MovieChat Forums > Kes (1970) Discussion > Swearing

Swearing

posted 10 years ago by epa101
3 replies | jump to latest

I was wondering whether there was any controversy about the level of swearing in this film when it came out. There's an unusually high amount for a film made in 1969, and the word "twat" is said in the first five minutes.

The language used in the film is essential to the setting and feel. However, many of the Yorkshire miners were strict Methodists and would not have approved of swearing. If my granddad ever heard a rude word on television, he would change channel and never watch that programme again.

I asked my dad about this. He says that he doesn't recall any controversy and that 1969 was about the point when attitudes towards swearing (and many other things) became more liberal.

[–] JeffL1965 10 years ago

I think "Billy" making the rude gesture in the original promotional posters was the only thing that stirred things up a bit.

[–] david_colbourne 10 years ago

At that time most men didn't swear, or at any rate use obscenities, in front of women, it was kept strictly for work or the club and was known as 'pit talk'. It was much later that swearing became widespread, now you hear it everywhere :(

[–] DavidW1947 10 years ago

I was born in England in 1947, nearly 70 years ago, and I don't remember anyone swearing during my childhood, especially swearwords of the four letter variety. I'm sure men didn't swear in front of women and children. So in the films of today that are set in the past, where you hear the characters effin' and blindin' all the time, well, it wasn't like that in those days at all. In fact, I remember back in February, 1962, when I was nearly 15 and about to leave school and I was very attracted to a certain girl in my class, one of my classmates asked me "Would you like to **** her, Dave?" and I asked him what the word meant, as I'd never heard it before and he had to explain it to me. So if everyone had been going around effin' and blindin' during my childhood, I would have heard the word long before then. However, as the 1960s progressed, and certainly by the end of the decade, things changed rapidly and even young kids were using the 'C' word; the 'F' word and the 'T' word all the time.