Movies

The top 5 F-bomb films of all time

With its mixed reviews and so-so box office, “The Wolf of Wall Street” may not win the Oscars it was touted for, but it has come up tops in a far more selective category: Among all fiction films ever released, it boasts more uses of the F-word than any other. Here are four other films that would give censors a heart attack:

  1. 1. “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013): 506

    Scorsese’s latest epic clocks in at 179 minutes and drops 506 F-bombs. Congrats to the new champs, though the record comes with an asterisk: The 2005 documentary “F - - k,” which is solely about the usage of that word, contains 857 f - - king uses of it.

  2. 2. “Summer of Sam” (1999): 435

    Spike Lee’s thorny, exhausting look at the crazy New York summer of 1977, the peak months of the manhunt for a serial killer calling himself the Son of Sam who shot 13 people, was a box-office flop, but, until this winter, it at least held the record for most F-bombs — 435.

  3. 3. “Nil by Mouth” (1997): 428

    Starring Ray Winstone and written and directed by Gary Oldman, who based the script on his experience growing up in the London equivalent of the projects, this gritty family drama features 428 uses of the F-word, good for the bronze medal in that competition. It brings home the gold, however, by boasting (according to Wikipedia) more uses of the C-word than any other fiction film: 41.

  4. 4. “Casino” (1995): 422

    Martin Scorsese’s previous standard-setter (besting “Goodfellas,” which is still in the top 10), this period drama set in Las Vegas in the 1970s (also loosely based on a true story) starred Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci (and Sharon Stone again), returning to their “Goodfellas” form as partners in crime, this time out West. The F-bomb count this time was 422, but because the movie was so long (178 minutes), it actually has the lowest density of F-bombs per minute of any film in the top five — 2.37. Heck, at that rate, you might have to wait 30 seconds or so for the next F-train to come along.

  5. 5. “Alpha Dog” (2007): 367

    This obscure independent film (US gross: $15 million) directed by Nick Cassavetes, son of actor-director John Cassavetes, was a tangled tale of drug lowlifes loosely based on the true story of the kidnapping and murder of a 15-year-old boy in California. Justin Timberlake, Emile Hirsch, Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis led the cast, which racked up a robust 367 F-words in 118 minutes.