"Oh, Boone!"If you slammed your hand in the car door, is this the sort of interjection you'd use? Absolutely not. You or I would probably have no qualms about dropping the f-bomb. But Pat Boone, who is featured as one of the talking heads in Steve Anderson's documentary, F*ck, uses his own last name in place of the most powerful word in the English language.
Anderson's documentary examines various facets of the word: its etymology (the word's history is still a mystery); the political ramifications of its use, particularly in today's "culture wars"; its obvious application to sexual situations; and, its versatility (it can be used as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and, yes, as an interjection). The dissecting of "fuck" is presented through that commonplace documentary vehicle--a series of interviews with people who are presumably learned on the subject of the film. While this documentary technique is far from original, Anderson uses it well by assembling a list of experts from all walks of life and from all points on the political spectrum. Boone is among several interviewees from the right wing, along with Alan Keyes, Michael Medved, and Dennis Prager. Interviewees from the more liberal end of the spectrum are primarily comedians: Drew Carey, Billy Connolly, Janeane Garofalo, and Bill Maher, among others. In between are several experts in the English language, such as Jesse Sheidlower, principal editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, and Reinhold Aman, a scholar who researches "verbal aggression." The end product is a funny, informative, and engaging examination of what the freedom to use this word means to the vitality of our society.
Unfortunately, my review of this documentary comes a bit late for those of us who reside here in Indianapolis, as the film ended its run at Key Cinemas on Saturday. It is, however, available on DVD and would be well worth adding to your Netflix queue. Locals should encourage Rick and Keith at Mass Ave Video to add it to their outstanding selection of independent films and documentaries if they don't already have it in stock. I'm sure that it won't take much to persuade them to do so.
3 comments:
So you don't think Blockbuster or Family Video would have it in stock, huh?
Family video might. They have porn after all. I wanted to see this at key cinema during its one week run.
Fuck has to be one of my very favorite words. I just love saying it for shits and giggles. Fuck!
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