Heads Up, Ears Down

This blog accurately identifies depictions of violence and cruelty toward animals in films. The purpose is to provide viewers with a reliable guide so that such depictions do not come as unwelcome surprises. Films will be accurately notated, providing a time cue for each incident along with a concise description of the scene and perhaps relevant context surrounding the incident. In order to serve as a useful reference tool, films having no depictions of violence to animals will be included, with an indication that there are no such scenes. This is confirmation that the films have been watched with the stated purpose in mind.


Note that the word depictions figures prominently in the objective. It is a travesty that discussions about cruelty in film usually are derailed by the largely unrelated assertion that no animals really were hurt (true only in some films, dependent upon many factors), and that all this concern is just over a simulation. Not the point, whether true or false. We do not smugly dismiss depictions of five-year-olds being raped because those scenes are only simulations. No, we are appalled that such images are even staged, and we are appropriately horrified that the notion now has been planted into the minds of the weak and cruel.


Depictions of violence or harm to animals are assessed in keeping with our dominant culture, with physical abuse, harmful neglect, and similar mistreatment serving as a base line. This blog does not address extended issues of animal welfare, and as such does not identify scenes of people eating meat or mules pulling plows. The goal is to itemize images that might cause a disturbance in a compassionate household.


These notes provide a heads-up but do not necessarily discourage watching a film because of depicted cruelty. Consuming a piece of art does not make you a supporter of the ideas presented. Your ethical self is created by your public rhetoric and your private actions, not by your willingness to sit through a filmed act of violence.

Apocalypse Now Redux

Apocalypse Now Redux. Francis Ford Coppola, 2001.

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Edition screened: Paramount Blu-ray included in Apocalypse Now: Full Disclosure box set, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 196 minutes.


Summary: Murder of a water buffalo.


Details:

1) An adult water buffalo or cow with her feet bound is suspended in a net and airlifted by helicopter, 30:42-31:15.

2) A tethered water buffalo is killed by several hard machete strikes, 3:07:53 - 3:08:37. There are about three actual strikes to the animal’s neck and back, with these clips repeated several times and intercut with Colonel Kurtz being killed in a similar manner. It is violent and real, but not as horrific and exploitatively vulgar as slaughter scenes in many other films.


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Drive, He Said

Drive, He Said. Jack Nicholson, 1970.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #547, included in America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


Summary: Disregard for animals’ well-being.


Details:

1) A long scene late in the film shows a student setting all the reptiles, insects, and rodents loose in a college biology lab. Although we see no harm to any animal, there is stress and tension because predators and prey are turned loose on the floor together.

2) A caged leopard is exhibited throughout the film as a college basketball team’s mascot. There is no physical harm to the cat although psychological stress caused by the tiny cage and noisy environments is apparent.


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Sanjuro

Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjûrô). Akira Kurosawa, 1962.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #53, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Scarlet Street

Scarlet Street. Fritz Lang, 1945.

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Edition screened: Kino Lorber 4K Ultra HD, released 2024. English language. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film, except for Dan Duryea awkwardly exclaiming For cat’s sake! a dozen times throughout the film as part of his singularly annoying performance.


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Yojimbo

Yojimbo (Yôjinbô). Akira Kurosawa, 1961.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #52, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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You’re Human Like the Rest of Them

You’re Human Like the Rest of Them. B.S. Johnson, 1967.

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Edition screened: BFI Flipside Blu-ray/DVD set #25, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 18 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


The BFI release of this engaging short film also includes other works by Johnson, all free of animal cruelty and most of rewarding intellectual and artistic content:


Paradigm (1968 B.S. Johnson, approx. 10 minutes)

The Unfortunates (1969 B.S. Johnson, approx. 45 minutes)

Up Yours Too Guillaume Apollinaire! (1969 B.S. Johnson, approx. 2 minutes)

Unfair! (1970 B.S. Johnson, approx. 8 minutes)

March! (1971 B.S. Johnson, approx. 13 minutes)

Poem (1971 B.S. Johnson, approx. 1 minute)

B.S. Johnson on Dr. Samuel Johnson (1972 B.S. Johnson, approx. 26 minutes)

Not Counting the Savages (1972 Mike Newell, approx. 28 minutes)

Fat Man on a Beach (1974 Michael Bakewell, approx. 40 minutes)


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Track Projections

Track Projections. Raya Martin, 2007.

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Edition screened: Included on Second Run DVD #088 Independencia, released 2014. No dialogue track. Runtime approximately 6 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da). Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011.

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Edition screened: Cinema Guild Blu-ray, released 2012. Turkish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 157 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Killers

Killers. Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto (The Mo Brothers), 2014.

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Edition screened: Well Go Blu-ray, released 2015. English, Indonesian, and Japanese with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 137 minutes.


No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.



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The International

The International. Tom Tykwer, 2009.

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Edition screened: Sony Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 118 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Independencia

Independencia. Raya Martin, 2009.

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Edition screened: Second Run DVD #088, released 2014. Filipino language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.


Summary: A child playing among baby chickens creates a potential threat to the chicks, but all is well.


The Second Run DVD also includes Martin’s 2007 short film Track Projections.


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Double Agent 73

Double Agent 73. Doris Wishman, 1973.

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Edition screened: Included in AGFA Blu-ray set The Films of Doris Wishman: The Twilight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 73 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

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The Arena

The Arena. Steve Carver, 1974.

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Edition screened: Included in Shout! Factory Lethal Ladies Collection Vol. 2 DVD set, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.


Details: A scene of prisoners being scrubbed cuts repeatedly to two women plucking chickens. This starts at 7:00 and concludes at 10:50 with the worst image being a chicken’s body rinsed in a bucket of bloody water.


The Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature ‘Lethal Ladies’ Collection Vol. 2 also includes:


Cover Girl Models (1975 Cirio H. Santiago)

Fly Me (1973 Cirio H. Santiago)


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The Bare-Footed Kid

The Bare-Footed Kid (Chik geuk siu ji). Johnny To and Patrick Leung, 1993.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Shawscope: Volume Two Blu-ray box set, released 2022. Cantonese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.


Summary: A man takes a small bird from its cage, crushes it in his hand, and throws it to the ground, 19:00-19:05.



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Deadly Weapons

Deadly Weapons. Doris Wishman, 1974.

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Edition screened: Included in AGFA Blu-ray set The Films of Doris Wishman: The Twilight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Senso

Senso. Luchino Visconti, 1954.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #556, released 2011. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 123 minutes.


Summary: A 30-second scene in a marketplace (1:26:27-1:26:52) includes a line of suspended cow carcasses and butchers with cleavers. This is in the background and the actors appear to be pantomiming. No blood, gore or details. At the end of the scene a man enters with several dead game birds. 1:26:27-1:26:52.


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Shawscope: Volume Two

Shawscope: Volume Two. Various directors, 1978-1993.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray box set, released 2021. Mandarin and Cantonese languages with English subtitle. Cumulative runtime of feature films approximately 1,286 minutes.


Summary: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Disciples of the 36th Chamber, Martial Arts of Shaolin, The Boxer’s Omen, and Mad Monkey Kung Fu contain violence to animals. See individual titles for details.


The Arrow set includes many documentaries, interviews and commentaries, and fourteen feature films:


The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, 1978, Liu Chia-Liang

Return to the 36th Chamber, 1980, Liu Chia-Liang

Disciples of the 36th Chamber, 1985, Liu Chia-Liang

Mad Monkey Kung Fu, 1979, Liu Chia-Liang

Five Superfighters, 1979, Lo Mar

Invincible Shaolin, 1978, Chang Cheh

The Kid with the Golden Arm, 1979, Chang Cheh

The Magnificent Ruffians, 1980, Chang Cheh

Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, 1978, Chang Cheh

My Young Auntie, 1981, Liu Chia-Liang

Mercenaries from Hong Kong, 1982, Jing Wong

The Boxer’s Omen, 1983, Kuei Chih-Hung

Martial Arts of Shaolin, 1986, Liu Chia-Liang

The Bare-Footed Kid, 1993, Johnny To and Patrick Leung


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