The first Hollywood movie to use the word “fuck”
“We are allowed to swear in this version of the show,” Tina Fey said with complete and utter glee on the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live UK after saying “fuckers”.
Across the pond on her own American SNL, it would have been swiftly bleeped, highlighting the ongoing and fascinating relationship between media and the word ‘fuck’. It’s not just the F-bomb, though; it’s all of the bombs. Still today, there’s bound to be a parent somewhere frantically calling up the TV studio and complaining to the film board about the use of swear words in a show or a movie, but overwhelmingly, attitudes towards profanity have loosened.
Part of that comes down to film ratings. Now that movies are given clear age classifications, parents and more sensitive viewers are warned in advance about content that might offend them. Before the film even begins, audiences are told if it contains things like strong language, which should leave little room for surprise or complaint.
But it also reflects changing social attitudes. In earlier decades, politeness and strict moral behaviour were enforced rigidly. Breaking accepted codes of manners was seen as deeply taboo and often scandalous, especially among the wealthier audiences who could afford to go to the cinema. Thankfully, attitudes have loosened since then, even if it took a few controversial films to start breaking those barriers down.
In the process of allowing swear words on the big screen, a run of key movies stand out as vital stepping stones. The Exorcist has to be one, as it wasn’t just a little shocking, it was completely and utterly scandalous, as that demonic little girl isn’t just possessed by a demon and dropping light ‘fucks’ and ‘shits’, she’s straight up saying the C-word as she spits at a priest. But, of course, there always has to be a first to kickstart things.
The first Hollywood movie to use the word ‘fuck’
‘Hollywood’ is an important distinction here, because long before mainstream cinema caught up, arthouse films had already been using swear words freely. It’s hard to imagine the underground film world ever censoring itself, let alone bleeping out the word ‘fuck’. Hollywood, however, took much longer to follow suit, and even then, the shift was slow and often uncomfortable.
The first major movie to feature the word fuck is considered to be a 1967 adaptation of Ulysses. It’s not a Hollywood movie in that it wasn’t made out in LA, but it was major in that it has the backing of both a US and UK distributor and was intended to be sold to a big audience. Obviously, adapting a James Joyce novel with no swear words is surely impossible, and Ulysses, in particular, was banned for being obscene, partially because of the use of swears throughout.
Ruled by a judge to be a production of “unmitigated filth and obscenity”, naturally, any film adaptation was going to have to be at least a little inappropriate.
So when director Joseph Strick made it, he was overjoyed at the freedom he seemed to have been given to include the word fuck. However, when it was first screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the word was erased. “He stood up and yelled out that this film had been censored,” Strick’s son recalled as his father protested the move by withdrawing the film from the festival.
Despite that, it only made the film more popular and made more people rally behind Strick and his movie, leading more critics to review it favourably and spread it even further. However, when it comes to big-scale true Hollywood, it was MASH that holds the medal for the first time a major American studio allowed the f-word to go out to the masses as Captain Walter said, “Alright, Bub, your fuckin’ head is coming right off”.
