The use of profanity in films has often been controversial, but has increased significantly in recent decades.[1][2] The use of the word fuck in film drew particular criticism in 2005. The documentary Fuck dealt entirely with this phenomenon.[3] The word fuck is thought to be the vulgar term used most in American film.[4]
The 1927 Motion Picture Production Code, better known as the "Hays Code", banned the use of profanity outright.[5] It was not until 1968 that the Motion Picture Association of America established a system of ratings to use as a guide to determine the appropriateness of the film's content.[6] In 1970, M*A*S*H became the first American film to use the word fuck.[7]
The MPAA rating system typically assigns a PG-13 rating if a film contains the word used once not in the context of sex.[8] The R rating is normally required if the film contains more than one utterance or if the word is used in a sexual context. However, there are exceptions to this rule. In some cases, filmmakers appealed the rating because their target audience might avoid an R-rated film. Censors have been more lenient about the word in films that portray historical events.[8] The ratings system is voluntary; there is no legal requirement that filmmakers submit their movies to be rated.[6]
This is a list of non-pornographic, English-language feature films containing at least 150 or more spoken uses of the word fuck (or one of its derivatives), ordered by the number of such uses. The list does not contain spoken uses of instances that are preceded by "mother".