Director:
Steve Anderson
Starring:
Pat Boone ………. Himself
Drew Carey ………. Himself
Billy Connolly ………. Himself
Janeane Garofalo ………. Herself
Ron Jeremy ………. Himself
Miss Manners ………. Herself
Bill Maher ………. Himself
Alanis Morissette ………. Herself
Kevin Smith ………. Himself
Hunter S. Thompson ………. Himself
Ice-T ………. Himself
Sam Donaldson ………. Himself
Chuck D. ………. Himself
Steven Bochco ………. Himself
Reinhold Aman ………. Himself
Benjamin C. Bradlee ………. Himself
Nick Dash ………. Himself
Timothy Jay ………. Himself
Alan Keyes ………. Himself
Sandra Tsing Loh ………. Herself
Tera Patrick ………. Herself
Evan Seinfeld ………. Himself
David Skover ………. Himself
The Movie
There is one word that divides a nation today. It only has four letters. There are lots of four-letter words, but this word is the mother of all four-letter words. You either get really offended when this word gets spoken or you enjoy saying this word yourself. The word is f**k and this is its story.
F**k is a documentary created by Steve Anderson. It’s all about that four-letter word that has divided a nation. The “f-word” is the mother of all curse words. It’s taboo, obscene, and controversial. Yet it can be heard anywhere at anytime including Hollywood, schools, or even the Senate floors in Washington D.C. This documentary attempts to explain the origins of the word, why it is considered “bad”, its impact on society today, and various other topics. There are interviews with a wide range of people including linguists, entertainers, comedians, liberals, conservatives, you name it. In between the interviews, there are various video clips and animation squences with “f**k” taking center stage.
Lets clear this up right away. The word “f**k” and its variations are used 857 times throughout this 90 minute documentary, making it an average of 8.88 f-words a minute. Don’t think that is all you will hear, though. Surprisingly, this documentary gets the opinions from all kinds of people. People who love to say the word, along with people who hate the word are given a voice here. It’s a fair and balanced look at the word.
Another surprise involves the people talking about this word. The entertainers and comedians are, of course, funny and entertaining. Most like to say this word as it makes them feel better after saying it. However, the most interesting people to talk about this word are the non-entertainers. You expect people in Hollywood to talk about this word in a funny manner. You don’t expect actual educators, politicians, etc. to be talking about f**k in this way. Whether they like the word or not, it’s interesting to hear their opinion on it.
All of various aspects of life that f**k shows up in is presented here. From news to movies to music to sports to politics to sex to war and back again, it’s all talked about. However, there are some subjects that seem to get skipped over a little bit. Everything that you want to get covered is covered, but some subjects are not as detailed as others. For example, “f**k in sports” is fairly short compared to other subjects. Although, what is presented there is pretty shocking, and funny. The topic that gets the most screen time is the FCC and censorship. This is very interesting to watch. Since George W. Bush became the President the FCC has started fining everyone in America at record numbers, especially if they use the most famous “f-word” of all time. You will see that the FCC often contradicts itself, though, making it look foolish at times.
The best part of this movie is the actual video clips from the past. The interviews made for this documentary are interesting to hear, but it’s really fun to see actual clips of people we all know using that word in real life. Most times this is the first you will actually see these people using the “f-word” in past history. You might expect that, since you can’t even print those 4 letters in that order on paper, much less hear it on television without a *beep* covering it up.
If you want to know all about the mysteries of the word “f**k”, this is the documentary for you. At the heart of this word is a debate among the liberals and conservatives and everyone in between. It’s about free speech, it’s about freedom of expression, it’s about religion, it’s about decency, it’s about so many things. F**k is a fair and balanced look at both sides of this debate. It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong, though, because people everywhere will still fight over this word. Just remember, “love” and “hate” are four-letter words as well, and they can be just as “dirty” as f**k.
The Video:
The video is given in 16:9 anamorphic fullscreen color. For the interviews filmed for this documentary, the video quality is pretty much what you expect. The video quality in the archive footage shown ranges from great to just okay, but honestly you want to hear this movie more than see it. The video certainly won’t lessen the quality of the documentary, though.
The Audio:
The audio included is available in English Dolby Digital 5.1 Stereo sound. There are no subtitles available. That shouldn’t be a big surprise since “f**k” should be recognized world-wide as a “dirty” word. Other than that, pretty standard quality here. The volume can be a little loud at times, but it gets the point across.
The Extras:
Audio Commentary –
This is a full-length audio commentary with the director, Steve Anderson. He talks about how the film came to be, how it was made, the people that were used in the film, and anything else you want to know about the behind-the-scenes aspects of the documentary. Pretty informative stuff.
Extended Interviews –
There are extended interviews with Billy Connolly on the word “f**ked” and how it is used, Pat Boone on his daughters saying the “f-word”, Tera Patrick on dirty talk, Hunter S. Thompson on f**k and religion, and Ice-T on just taking risks and saying “f**k it”. These are mostly pretty funny.
Meet Bill Plympton –
This is an interview with the animation expert, Bill Plympton. He did all of the scenes of animation for this documentary. Bill says that these scenes are not supposed to be taken serious. In addition, not all animation is meant for kids. There is animation for adults as well.
HDNet Interview with Steve Anderson –
This is an interview with the director, Steve Anderson. He talks about the documentary and the word and everything else you want to know.
Extended and Deleted Scenes –
There is an extended animation scene from Bill Plympton featuring the “surfin’ bird”. You have to see this scene to really enjoy it, but basically it’s about giving someone the “bird” or the middle finger. This animation scene is set to music and has various things in life that look like the “middle finger”, but is not actually the “middle finger”. There is also a deleted scene called “favorite curse words”. Various people talk about their favorite curse word. This is highly amusing and entertaining to watch. You should definitely check this deleted scene out.
F**K Counter –
Finally, there is an option to watch this film with the “f**k” counter on. Basically, it tracks the number of times the word is used in the movie. 857 times total. You can count every one of them yourself here.
Whether you hate the word or love to say it, you should check out this movie. Only the very easily offended would actually get offended. I can’t say I would recommend a purchase for most people, since there is not much to see after you watch it once. But if you want to spread the love and celebrate the word “f**k” with others, then buy it and entertain your friends. You’ll definitely get a laugh from it at some point.
