It Left Me Thinking and Talking All Right!

Last weekend hubby and I rented a movie without checking it out on our favorite movie rating website first. Big mistake. Big, big mistake. The movie was supposed to be some fantastic first directorial debut of Ben Affleck with a script he helped adapt. "Gone Baby Gone" is supposed be a story about a child gone missing and the private detective who takes on the job of finding her. In his search for her, the detective is forced to make decisions concerning good and evil, right and wrong. The film was supposed to leave one thinking and talking about long after.

Well, it left me talking alright. It left me talking to the movie rental place 15 minutes later about trading it in or getting my money back. It left me talking about the prolific use of the "f" word. We turned it off after 10 minutes. Ten minutes of being subjected at least a dozen times already to the word. Four or five times in one sentence, like rapid fire gunshots, from one character. In going over various reviews later, then I found out that the "f" word had been used at least a couple hundred times along with every other swear word and filthy phrase imaginable. Granted, I didn't watch the whole show to say that first hand, but seriously the 10 minutes I did watch does not make me doubt that statement in the least. To me it's not worth any movie or story to subject my ears, mind and heart to that kind of filthy talking.

And yes, it left me thinking. Thinking about how Hollywood loves to fill the general public with filthy trash under the guise of a great work. Yes, the movie is about Boston's underworld. Yes, it's about a very rough piece of life. But how talented does it show a person to be to make the majority of conversing in a 2 hour movie to be using f words. Wouldn't it show more creativity, more talent, more integrity to use that minimally (or at all) and instead use better dialogue to get across the same message? It left me thinking anybody can use prolific swearing in a script, but it is the more gifted that can take us into the world they are trying to show us without turning our ears and minds into garbage cans. Is it not a more talented and gifted actor that can make us "feel" and be in that moment without using the "f" word and numerous other swears?

As for Ben Affleck? It left me thinking I've lost a lot of respect for the guy's "talent" and integrity. Would I ever pick up another one of his movies he's directed or wrote? It left me thinking probably never. Even if it's not in the same genre. The movie left me thinking I've got a sour taste in my mouth and ears, to his style of storytelling. Give me someone who can write with real words.

Standing ovation to Chuck Norris for this article he wrote about language, America's use of it and the standard we set. Who knew that Walker: Texas Ranger could be so articulate and right on! It is well worth the read.