The Vulgarity And Violence On TV And At The Movies

A few decades ago, in 1997, I was perplexed when the script for the movie Good Will Hunting won the Academy Award for best screenplay.

I was like, “Really? They won an Oscar?! For THAT script?!”

Actually, the film won 2 Academy Awards and was nominated for 9 in various categories.

And that just got me scratchin’ my head even more.

That script was littered with the ignorant overuse of vulgarities and profanity. For some, Good Will Hunting is considered an artistic masterpiece. But not in my book.

Back in the day, 1939 to be exact, it was a big deal when Clark Gable, as Rhett Butler, spoke those immortal words, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” to Vivienne Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara in the now cinematic-classic Gone with the Wind.

[The Classic TV Preservation Society]

And those words stood out. It meant something that he said such a thing. Those words had a dramatic effect, and they were effective in their delivery. It was as a stand-alone moment in the fictional world of that film, and in the off-screen history of cinema.