Under the right circumstances, an exotic-sounding swear word like “tabarnak” might fit right in a movie that features people whose names range from Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler) to, well, Gurney Halleck (Brolin). Nevertheless, Denis Villeneuve’s decision to omit the profanity just because it sounded a bit wrong for the occasion is incredibly on-brand for a director known for his vision.
Villeneuve choosing to leave out a curse word he really would have liked to include indeed shows rare restraint that’s all the more notable considering all the times movies and shows have made characters swear whether it fits the project or not. The very first episode of Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” also features the series’ first swear word when Lieutenant Jee (Ruy Iskandar) uses mild profanity, which arguably comes across as an unnecessary shock tactic. Speaking of which, Looper deemed the much-hyped Marvel Cinematic Universe occasion of Chris Pratt dropping the MCU’s first F-bomb in “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3” one of the worst MCU moments of 2023 – because Star-Lord lashing out at Nebula (Karen Gillan) that randomly and harshly is both pointless and overkill.
Sure, there’s a time and a place for actors who keep swearing in movies. However, it’s arguably rarer and more noble to restrain from throwing in profanity just for the sake of it — which is precisely what Villeneuve did in “Dune: Part Two.”
