Hey, guys.
Title speaks for itself: are gratuitous profanities out of date for a modern audience? I know this trend started back in the 1980s with the release of "Scarface", which, at the time, boasted a record near-200 F-words in just under 3 hours, and continued with movies like "Goodfellas" and "Casino" before finally seemingly meeting its end in the 2000s. Would a screenplay filled with derivatives of said word be potentially off-putting in this day and age?
S. P.
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Personally I don't think it has the shock value it used to have. It was a surprise in "Scarface" and a constant reminder of the brutal world everything took place in. It's so common now it doesn't stand out or have that much effect in massive use anymore. That being said a single bomb drop of the word at just the right time can really knock it out of the park. IIRC Betty White in Lake Placid was a prime example but my memory isn't as good as it used to be.
nope, not the filmmakers & movies I pay to see. Scorsese still cranking F words in “Wolf of Wall Street” & “The Irishman”.
Pretty sure Oscars writers like Steve Zaillian, Scott Frank, David Mamet, Paul Schrader, Eric Roth, Spike Lee, Diablo Cody, Andrea Berloff, Todd Phillips don’t shy away from profanity, then and now
Check Tip #4. Scripts with a lot of expletives fare best. And download the full report:
https://stephenfollows.com/analysis-of-12309-feature-film-script-reports/
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Walk down the street. Vulgarities rile the streets - so write as people talk - but don’t do it in a scene it doesn’t belong - i.e. a statesman’s dinner
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I think it is classier not to use them.
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I come from an era where I heard dad- gummed as an epithet, so I tend not to use them much. Also, it's not the dramatist's responsibility to replicate speech but have your characters speak the language of the "world" you create for them. Having said that, I enjoyed "The Sopranos" immensely.
If you are going for the shock value like in the 80’s, yes dead. If you are writing a story about an poor irish family 200 F bombs would be tame.
They are words. Words have context and cultural significance. So there is no one answer I suspect.
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A good actor can get the point across in other ways...dirty looks, body language.