PLOT: A documentary about the history of the F-word, from its earliest origins to its role today as a tipping point in the American culture wars, featuring expert testimony from comics and entertainers who use it to effect, and moral watchdogs who consider it a cancer on society.

I'll say this about Steve Anderson, the veteran TV director behind F--- (the movie that dare not announce its name). He's willing to lose a buck or two to prove a point.

By keeping its name intact (instead of, say, calling it The F-Word) he ensures that this movie about the history of the ultimate epithet will not have its name printed in whole in newspapers (save for "alternative weeklies"), billboards, or most importantly of all, on theatre marquees (look for the theatre with all the asterisks).

As George Carlin (who is, of course, featured in the film) has said about media coyness, who's kidding who?

Everybody age 5 and up knows the word being referred to. And yet it still has the power to drive some people mad.

Yes, we're talking about the culture wars. It's a subject director Anderson is so anxious to tackle that he kind of gives short shrift to the history part of his documentary mandate.

Looking back at the English language's most taboo word, he's mostly successful at figuring out what it's not. It's apparently not an acronym for Found Under Carnal Knowledge, or Fornication Under the Consent of the King, or anything else. It was never used by Shakespeare, who didn't otherwise shy away from vulgarity. But it is woven into the language, with the earliest reference he can find dating back to the 15th Century. (The whole thing is coloured by entertaining cartoons by Oscar-winning avant garde animator Bill Plympton). And that's it.

But flash ahead to World War II, when Americans began to mess with its meaning (with unofficial military acronyms such as SNAFU and TARFU) and its context (turning it into a verb, modifier, adjective, etc.) and F--- hits the ground running.

Flash ahead a little further, and we've got Lenny Bruce getting arrested for public indecency for using the F-word word (but not, interestingly, for his famous wannabe-socially-redeeming use of the N-word, which Kramer could tell you is a more problematic word today).

A little further still, and Carlin is sharing his signature bit, the Seven Words You Can't Say On Television. (For the record: "s---, p---, c---, c---, c---------, m----------- and t---.")

Once the wayback machine brings us to the present, F--- schools the viewer on how the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has been effectively highjacked by a single "family values" group, whose complaints make up all but a tiny fraction of its workload. With this background, and salient footage from JanetGate and Bono's single use of the F-word on the Golden Globes (both of which were punished by six-figure FCC fines), F--- settles down CNN-style debate programming with talking heads opining from the left and right.

On the side of family values: The likes of tsk-tsking movie critic Michael Medved, Pat Boone, Black-Republican fringe candidate Alan Keyes and would-you-believe Miss Manners? (The syndicated columnist is kind of sandbagged, her spot edited to make it seem that she's actually debating porn star Ron Jeremy).

On the freedom-of-speech side: Kevin Smith, Bill Maher, Alanis Morissette, Sam Donaldson, Public Enemy's Chuck D, TV producers David Milch and Steven Bochco, and -- striking a sad note -- "gonzo journalist" Hunter Thompson, looking frail a few weeks before his suicide death.

Interestingly, this 'pro' side isn't a united front. In a surprising admission, Janeane Garofalo allows that the swearing in Deadwood turns her off.

But then, that's a matter of taste, not of politics.

BOTTOM LINE: As a history of the ultimate epithet, F--- falls somewhat short, tracing its use to the 15th century but failing to pin down its origins. It's on surer ground as a free-speech quasi-polemic, with its talking-head debate format (featuring a recap of the takeover of the FCC by a single family-values issue group).

(This film is rated R)
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