The first use of “fuck” in movie history
The power of language is profound, and the use of certain words can provoke reactions ranging from shock to laughter. One word in particular, “fuck”, holds a unique place in cinema history. For years, filmmakers danced around its use, given its weight and the societal norms governing what was acceptable. So, which movie was audacious enough to first utilise this potent expletive on the silver screen?
In modern film-going culture, one would be hard-pressed to find a film that doesn’t occasionally employ this word to punctuate a line or express strong emotion. However, it wasn’t always so. “Fuck”, given its direct association with a taboo subject like sex, remained sidelined, especially considering the stringent guidelines of film censorship. The Hays Code, a self-imposed set of industry guidelines that forbade profanity, sex and explicit violence, reigned all-powerful from 1934 to 1968. But every word, no matter how shocking, has its cinematic debut.
In Hollywood, it came in 1970, with Robert Altman’s MASH boldly etching its name in history. Set against the backdrop of the Korean War, this film centred on military surgeons employing humour as a coping mechanism, adapted from Richard Hooker’s novel. This story would later serve as the foundation for an iconic television series, which Altman famously hated. Nevertheless, it was one of Altman’s best works, and by breaking away from the traditional standards left-over from the Hays Code, it did more than push boundaries; it disrupted them, marking itself as the first Hollywood film to audaciously use the word “fuck”.
While MASH might have led the charge in Hollywood, was it genuinely the pioneer in introducing the word to global cinema? Surprisingly, no. The annals of cinema history show that underground and indie films had dabbled with the term even before the Hays Code’s dissolution in 1968. Andy Warhol’s 1965 short films like Lupe, The Closet and Camp offered a glimpse into this.
But in British New Wave cinema, two 1967 films, Ulysses and the wonderfully-titled I’ll Never Forget Ol’ What’s’is’name, truly lay claim. These films, known for their risqué content, faced the wrath of the British Board of Film Certification, facing censorship and bans. What made the British New Wave embrace such audacity? Their commitment to raw authenticity. This movement drew parallels with its French counterpart, with films capturing the gritty reality in a cinéma vérité style.
It echoed the sentiments of the “angry young men”, a group of working-class writers and poets who challenged the norms of British society. Their works reflected the real world, where people, disillusioned by societal structures, didn’t shy away from using expletives. It was only fitting that their cinema mirrored the language of the streets.
So, while Hollywood’s introduction of the F-word via MASH was groundbreaking, the audacity of the British New Wave truly captured the word’s essence, reflecting society’s raw emotions without the shackles of censorship. Considering the reputation for being stiff and uptight, embodying the ‘prim and proper’ idiom, we think there’s something pretty punk about the UK making cinema history in that way.
