Offensive word in a movie

Disgustedman said:
Could you imagine censoring "To kill a mockingbird?" "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain?" "Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck" "Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell"

Even the most recent Django movie, man the n word was tossed like confetti.

I prefer seeing our history knowing how bad we were then and how enlightened we have become.
Click to expand...
See my answer to Chic immediately above your post, Disgustedman. I explained my reasons for objecting to that word in that particular context.
In the movies you mention, the objectionable word fits in and feels appropriate for the character who said it, In Kind Hearts and Coronets, it was grossly inappropriate.

Let me ask you something: If they made a movie that was a biography of Queen Elizabeth II, would you think it was perfectly OK and inoffensive if she used that word to refer to a Black person? You wouldn't bat an eyelash, because you don't believe in "censorship?"

No biographical movie is going to be perfectly accurate, of course, and the writers obviously take liberties. But how far is too far? And of course this movie was not biographical, at least let us hope so.

BTW. I never suggested censorship. I just said the word spoiled all the warm, amused feelings I had from enjoying the movie, and that I wished they had omitted that particular bit. The quote, and the entire movie, was "loosely based" on a 1907 book called Israel Rank (according to Google). Which means that in adapting the book, plenty of liberties were probably taken. Every line in an old novel is not sacred, especially when adapting it for a movie. Sometimes they leave out whole chapters, for various reasons.
 

I wonder when we turned into an offended culture.
Seems like everybody wants to be offended, looking for racism in everything, finding offense everywhere.
Heck, I see stuff on TV all the time that offends me, but it's just words, and words show the caliber of the speaker more than the caliber of the intended target.
I say leave the old movies alone, learn from them and do better in the future.
 
John Thomas said:
Does it really matter? There are more important things to worry about now in this day and age, if they started rewriting and editing all the old stuff, they'd be doing it forever, history is history, you can't alter it
Click to expand...


I think it matters.

but nobody is suggesting re writing all the old stuff. Edits of course happen all the time for various reasons so that is nothing new.

of course there are more important things to worry about - but nothing would ever get changed if we waited for all the big things in the world to be solved first.

There are bigger things doesn't mean we do nothing about relatively small things.
 

January said:
I think it matters.

but nobody is suggesting re writing all the old stuff. Edits of course happen all the time for various reasons so that is nothing new.

of course there are more important things to worry about - but nothing would ever get changed if we waited for all the big things in the world to be solved first.

There are bigger things doesn't mean we do nothing about relatively small things.
Click to expand...
What a big fuss about one word in an old film, I can't believe it
 
Pepper said:
Names can incredibly hurt you, sometimes forever, while a physical wound heals. Eventually.
Click to expand...
I disagree, unless the physical wound is a minor scratch. Not all "physical wounds" heal. If you have ever been physically attacked by a hateful, crazy person and suffered physical injuries, you are not only left with a permanent physical disability, but the emotional fear of being attacked again never goes away. Far worse than some nutjob calling you a name.
 
Historical language is an entirely different matter from current usage. Even current usage continues to change. "Words" that were verboten over the past decade or two are now returning to honest conversation. The silly pretentious and contentious "pronouning" is already completely dead. The neutral-gender pronoun is back to he/him and not "they/them" (misused plurals).

Linguistic least-common-denomination is disrespectful to unique cultures. Doubly so when redacting history. There is no excuse for going out of your way to speak offensively to others today, but trying to alter the speech of 1950 or 1850 is no service to anyone.
 
Sunny said:
Last night, I streamed an old English film, Kind Hearts and Coronets, starring the late, great Alec Guinness. I thought the movie was marvelous, even though it was made in 1949. Sir Alec plays 8 parts, one of them a woman! But I got a shock near the end.

One of the characters, a woman, plus the Alec Guinness character, are amusing themselves by remembering a childhood playground rhyme, which contains an extremely offensive word. Apparently it was not so offensive in England in the 1940's. I probably couldn't even use that word on this forum, and would not want to. I felt like I had received a punch in the stomach!

The word was not only said (several times), it was flashed in big letters as part of the Closed Captions I use for most shows, especially the British ones which don't have a sound quality that works too well with my TV. That word spoiled the movie for me, and I didn't like it any more, though I stuck with it to the end.

Was my reaction fair? After all, this was made in 1949. The year was supposed to be around 1912. The word was not used as a pejorative, or used by a "bad guy" as an insult, it was supposed to be a funny part of a children's rhyme. And the two characters were supposed to be upper class types, to boot.

If the word should have been removed, should they have substituted a different word? Or maybe just leave the rhyme out of it altogether? It was not at all important to the plot.

Any ideas on this?
Click to expand...
What did the word start with? So, I can guess what it was and then have an opinion.
 
oscash said:
What did the word start with? So, I can guess what it was and then have an opinion.
Click to expand...
Just saw others posting the offending word. That was the way people spoke in those days. I do find it offensive now. In Australia in the 50s we used to have Black shoe polish called Ni...r Boy Black. Nobody took offence. In the last few years an Australian famous cheese called COON has now been taken off the shelves because it is a derogatory word used to call Indigenous people. They now call the cheese CHEER cheese.
 
I can't remember that shoe polish - but nobody would think that an acceptable name now. I'm not sure about nobody took offence though - probably white people didn't take offence and black people didnt have a voice to say so.

I d o remember Coon cheese changing name, that was only few years ago - and sparked the usual objections by some 'nothing can be changed' types.
 
"Gay" used to mean lighthearted and carefree, "*****" was just the Spanish for "black" and "blowing a tranny" was car trouble.
Our language, usage and perception continue to change.
I just wish someone would let me know when the meaning or usage changes so I don't get protested against.
ETA: as evidenced by the Spanish word for black being marked out with ***** :rolleyes:
 
Sunny said:
Let me ask you something: If they made a movie that was a biography of Queen Elizabeth II, would you think it was perfectly OK and inoffensive if she used that word to refer to a Black person? You wouldn't bat an eyelash, because you don't believe in "censorship?"
Click to expand...
Wouldn't bat an eyelash. Wouldn't be surprised either. Wouldn't be offended. I don't look for reasons to complain about what others said long ago or the past hour.
 
dilettante said:
Many of these things are just BS:


One that bothers me and somehow flies under the radar is "honey badger" which was a racial slur for decades.
Click to expand...
Never heard it as a racial slur, I looked it up, it's a feMRA designation that females supporting men's rights.

Was that to denote which racial group/person?
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Well, you must not watch any of the new movies. Most of them contain more than one offensive word...several times to the point of overkill ! I really hate this new "trend" but so many writers seem to think it adds to their script, when in fact, it detracts from them. Unless I want to see a movie really badly, I skip movies with so much fowl language. I don't think one vulgar word would turn me off to an entire movie. Hard to tell, though since you won't say what the word was.
Click to expand...
I agree about the modern movies! Like you, I skip movies with too many offensive words!
 
January said:
yes we know the origin of Coon cheese.

however that doesn't mean the name has to remain forever when it is also a derogative term. things get rebranded all the time - and it was time for this one to do so.
Click to expand...
Kind of funny when you think of a restaurant that used to be prevalent in many states was called Sambo's and that was named for both Founders which was Samuel "Sam" Battistone Sr. and Newell "Bo" Bohnett.

But they couldn't rebrand to keep the chain going and finally it went under in 1981, basically it was in competition to Denny's restaurants
 
I don't like the N word,never have. But given the context of why they were saying it..I would not be offended.
I find it more offensive in today's shows where the F word is said 4 times in the beginning of the show. Cursing is an art form..a time ,a place,for everything. To curse is to bring shock, to make others take stock and show your serious.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top