In my formative years, there wasn’t any nuance or mystery when it came to words I wasn’t supposed to say. The f-word and s-word were definitely out of bounds. But so were some other common vulgarities that, while not as harsh as the really nasty stuff, were still very much considered profanity in my family. I’m talking about words like “d–n” and “h—.”
These days, however, fewer folks seem to be concerned about these so-called “mild” profanities. Consider George Lucas’ new film, Red Tails.
Before I reviewed the film for Plugged In last week, I was heartened to see this quote from Lucas, who bankrolled the movie and has been trying to get it made since 1988. “I wanted to make it inspirational for teenaged boys,” he told The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart. “I wanted to show that they have heroes, they’re real American heroes, they’re patriots that helped to make the country what it is today.”
Lucas’ desire to give young viewers role models really raised my expectations for Red Tails. And in many ways, this cinematic story of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II delivers. These pilots show great courage in facing both the fierce German Luftwaffe and the deeply entrenched racism of their own country.
But there was one glaring aspect of the movie that was anything but heroic for me: about 70 profanities.
Granted, the majority of those words, about 40 instances, were of the “milder” kind: “h—” and “d–n.” Still, there were also about a half-dozen s-words and several instances of “g–d–n.” In short, there were enough language problems that I definitely couldn’t land my review in an unqualified positive place, no matter how inspirational the story itself was.
As I was writing my review, I came across another quote from Lucas that I found to be quite curious in light of the film’s language issues. Speaking to The New York Times, Lucas described the pitch he made to various Hollywood studios. Among other things, he said of the film, “There’s not really going to be a lot of swearing in it.”
Now, this was a bit of a head-scratcher for me. Admittedly, Red Tails doesn’t include the volume of nasty language that many (if not most) R-rated films, quite a few PG-13 efforts and plenty of M-rated video games often do. That said, I would still describe 70 or so profanities as quite a few. And I suspect many parents of the teens Lucas says he was aiming the film at would find their emulation of such language less than heroic.
So what’s going on here? I can’t say for sure, but I suspect it might be something like this. I wonder if we’ve gotten to the point culturally where words that used to be treated as genuine, full-on profanities, words like “h—” and “d–n,” barely even register as such anymore for Hollywood. I wonder if our entertainment has become so saturated with problematic language that people like George Lucas can say with a straight face, “There’s not really going to be a lot of swearing in it” despite the fact that there is a lot of swearing—at least, words we used to consider swearing.
I don’t think George Lucas is lying here. I think he’s representative of the reality that language in entertainment (and perhaps our culture at large) has become so base that we’re almost completely deadened to—and thus not really aware of—all but the harshest vulgarities.
I’ll bet George would still consider the f-word swearing. But based on his comments and the film he helped make, I’m not sure he thinks all those other formerly naughty words really qualify anymore.
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