Violence to Animals in Film: February 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.

Coup de grâce

Coup de grâce (Der Fangschuß). Volker Schlöndorff, 1976.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #192, released 2003. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.

Summary: Depicted killing of animals.

Details:

1) A carp is lifted by hand from a shallow pond at 8:31, quickly clubbed at 8:42, and bagged at 8:45. The actor’s back is toward us during the quick clubbing and there is nothing visually gruesome.

2) A man shoots into the woods from an open car at 38:09. He retrieves the fallen bird from the woods and has a photo made with it, 38:22-38:29. The bird never is particularly distinguishable.

3) The car arrives home with the bird, a rabbit, and a few other game animals visible, 39:05-39:21.

4) A 2-second image, 48:50-48:51, of a dead dog mostly covered by burlap, with a small pool of blood under his mouth. We are told that the dog dug up a grenade.

This is a good Bergman-like drama about complex romantic relationships set in war-time Latvia. The quick images of killed animals are unfortunate but not gory or gratuitous.