Talk:Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn

Needs rewrite
Somebody who knows about this should edit it; it is currently poorly written and the grammar and syntax is bad. Saccerzd 16:38, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

I just watched the movie last night. I do believe that it says "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn". Also, he isnt stroming out of the house, but he is leaving the house. To be very literal Scarlet is making her last attempts to have Rhett stay and is speaking to him while he is in the doorway, he then says his final line to her. It was not said in a quiet room. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.151.7.55 (talk) 18:44, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

"in the original script, screenwriter Sidney Howard under pressure from the Studio had sanitized the line to, 'Frankly, my dear, I could care less.'" What screenwriter worth his salt would have written "I could care less?" 64.95.120.40 (talk) 22:49, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Do you mean, "I could not care less"? — Walloon (talk) 06:08, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Production Code
The word "damn" was relatively common in Hollywood movies before the Production Code was published in 1930, uncommon in the period 1930–1934, and rare in the period 1934–1939, after the Code began to be enforced. — Walloon 23:06, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

My dear, I don't give a dam
Correction. the movie may had been written in 1937 (that I am not aware of). However, the movie was in 1939. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.151.7.55 (talk) 18:46, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

This is the way it was written in a 1937 edition of "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. A "dam" was a fourtieth part of a rupee, currency of India, in medieval times. Thus, the phrase actually makes grammatical sense, while as before it did not; how can one "give a damn"? One can damn or be damned but one cannot "give a damn".

The phrase simply means that Rhett does not care (one iota), nor does he "give a dam".

I don't dispute the Clark Gable followed his script and uttered the words "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn, I simply dispute the accuracy of the script based on the novel and the meaning of the phrase. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.141.185.190 (talk) 16:20, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Your theory about the origin of the phrase "give a damn" is not held by etymologists. — Walloon 18:13, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
 * What theory about the origin of "give a dam" is held ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.73.235.52 (talk) 23:20, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
 * The origin of "give a dam" could relate to the expression "give a tinker's dam", about which there is some controversy itself. On the one hand, the use of dam, in that context, is said to refer to the use of a device by tinkers called a "dam" in repairing pots & pans, which consists of a piece of clay used as a "dam" to allow solder to flow into the hole being repaired while preventing it from just flowing through the hole.  When the repair was set, the dam had no further use and was removed and discarded.  On the other hand, it is also said that the expression was really "tinker's damn" because tinkers were an unruly lot who cussed shamelessly and thought nothing of saying "give a damn".  So it's hard to say which is correct with respect to tinker's language; it's also hard to say whether the term "give a damn" is derived from the tinker's original saying, just dropping "tinker's" from the expression.  Either way, I think one has to follow the script as written, whether the author was aware of the potential origins of the expression or not.Scunnerous (talk) 03:36, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

As with almost every expletive, I don't give a fuck/shit/damn/whatever is just a way of expressing a lack of care for something in a more angry tone. While I'm not sure of they were in common usage back then, sometimes words just come without a serious explanation. 92.237.21.186 (talk) 03:54, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Misconception
That one obscure parody of the line paraphrases it differently does not make it a "misconception", much less worthy of its own article section. Unless you can provide evidence that this is a fairly common misconception, the section should be removed. — Walloon (talk) 06:06, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

In popular culture
I removed this section. Perhaps there is something to be said in the article about the prevalence of the phrase in popular culture, but that something should no be an uncurated list of every obscure reference in every obscure television show anyone can think of. That's undue weight, and probably OR. john k (talk) 16:37, 12 March 2011 (UTC)
 * You aren't the first one to remove it. It wasn't me...but I saw another user remove it for pretty much the same reasons. Flyer22 (talk) 05:03, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Catchphrase?
Is this really a catchphrase if it's only said once? Excise (talk) 23:13, 25 June 2012 (UTC)

Not exactly in the book, according to this source
Currently our article says


 * This line is also spoken by Rhett Butler in Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind, published in 1936, from which the movie is derived.

But this source  http://t.today.com/popculture/frankly-my-dear-i-dont-give-straw-gone-winds-secret-1D80341776?cid=par-huffingtonpost  says in its fifth paragraph that the word "Frankly" does not appear in the quote in the book. Can someone look it up and correct the statement here if necessary?

208.50.124.65 (talk) 20:07, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Marlon Brando
Electronic data processor, regarding this, with respect to WP:Undue, I'm unsure about including that material. It at least shouldn't be its own section, but it doesn't fit anywhere else in the article.

Betty Logan, thoughts? Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 02:22, 31 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I don't have any real objections to the inclusion of the material so I have tried to make the section a bit more balanced. The line has been analysed and discussed on countless occasions so we may be able to flesh out the section over time. Betty Logan (talk) 09:50, 31 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for that, Betty Logan. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 23:27, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Arrested
I remember reading somewhere that someone was arrested because of this phrase. MightyArms (talk) 02:48, 6 March 2020 (UTC)


 * In 1939?? AnonMoos (talk) 16:41, 7 March 2020 (UTC)