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.

The Shrouds

The Shrouds. David Cronenberg, 2024.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray, released 2024. English language. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. Two dog actors have nice supporting roles.


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Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé

Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé. Jean Painlevé, 1925-1982.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #468, released 2009. French language and subtitles with additional English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 315 minutes.


Summary: Several films contain scientific animal abuse. 


Details: Many of these short films document tiny animals, often ones living on the ocean floor. Painlevé narrates coverage shots as the animals move, eat, interact, and sometimes beat on one another with their tiny appendages, or we get a close-up of their mandibles as they devour even smaller life forms. None of this is gruesome, constitutes cruelty, or merits a fuss here. But several of the films cross the line by including human interaction . . . 


1) Disc 1 Popular Films, Part 1, Track 4: The Sea Horse includes a scene in which a sea horse is dissected to show the many embryos carried in the pouch. The dissection must be underwater - and probably while the animal was alive - because of how the embryos float away as they are detached with a metal probe. 6:57-7:40.


2) Disc 1 Popular Films, Part 2, Track 1: The Vampire is a vampire bat, presented sympathetically by Painlevé until a guinea pig is presented as bait, 5:15-8:15. The cavy just sits there as the bat chews a hole in its face and drinks some blood.


3) Disc 2 Silent Research Films, Track 2: Experimental Treatment of a Hemorrhage in a Dog shows veterinarians operating on the throat of sedated dog. The procedure is entirely professional and the dog is shown alert and normal after the procedure, but you might not like watching a dog’s surgery.


The contents of the set, copied from the Criterion website:



Disc One  POPULAR FILMS

  • HYAS AND STENORHYNCHUS (HYAS ET STENORINQUES) 1927 10 minutes Black & White
  • SEA URCHINS (OURSINS) 1954 11 minutes Color
  • HOW SOME JELLYFISH ARE BORN (COMMENT NAISSENT DES MÉDUSES) 1960 14 minutes Black & White
  • LIQUID CRYSTALS (CRISTAUX LIQUIDES) 1978 6 minutes Color
  • THE SEA HORSE (L'HIPPOCAMPE) 1933 14 minutes Black & White
  • THE LOVE LIFE OF THE OCTOPUS (LES AMOURS DE LA PIEUVRE) 1967 14 minutes Color
  • SHRIMP STORIES (HISTOIRES DE CREVETTES) 1964 10 minutes Color
  • ACERA, OR THE WITCHES' DANCE (ACERA OU LE BAL DES SORCIÈRES) 1972 13 minutes Color
  • THE VAMPIRE (LE VAMPIRE) 1945 9 minutes Black & White
  • FRESHWATER ASSASSINS (LES ASSASSINS D'EAU DOUCE) 1947 24 minutes Black & White
  • SEA BALLERINAS (LES DANSEUSES DE LA MER) 1956 13 minutes Color
  • DIATOMS (DIATOMÉES) 1968 17 minutes Color
  • PIGEONS IN THE SQUARE (LES PIGEONS DU SQUARE) 1982 27 minutes Color


THE SOUNDS OF SCIENCE

  • Eight films with original score by Yo La Tengo
  • Interview with Yo La Tengo



Disc Two  EARLY POPULAR SILENT FILMS

  • THE OCTOPUS (LA PIEUVRE) 1927 13 minutes Black & White
  • SEA URCHIINS (LES OURSINS) 1928 10 minutes Black & White
  • DAPHNIA (LA DAPHNIE) 1928 9 minutes Black & White


SILENT RESEARCH FILMS

  • THE STICKLEBACK’S EGG (L’OEUF D’ÉPINOCHE) 1925 26 minutes Black & White
  • EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT OF A HEMORRHAGE IN A DOG (TRAITEMENT ÉXPERIMENTAL D'UNE HÉMORRAGIE CHEZ LE CHIEN) 1930 4 minutes Black & White


FILMS FOR LE PALAIS DE LA DÉCOUVERTE

  • THE FOURTH DIMENSION (LA QUATRIÈME DIMENSION) 1936 10 minutes Black & White
  • THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL (IMAGES MATHÉMATIQUES DE LA LUTTE POUR LA VIE) 1937 14 minutes Black & White
  • VOYAGE TO THE SKY (VOYAGE DANS LE CIEL) 1937 11 minutes Black & White
  • SIMILARITIES BETWEEN LENGTH AND SPEED (SIMILITUDES DES LONGEURS ET DES VITESSES) 1937 10 minutes Black & White


ANIMATION

  • BLUEBEARD (BARBE-BLEU) 1938 13 minutes Gasparcolor


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The Many Saints of Newark

The Many Saints of Newark. Alan Taylor, 2021.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.


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



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A Canterbury Tale

A Canterbury Tale. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1944.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #341, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 124 minutes.


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


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Cure

Cure. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1155, released 2022. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.


Summary: Murdered monkey.


Details:

1) Animals including a rabbit, monkey, cat, and birds are kept in small cages in an unclean environment, 1:03:54-1:04:17.

2) A monkey is found crucified on the shower fixture, 1:07:31-1:07:36.


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Dodes’ka-den

Dodes’ka-den (Dodesukaden). Akira Kurosawa, 1970.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #465, released 2009. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 140 minutes.


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


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Goldstein

Goldstein. Philip Kaufman, 1964.

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Edition screened: Facets DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.


Summary: A scene around the middle of the film takes place in a meat processing plant but nothing gory or explicit is shown; mostly images of hotdogs coming off the vacuum stuffer and a chase scene in hallways.


Goldstein is an exceptionally good film and an enjoyable viewing experience, reminding me often of Robert Downey Sr.’s best work.


Several scenes on the Facet release are in color, sometimes seemingly shot on color stock and other times obviously colorized. This does not match cataloguing data about the film which indicates that it was shot entirely in b&w. I’m chalking it up to “Facets: The world’s most frustrating releases of the world’s finest films.”


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The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher

The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher. Ray Dennis Steckler (as Wolfgang Schmidt), 1980.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 71 minutes.


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



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Mikey & Nicky

Mikey & Nicky. Elaine May, 1977.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #957, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.


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



A 1961 Gottlieb Egg Head, can be seen in the bar several times, beginning around the 20 minute mark and following.


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Stereo (Cronenberg)

Stereo (Tile 3B of a CAEE Educational Mosaic). David Cronenberg, 1969.

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Edition screened: Included with the Criterion Blu-ray Scanners #712, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 63 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


I dug this early Cronenberg film, in which a handful of students on a dreamy International Style campus participate in experiments about extrasensory communication. Pacing and tone of this beautiful black-and-white movie recall La Jetée, while the unapologetically intellectual voice-over sounds like the HAL 9000 reading Tristan Tzara.

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Teen Turmoil Triple Feature

Teen Turmoil Triple Feature. Various directors, 1954-1967.

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Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2004. English language. Cumulative runtime of the three features approximately 200 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals in any of the three films.


The Something Weird DVD includes:


Bad Girls Do Cry (1954 Sid Melton)

Girl in Trouble (1963 Brandon Chase)

A Good Time with a Bad Girl (1967 Barry Mahon)


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We Await

We Await. Charles Pinion, 1996.

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Edition screened: Saturn’s Core Blu-ray, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 55 minutes.


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


The Saturn’s Core BD also includes Pinion’s Red Spirit Lake (1993). 


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