Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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Almost 36 years I've been at this gig, nearly 11 in the role of Cuppa Joe, and still I get surprised by what I receive in the mail.

Last Monday my column included my favorable review of the movie called "Once." In it I noted that its R rating came from its strong language, mainly the use of the F-word.

"Once" is set in Dublin, Ireland, where a street musician (or "busker," a word I love) meets and makes beautiful music with a young female immigrant from the Czech Republic.

Despite the overuse of the F-word, "Once" is a fabulous film.

Two readers didn't care.

The word alone prompted one to call me out for recommending "Once." I suspect it prompted the second e-mail of protest from a longtime, faithful reader.

The latter, Parke Bogle of Pulaski, wrote, "Your article today was the worst garbage I ever read!"

The former, Teena Trent of Roanoke, included a plea that I not recommend a movie with such language.

"The excessive use of the F-word is reason enough NOT to like a movie, even if there is some redemptive value in the storyline, music score or characters' lives," she wrote.

She asked if I would tolerate such talk in my children, who are, legally, adults.

I would discourage it, of course.

Real world

I can't control the streets of Dublin, which may very well resound with bad language, just as some of the streets of Roanoke do.

Recommending "Once," with fair warning about the language, does not strike me as a mortal sin. I liked the movie so much that I saw it Wednesday for the third time, and took my daughter, who loved it.

This revelation may keep me from winning a Father of the Year award, but it's the way I feel.

Awesome work

Other readers agreed with my assessment.

"I had to write to thank you for your column Monday about 'Once,' " wrote John Ogburn, who viewed it with his wife at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg. "Wow! What a wonderful movie and music. We can hardly wait to go out tomorrow to buy the soundtrack."

Mary Arnold of Christiansburg planned to see the movie at the Lyric but turned back after she encountered throngs of Virginia Tech students who had returned for the upcoming start of the fall semester.

When she read the Lyric's Web site and saw that Thursday would be its last night in Blacksburg as well as at Roanoke's Grandin Theatre, Arnold, an RN, "didn't even change out of scrubs."

She "drove like a mad woman over to Blacksburg ... made it just in time to feel for an empty seat in the pitch black theater ... sat down just as the movie started."

She called it an "ab-so-LUTELY wonderful movie," and said, "Between the storyline and the music, I can't decide which was more moving."

Donna Saliba of Roanoke concurred.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she wrote.

I was glad to hear from both sides. Living in the protective bubble of Western Virginia, I'd be surprised if people didn't complain.

And, yes, I would be appalled if someone at, say, a Virginia Tech football game used coarse language anywhere near me.

But it happens. I have friends who have had to contend with it at sports events, and who have found that speaking up does not reduce the offenders to shame or embarrassment.

Nor does it change their behavior.

For the record, I should note that anger is not to be found in the movie, nor is the angry use of that word.

"Once" merely reflects life as it exists. Far more hostile and egregious uses of the F-word occur in other media these days.

We may tolerate it because the battle is both too big and too small to fight.

If all of us behaved as well as the couple in "Once," we'd have a better world.