Violence to Animals in Film: January 2014

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.

Blow

Blow. Ted Demme, 2001.

Edition screened: New Line/Infinifilm DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 124 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Blood Simple

Blood Simple. Joel Coen, 1985.

Edition screened: MGM Blu-ray, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: Repeated display of caught fish.

Details:

1) The fish are shown strung on a cord and lying on a desk, 42:00-42:44.

2) Again, 46:30-46:54.

3) Same fish, same desk, 1:11:36-1:11:52.

4) Real quick this time, 1:12:40.

5) In case you missed it, 1:13:25

6) Last chance, 1:13:41

@ BL

Bleak House

Bleak House. Justin Chadwick, 2005.

Edition screened: BBC Home Video Blu-ray, released 209. English language. Runtime approximately 465 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

La Villa Santo Sospir

La Villa Santo Sospir. Jean Cocteau, 1952.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #69 Testament of Orpheus, included in Criterion set #66 The Orphic Trilogy, released 2000. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 36 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Cocteau provides a delightful 36-minute guided tour of a villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferat, Côte d’Azur, that he painted and decorated.

Testament of Orpheus

Testament of Orpheus (Le testament d'Orphée, ou ne me demandez pas pourquoi!). Jean Cocteau, 1960.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #69, included in Criterion set #66 The Orphic Trilogy, released 2000. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The Orphic Trilogy

The Orphic Trilogy. Jean Cocteau, 1930-1959.
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Edition screened: Criterion 3-DVD box set #66, released 2000. French language with English subtitles. Combined runtime of the three feature titles, approximately 225 minutes.

The Orphic Trilogy set contains three feature films by Cocteau:

The Blood of a Poet (1930)

Orpheus (1949)

Testament of Orpheus (1959)

Also included are Cocteau’s La Villa Santo Sospir, (1952) and Edgardo Cozarinsky’s Jean Cocteau: Autobiography of an Unknown (1984). There are no depictions of violence toward animals in this box set.

Orpheus

Orpheus (Orphée). Jean Cocteau, 1949.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #68, included in Criterion set #66 The Orphic Trilogy, released 2000. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Jean Cocteau: Autobiography of an Unknown

Jean Cocteau: Autobiography of an Unknown (Jean Cocteau: Autoportrait d'un inconnu). Edgardo Cozarinsky, 1984.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #67 The Blood of a Poet, included in Criterion set #66 The Orphic Trilogy, released 2000. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 66 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

This excellent first-person documentary allows Cocteau to recount his life and work in post-WWI Paris.

The Blood of a Poet

The Blood of a Poet (Le Sang d’un poete). Jean Cocteau, 1930.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #67, included in Criterion set #66 The Orphic Trilogy, released 2000. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 50 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

In his introductory comments to Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise, Peter Bogdanovich notes the comparative sophistication of film audiences of the early 1930s, and the disheartening distance we have fallen since then. Bogdanovich is speaking of an audience’s sense of wit and a willingness to observe irony and comedic subtlety, long since shown the door in favor of juvenile wisecracks and crotch kicking. Equally, original audiences for The Blood of a Poet were able to follow a narrative that deviated from conflict/resolution structure, and were willing to empathize with mythic and symbolic content that allow an artful filmmaker to work with the language of dreams and classicism, rather than the outbursts of music videos and narcissism.

The Blood of a Poet stands with Buñuel’s L'Age d'Or among early films that reveled in the artistic potentials of a new cinematic medium. But while Buñuel’s acerbic intellect and antiestablishment politics gave his early films wild sharp edges, Cocteau’s gentle poeticism provides sweeping washes of painterly beauty.

Black Swan

Black Swan. Darren Aronofsky, 2010.
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Edition screened: Fox Searchlight DVD, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Black Orpheus

Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro). Marcel Camus, 1959.

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #48, released 2010. Portuguese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia. Brian De Palma, 2006.
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Edition screened: Universal DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 121 minutes.

Summary: Pointless killing of birds.

Details: We see a skinny old man shooting a pistol out of his apartment window at 6:35. From 6:36-6:40 we see the dead pigeons in the alley and others being shot.

Bitter Rice

Bitter Rice (Riso amaro). Giuseppe De Santis, 1949.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #792, released 2016. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.

Summary: Long scene in a slaughter house.

Details: A climactic stand-off/gunfight takes place in a slaughter house, 1:34:50-1:43:00. The cow heads, legs, and carcasses, and the spattered interior walls are unexpected and shocking.

Despite the contrived drama, Bitter Rice portrays real aspects of mid-20th-century Italy not allowed in fantasies like Three Coins in the Fountain, notably the intricacies and politics of the arborio rice harvest and of the women who perform that work. The poorly lit, low ceilinged building in which the dramatic climax of the film takes place probably is a real rural slaughterhouse, with very little set dressing required.

Three Coins in the Fountain

Three Coins in the Fountain. Jean Negulesco, 1956.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox “Studio Classics” DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

My Ain Folk

My Ain Folk. Bill Douglas, 1973.
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Edition screened: Included on Facets 2-DVD set The Bill Douglas Trilogy, released 2008. Scots English with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 55 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

My Ain Folk is the second film of The Bill Douglas Trilogy.

My Way Home

My Way Home. Bill Douglas, 1978.
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Edition screened: Included on Facets 2-DVD set The Bill Douglas Trilogy, released 2008. Scots English with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 64 minutes.

Summary: Implication of torturing a spider.

Details: At 56:40 we see a circle of men preparing to burn a spider for amusement. Bill and the camera leave the scene.

My Way Home is the third film of The Bill Douglas Trilogy.

My Childhood

My Childhood. Bill Douglas, 1972.

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Edition screened: Included on Facets 2-DVD set The Bill Douglas Trilogy, released 2008. Scots English with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 46 minutes.

Summary: Depictions of dead bird and cat.

Details:

1) At 18:33 Granny knocks down Tommy’s bird cage while clearing cobwebs with a broom, and at 18:39 beats the cage with her broom. Tommy rescues bird and battered cage.

2) We see the bird cage on the floor again at 28:20, this time with the cage door open and Bill’s cat eating the bird (not graphic in itself). Tommy grabs the cat, and beginning at 28:26 there is a 30-second sequence including the two boys struggling over the cat, brief off-screen sound of the cat being beaten, an image of a cat's body thrown over a banister, and a static shot of a dead cat lying on the ground.

3) 36:12 begins a 10-second sequence of a dead bird unwrapped from dirty newspaper and thrown to the ground.

Additional comments:

My Childhood is the first film of The Bill Douglas Trilogy. The important implications behind the cat/bird sequence and the subsequent killing of the cat are depicted with subtlety and are easily misunderstood. Our lifetime viewing of cartoons and comedies where the cat “gets” the caged bird makes us over-simplify the narrative in My Childhood. In fact, this domestic conflict and sadness was designed by Granny, and is a realistic depiction of the real trauma parents can contrive in the lives of their children. Granny’s first violence to the caged bird was unresolved and unsatisfying, so she then provided the open cage to the cat, resulting in the death of both animals and fortifying the misery that she demands must dominate the home. Too cowardly to suffocate her grandchildren in their sleep, she has murdered the animals that represent them.

Rarely does art dare to expose how adults use pets as surrogates for the resentment felt toward their own children. In the real world, a child's wish for a pet is denied or disdainfully granted to reflect undesirability of the child. The expense and work of keeping a pet is stressed, exaggerated, and used as a threat to express resentment over the time and money required by the child. Pets are treated impatiently and banished outside because of the child’s unwelcome presence. The pet mysteriously disappears or is treated cruelly by the parents because it is illegal to beat or kill a child.

The Bill Douglas Trilogy

The Bill Douglas Trilogy. Bill Douglas, 1972-1978.
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Edition screened: Facets 2-DVD set, released 2008. Scots English with English subtitles. Collective runtime approximately 165 minutes.

The Bill Douglas Trilogy includes the director’s three autobiographical films:

My Childhood (1972)

My Ain Folk (1973)

My Way Home (1978)

The Facets release also includes Andy Kimpton-Nye's good 2006 documentary Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image.

Man of Violence

Man of Violence (aka Moon). Pete Walker, 1970.
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Edition screened: BFI Flipside Blu-ray #006, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

This BFI Blu-ray also contains two different cuts of Walker’s 1968 The Big Switch, aka Strip Poker.

The Big Switch

The Big Switch (aka Strip Poker). Pete Walker, 1968.

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Edition screened: Export Version included on BFI Flipside Blu-ray #006 Man of Violence, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The Man of Violence Blu-ray also includes a less aggressive 68-minute Domestic Version of The Big Switch.

The Big Blue

The Big Blue (Le Grand Bleu). Luc Besson, 1988.
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Edition screened: Included in Sony Luc Besson Collection 6-DVD set, released 2001. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 160 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Les biches

Les biches (Bad Girls). Claude Chabrol, 1968.

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Edition screened: Pathfinder DVD, released 2003. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Separation

Separation. Jack Bond, 1967.

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Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

This BFI release of Separation also includes Mark Boyle’s abstract beauty, Beyond Image.

Beyond Image

Beyond Image. Mark Boyle, 1969.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Separation, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 14 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

@ BL

Berberian Sound Studio

Berberian Sound Studio. Peter Strickland, 2012.

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Edition screened: Artificial Eye Blu-ray, released 2013. English and Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Ben-Hur

Ben-Hur. William Wyler, 1959.

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Edition screened: Warner 50th Anniversary Blu-ray, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 223 minutes.

Summary: Depiction of injury to horses.

Details: The chariot race includes a violent and deadly-looking collision of two teams (eight horses). This 3-second scene beginning at 26:16 on disc 2 does not depict any real injury, but we see the horses fall over one another in a terrifying jumble.

Bonus points …

A wonderful scene of Sheik Ilderim (played by Hugh Griffith) introducing his beloved team of white horses to Ben-Hur begins on disc 1 at 1:48:45. We get a genuine feel of the intelligence and true personality of both human and equine actors.

Note: The story of horses and a stunt man killed during filming of the chariot race refers to the 1925 version of Ben-Hur directed by Fred Niblo, not to this more popular 1959 William Wyler version starring Charlton Heston.

Belle de Jour

Belle de Jour. Luis Buñuel, 1967.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #593, released 2012. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The Believers

The Believers. John Schlesinger, 1987.

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Edition screened: MGM DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 114 minutes.

Summary: Animal mutilation.

Details: I no longer have this VoosploiDootation title to rescreen, but recall a ritualistically murdered and decapitated cat found in a city park near the beginning of the film, and a crucified cat in Haiti around the middle. Of course.

I often like creepy occult intrigues, but was disappointed in this. It seemed like a film version of the creative writing exercise where a famous work is changed, one element at a time, until there is a new work. In this case, thematic elements from Rosemary’s Baby including fascination with a new home, concern for a besieged child, and the exposure of a villainous old couple remained intact while the plot changed around them. l know several old couples who often think the plot is changing around them.

Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice. Tim Burton, 1988.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau)

Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la bête). Jean Cocteau, 1946.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #6, released 2011. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: Evidence of a beast about.

Details: A recently killed deer is found, 22:42-22:49.

Beautiful Girls

Beautiful Girls. Ted Demme, 1996.

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Edition screened: Miramax DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 112 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

@ BL

The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit

The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit. David & Albert Maysles, Kathy Dougherty, Susan Frömke, 1994.

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Edition screened: Included in MPI Home Video/Apple The Beatles DVD Collector’s Set, released 2000. English language. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Grey Gardens

Grey Gardens. David & Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer, Susan Froemke, 1976.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #123, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

David & Albert Maysles completed a follow-up film in 2006, The Beales of Grey Gardens, constructed from unused footage from this 1976 production. That later film was originally released alone as Criterion #361, but is included in this Criterion Blu-ray reissue.

The Beales of Grey Gardens

The Beales of Grey Gardens. David & Albert Maysles, Ian Markiewicz, 2006.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray Grey Gardens #123, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

This follow-up to the Maysles’ original 1976 gem, Grey Gardens, uses previously unseen film from the original shoots to expand the story of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale in their East Hampton home. Originally released as stand-alone Criterion #361.

Shame

Shame (Skammen). Ingmar Bergman, 1968.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema, released 2018. Swedish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

Summary: Killing of a chicken.

Details: At 1:20:40 is a quick middle-ground scene of a military invader killing a chicken. He grabs one bird, lays it across the coop roof and hacks at it quickly, throws its body down and grabs another chicken. Any adult knows what is happening, but the soldier’s back is to us, the context chaotic, and the portrayal not that graphic. This is Bergman, not a Zack Snyder blood spray with each tattooed and mohawked droplet snarling in digifury.

Ullmann and von Sydow play a happy contemporary farm couple whose land is suddenly the scene of a military invasion. At 34:30, when they realize that they needed to get out yesterday, there is a Woody Allen-like moment where the stress of urgency meets the realization that they have not packed any food, and the couple wastes time bickering in front of their chicken coop about whether to take the pet birds alive, kill them for food now, or take them to kill later. They realize that they will not be killing any chickens and drive away, but the foreshadowing is set. I like this unusual Bergman.

Shame is on disc #10 of 30 in Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema (part of ‘Centerpiece 1’), along with The Passion of Anna. The disc also includes the 1968 documentary An Introduction to Ingmar Bergman and several interviews with cast and director.

@ BL

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