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.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. David Yates, 2011.
😿
Edition screened: Included in Warner Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 130 minutes.

Summary: Shackling and physical abuse of a dragon; killing of a snake

Details:
1) An elderly debilitated dragon is chained in the vaults under Gringotts Bank, 16:25-16:57. He has bloody chain marks around his neck and sores on his joints. He appears again briefly, 19:57-20:02.
2) Hermione leads Harry and Ron in a plan to free the dragon along with themselves, and they all escape in a triumphant flight 20:30-22:45.
3) Hermione chucks a rock at the head of Voldemort’s snake, 1:45:15. Neville Longbottom decapitates the snake, 1:48:44, causing Voldemort’s immediate death as the snake was the last Horcrux to be destroyed.

The Harry Potter films contain magical creatures and anthropomorphic objects in perilous circumstances. Although the dragon shows sad signs of physical abuse, the sequence demonstrates his joyous liberation through the compassion of the three main characters. Voldemort’s snake is an evil presence throughout the films, and the snake's killing is a sort of liberation since the poor reptile was eternally corrupted by Voldemort.















at
Labels: ,