Obscene language gives certain films a sense of reality

I'm not necessarily proud of it, but my language can get a little colorful. I am by no means a chronic curser, but frustration, surprise and even moments of great joy have been know to extract from me the sort of language that makes mommy blanch.

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The arrival of my daughter has tamed the tart-tongued beast in me a bit. Most road rage expletives, for example, have been replaced with a more child-friendly "whoa, dude," and I'm far less likely to use suggestions of unclean acts as terms of endearment when talking with college buddies.

Still, as mild-mouthed - relatively speaking - as I have become, I believe there's a place for a well-placed eyebrow-raiser, particularly in movies. Be it Rhett Butler's timeless exit line or a Richard Pryor blue streak, there is a time and place for everything, even *%&#.

Here are a few favorite obscenity-filled films:

SLAP SHOT (1977): This overtly obscene locker room comedy features Paul Newman as Reggie Dunlop, the aging player/coach of a minor league hockey team. Although ostensibly about the lengths one man will go to in order to preserve the team central to existence, it's more about small towns, large dreams and the colorful approach to the English language that often occurs when men begin to bond.

GOODFELLAS (1990): Director Martin Scorsese's sprawling gangster masterwork is a vulgarity-laced ode to the secret society of professional criminals. Using obscenity as a sort of verbal punctuation, the hit men and thieves who inhabit the Goodfellas universe don't drop verbal bombs for shock value. Rather, it's a sort of shorthand, an easy, if foul-mouthed, way to emphasize and accentuate.

TRAIN-SPOTTING (1996): So thick is the Scottish brogue featured in this film that it's quite possible that American ears won't pick up on the amazing litany of epithets issued for several minutes. After an audience becomes acclimatized, the film becomes a real education in creative cursing. A bleak, black comedy about the pleasure and pain of addiction, it's also a strategy that lends real credibility to the film.

PULP FICTION (1994): Like Goodfellas, Quentin Tarantino's neo-noir uses obsceneity as the patois of an unseen underworld of criminals, low-lifes and second-class citizens. Unlike the Goodfellas gangsters, the people of Pulp Fiction understand the power of obscenity and relish the shock and awe that a well-placed bomb can cause. One character even goes so far as to have one of the granddaddies of all time embossed on his wallet.

PLANES, trains AND AUTOMOBILES (1987): In the space of a few short seconds, this nearly-a-family-film becomes the all-time comedic cursing champion of the world. In one short exchange, the word commonly referred to as an F-bomb is dropped 19 times. What makes it so wonderful is that instead of making the scene needlessly dirty, it becomes a pitch-perfect moment of final exasperation and explosive release. Silly and, against all reason, smart.

Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com.