safe haven from dirty words? And if they want to take it further, it's to debate what free speech really means and pay attention when issues like this film ... when free speech issues come up. Because I really do think as an artist, as a filmmaker, that the ability to say what we want when we want to say it, to get your opinion out there, is one of the most important things we can do as a citizen, as a person. I'll let the people decide whether they think a movie called Fuck being released across the nation is a good thing or a bad thing, but I think it's important. I think it's cool they can debate that."

Title choice and marketing

In an interview posted on his website about the film, Anderson commented about the inherent problems he came across when deciding to simply name his film Fuck and not a censored version of the word:

"All along I've wanted to call the movie just simply 'Fuck', because that is what the film is about. It's the center of the film. But just like the word itself, there's been much debate about what reaction the title would get. It's obvious that you couldn't print the ads for a film entitled "Fuck" in newspapers like the LA Times or New York Times. Some newspapers like LA Weekly might print it. How does it go on a marquee at a festival? So my feeling is this: The title of the movie is "Fuck". We'll make a design with an asterisk or a symbol, but the distributors or whoever takes the film, they'll have their own ideas. They might use an asterisk. They might use two asterisks. They might rename it for their purposes just like they do in the newspapers. But when you go to the theater and you see it onscreen, or when you see it on DVD, the name of the movie will be "Fuck". So in an odd way that's what the movie is all about; people's reaction to this word, the reaction to the title. The debate we've had as filmmakers has reflected society's debate about the word itself. Is it appropriate? Can we get away with it? Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? I think the discussion over the title of the film reflects exactly what the film is about, so I decided to stick with that."

Anderson was successful in pushing for the name of the film itself to simply be the word Fuck, however this led to subsequent problems with advertising and promotion. The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times chose not to print the title itself, instead opting to express it in their headlines with four asterisks. Anderson remarked that decisions like these by media companies created "a huge marketing challenge". The director told EFILM he was resolute in the face of this adversity, "In the end, I felt the only honest thing to do was to call the film Fuck and roll with the punches. It's what the film is really about, anyway: how this one simple word can affect society. Anyways, we have a built-in two-word response to all bad reviews. One of the words is 'off.'"

Filming and distribution

A total of 35 media commentators were interviewed in the film. The film incorporates animation by Bill Plympton to illustrate key concepts, as well as selected sound bites, music, video clips and archival film footage. Anderson drew together excerpts from five television series and 22 films for use in the documentary. Fuck utilizes an editing technique to give the appearance that separate interviewees are in effect talking directly to each other. The film was not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.

The film was produced in 2005 by Anderson's film company Mudflap Films; it was executive produced by Rainstorm Entertainment co-founders Steven Kaplan and Gregg Daniel, along with Bruce Leiserowitz, Jory Weitz and Richard Ardi. The distribution rights to Fuck were obtained by THINKFilm in 2006. Movie chains did not use the word itself in their promotion, instead choosing to refer indirectly to the word through discrete references such as, "The Four-Letter Word Film".

Mark Urman, chief of the theatrical division at THINKFilm, commented to The Philadelphia Inquirer about the difficulties in promoting a film whose title media outlets did not wish to print: "One of the things that's so ... challenging to us as an independent film distributor is to navigate through these waters. People have different thresholds. Part of the exercise in dealing with films that push people's buttons is in finding where those buttons are. We want people to come out of their narcosis and pay attention." Urman told Variety, "Everything about the way we advertise, publicize and even discuss this film requires us to be thoughtful, original and fresh." THINKFilm marketed the documentary as, "Definitive and comedic look at the infamous expletive explores how this oft-used word, still widely seen as obscene, somehow permeates every aspect of our culture."

Release

Film screenings

Fuck was shown for the first time on November 7, 2005 at the AFI Film Festival.

The movie was shown for the first time on November 7, 2005 at the AFI Film Festival. The 2005 AFI Film Festival was held at the ArcLight Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. On March 10, 2006, interest was generated for the film after its screening on the opening night of the 20th South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. The documentary was popular at the 30th Cleveland International Film Festival; it sold out two separate screenings which were both standing-room only events.

The film was shown March 31 and April 2, 2006 at the Florida Film Festival. Fuck was screened in April 2006 during the Philadelphia Film Festival at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It had its Washington, D.C. premiere in June 2006. The film was screened June 15, 2006 at the Nantucket Film Festival; The Nantucket Independent characterized it as a documentary, "Addressing free speech and censorship".

Fuck opened in Los Angeles, California on August 23, 2006 and New York City, New York on November 10, 2006. Fuck was screened in 2006 in Canada at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. It began regular showings in Canada at the Bloor Cinema on December 1, 2006. The documentary began showings at the Century Centre Cinema in Chicago, Illinois on November 17, 2006. The film had two screenings in April 2007 during the Hong Kong International Film Festival in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Television and DVD

THINKFilm reached a deal to screen the documentary on the American premium cable Showtime in 2007. It aired on the Documentary Channel on May 28, 2011.

The DVD for Fuck was released in 2007. A DVD edition was released for the United Kingdom in 2009. Shortbus, Farce of the Penguins and The Aristocrats are shown as trailers before the feature documentary Fuck screens on the DVD. For the DVD release, THINKFilm remastered the video for Fuck, optimizing it for home viewing in a process of 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer to 16:9 anamorphic full frame presentation. The audio is presented in Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0. DVD special features include a commentary track by film director Steve Anderson; additional interviews with Steve Anderson and Bill Plympton; the film's theatrical trailer; a trailer gallery for the films promoted prior to the feature; as well as deleted scenes and extended interviews with commentators including Hunter S. Thompson and Tera Patrick. The DVD includes an option to enable a counter on screen during the film which shows viewers the number of utterances and appearances of the word fuck during play.

Reception

In his book, Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties, Professor Christopher M. Fairman of the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University called the movie, "the most important film using fuck".

Fuck garnered mostly mixed reviews from film critics. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports the film as holding an overall 56% positive approval rating based on 72 reviews, with a rating average of 5.8 out of 10. The site's general consensus is that the film is "A documentary that sets out to explore a lingual taboo but can't escape its own naughty posturing." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 0–100 reviews from film critics, the film has a rating score of 58 based on 23 reviews, classified as a generally mixed or average reviewed film. In his book, Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties, Professor Christopher M. Fairman of the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University called the movie, "the most important film using fuck". The American Film Institute reviewed Fuck and characterized it as a film about freedom of speech, observing, "Ultimately, FUCK is a movie about free speech. ... Freedom of expression must extend to words that offend. Love it or hate it, fuck is here to stay."

Jack Garner of the Democrat and Chronicle gave the film a rating of 8 out of 10, and concluded, "All told, Anderson's film is surprisingly amusing, as well as insightful, even if viewers have to sit through about 800 uses of the word in the 90-minute film. (And that's a cinematic record.)" Writing for The Boston Globe, Wesley Morris noted, "Anderson's glib approach is to the movie's advantage, allowing anything profound to seem unexpected." Sally Foster of Film Threat observed, "At the forefront of the discussion is the question of freedom of speech." Her review concluded, "Fuck provides a highly provocative and humorous overview of a word that, love it or hate it, undoubtedly holds more power than its measly four letters might suggest. All in all, I’d have to say that this film was entertaining as fuck. A. O. Scott wrote for The New York Times, "Mr. Anderson’s movie is staged as a talking-head culture-war skirmish between embattled upholders of propriety (or repression, if you prefer) and proponents of free expression (or filth), but its real lesson is that the two sides depend upon each other. Or rather, that the continued vitality of the word — its unique ability to convey emphasis, relieve stress, shock grown-ups and function as adverb, noun, verb, intensifier and what linguists call 'infix' — rests on its ability to mark an edge between the permissible and the profane." Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote for the Chicago Reader that the documentary succeeded "to entertain and educate in roughly equal doses". Chelsea Bain of the Boston Herald called the documentary, "an interesting debate about censorship". Glenn Garvin of The Miami Herald observed, "the documentary offers an effervescent blend of cultural history and political opinion."

In a review for The Austin Chronicle, Marjorie Baumgarten gave the film a rating of 4.5 out of five stars, and concluded, "F*ck manages to strip some of the mystique from the forbidden word, and in the end, despite some road bumps, is a satisfying f*lm." Steve Schneider reviewed the film for the Orlando Weekly, and characterized it as "A thesis-level course in the history, derivation and proper use of every sailor's favorite cuss, the movie has to wage a constant battle against potty-mouthed monotony. Fortunately, it emerges largely unscathed, and almost triumphant in its own single-minded way." Noel Murray of The A.V. Club gave the film a grade of "B-", and wrote, "Unlike Kirby Dick's scatterbrained This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Steve Anderson's similar state-of-obscenity documentary Fuck gives both sides of the decency argument a fair hearing." Karl French commented in a review for The Financial Times, "For something rather different there’s F*ck, a moderately amusing documentary about the second most offensive word in the English language." Moira MacDonald concluded in a review for The Seattle Times, "Can you support the First Amendment, and be appalled at the often-ridiculous fines levied by the FCC for a single broadcast F-bomb, and still be weary of this word's ubiquity? Anderson's movie doesn't say, but many know the answer." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle criticized the film, writing, "often the movie seems like a lot of empty-headed blather, with one side hating the First Amendment and the other side unable to find a better use for it but to say the f-word."

Peter Keough reviewed the film for The Boston Phoenix; giving it a rating of two out of four stars, he commented that repeated usage grew tiresome, "enough already, we get it." Writing in a critical review for The Observer, Philip French called the film, "smug, shallow, repetitive, unilluminating and rarely funny." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film a rating of two out of five stars, and concluded, "It's all reasonable but unoriginal stuff." In a review for Empire Magazine, David Parkinson gave the film a rating of two out of five stars and wrote, "For a film that purports to lift the lid on a contentious topic, Steve Anderson’s doc plays disappointingly safe." Parkinson lamented, "This could have been far more illuminating, challenging, or at the very least entertaining." Writing for Time Out London, David Jenkins gave the film a rating of one star out of six, and called it, "The insight-neutral scrag ends of what feels like ten decent documentaries on censorship, semantics, social policy and broadcasting". The St. Paul Pioneer Press criticized that the film was too long; this complaint was echoed by The Washington Post, The Deseret News, The Herald, and the New York Daily News. In a review for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Bill White gave the film a grade of "C" and wrote, "The documentary is a repetitive and infantile assemblage of sound bites edited to give the appearance of a debate on the right to freedom of speech."

See also

• Censorship in the United States
• Cohen v. California
• Finger (gesture)
• First Amendment to the United States Constitution
• Four-letter word
• Freedom of speech in the United States
• Freedom of the press
• List of films that most frequently use the word "fuck"
• Madonna on Late Show with David Letterman
• National Coalition Against Censorship
• Seven dirty words
• Sexual slang

Further reading

• "About The Filmmakers". fourletterfilm.com. Archived from the original on January 2, 2007. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
• Allan, Keith (2006). Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521525640. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Atkins, Robert (2009). Censoring Culture: Contemporary Threats to Free Expression. The New Press. ISBN 1595580506. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Fairman, Christopher M. (2009). Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties. Sphinx Publishing. ISBN 1572487119.
• Heins, Marjorie (2007). Not in Front of the Children: 'Indecency,' Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813542219.
• Sheidlower, Jesse (2009). The F-Word. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0195393112.

External links

• "FUCK: Four Letter Film". fourletterfilm.com. Archived from the original on January 6, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2013.
• Official website
• Fuck at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Fuck at IMDb
• Fuck at Rotten Tomatoes
• Fuck at Metacritic
• OCLC 85793984; OCLC 232578834
• Fuck at Yahoo! Movies