Violence to Animals in Film: June 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.

Come On Children

Come On Children. Allan King, 1972.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 24: The Actuality Dramas of Allan King 5-DVD set, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

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

Blind Woman’s Curse

Blind Woman’s Curse (Kaidan nobori ryu). Teruo Ishii, 1970.

😿😿

Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2014. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

Summary: Depiction of a cat killed by a sword.

Details
An attacking cat (clearly a puppet or taxidermy specimen on a visible wire) is struck by a sword at 1:22:15. A more realistic cat then is shown on its side, breathing and with a bloody wound, 1:23:20-1:23:23.

A real black cat is seen periodically throughout Blind Woman’s Curse, usually licking blood off of someone. His stunt-double Puppet Cat also is periodically seen attacking someone. During the big sword showdown that concludes the film, Puppet Cat attacks and is struck down.

Big Deal on Madonna Street

Big Deal on Madonna Street (I soliti ignoti). Mario Monicelli, 1958.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #113, released 2001. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

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

Bastards

Bastards (Les Salauds). Claire Denis, 2013.

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Edition screened: MPI DVD, released 2013. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

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

Bang! Bang! You’re Dead!

Bang! Bang! You’re Dead! (Our Man in Marrakesh). Don Sharp, 1966.

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Edition screened: Olive Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

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

It was a stroke of genius to cast Tony Randall as the hapless bumbling American and Klaus Kinsky as the creepy villain of uncertain ethnicity, rather than the other way around in this yawn-a-minute Bondo spy romp. There’s this one part where a guy ends up with the wrong brief case! Boy, that puts him in a real pickle! In another scene people are chased through a Moroccan street market, a cart of fruit is tipped over, and the fruit goes just everywhere!

L'Argent

L’Argent. Robert Bresson, 1983.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #886, released 2017. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.

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

Computer Chess

Computer Chess. Andrew Bujalski, 2013.

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Edition screened: Eureka!/Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #76, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Masters of Cinema release also contains Bujalski’s short Analog Goose (2013).

Analog Goose

Analog Goose. Andrew Bujalski, 2013.

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Edition screened: Included on Eureka!/Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #76 Computer Chess, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 1 minute.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Angst isst Seele auf

Angst isst Seele auf. Shabaz Noshir, 2002.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #198 Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, released 2003. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 12 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Fear Eats the Soul / Angst essen Seele auf). Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #198, released 2003. German language subtitles. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

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

The Criterion release of this important film also includes Shabaz Noshir’s 2002 companion piece, Angst isst Seele auf.

The Age of the Medici

The Age of the Medici (L'età di Cosimo de Medici). Roberto Rossellini, 1972.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Criterion Eclipse Series 14: Rossellini's History Films: Renaissance and Enlightenment, released 2008. Italian language with English subtitles, or original English dub. Runtime approximately 255 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

2012

2012. Roland Emmerich, 2009.

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Edition screened: Sony Blu-Ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 158 minutes.

Summary: A dead and somewhat gory elk is found, 22:21-22:33.

10,000 BC

10,000 BC. Roland Emmerich, 2008.
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Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.

Summary: Megafauna killing.

Details:

1) A wooly mammoth is speared and killed, 15:07-15:45. We see the mammoth’s butchered carcass and the 12th Annual Parade of Meat, 17:00-17:26.

2) An absurd giant attack bird is killed by dropping a rock on its head at 37:56, then a second absurd giant attack bird is speared in the throat, 38:32-38:35. The second killing is intentionally graphic.

3:10 to Yuma (Daves)

3:10 to Yuma. Delmer Daves, 1957.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #657, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

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

An enjoyable western, well acted with tense serenity and interesting music. Post-modernist outlaw Glenn Ford whistles the theme from the film.

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas. F.W. Murnau, 1931.

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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #61, released 2013. English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.

Summary: Spear fishing.

Details: After some short expository intertitles, the following 70 seconds of Tabu (1:25-2:35) show a romantically staged spear-fishing vignette in which joyous young island men hurl tridents into the water and impale large fish.

The Haunted Castle (Schloss Vogelöd)

The Haunted Castle (Schloss Vogelöd). F.W. Murnau, 1921.

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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #140 included in the Early Murnau: Five Films 1921-1925 box set released 2016. German intertitles with English subtitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.

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

The Language of the Shadows: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and His Films

The Language of the Shadows: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and His Films. Luciano Berriatúa, 2007-2008.
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Some of Berriatúa’s featurettes about Murnau are part of larger grouping, The Language of the Shadows: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and His Films. These short works sometimes are included among supplemental materials on DVD and Blu-ray releases of Murnau films, and include the following:

The Early Years and Nosferatu (2007)

Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #70, Nosferatu, released 2013. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 53 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Tabu: The Cinematic Legacy (2007)

Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #61, Tabu, released 2013. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 15 minutes.

Summary: An excerpt from the fishing sequence is shown 0:11:54-0:12:30, in which fish are speared with tridents.

Berriatúa’s Tabu documentary includes excerpts from Walter Spies’ rarely seen Island of the Demons (1933), including exotic Balinese dancing and gamelan performance (0:12:50).

The Masterpiece: Faust (2007)

Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #78, Faust, released 2014. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 53 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Wilhelm Murnau and His Films (2008)

Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema DVD #108, Schloss Vogelöd, released 2011. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 31 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Yellow Submarine

Yellow Submarine. George Dunning, 1968.

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Edition screened: MGM/United Artists Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

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

The MGM Blu-ray also contains Dunning’s interesting 7-minute documentary, The Beatles’ Mod Odyssey made during the production of the feature title.

The Woman in Green

The Woman in Green. Roy William Neill, 1945.

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Edition screened: Included in MPI Blu-ray set The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

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

Terror by Night

Terror by Night. Roy William Neill, 1946.

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Edition screened: Included in MPI Blu-ray set The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 60 minutes.

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

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon. Roy William Neill, 1942.

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Edition screened: Included in MPI Blu-ray set The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 68 minutes.

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

Dressed to Kill (Neill)

Dressed to Kill. Roy William Neill, 1946.

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Edition screened: Included in MPI Blu-ray set The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.

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

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection. Various directors, 1939-1946.

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Edition screened: MPI 5-DVD set, released 2011. English language. Collective runtime approximately 974 minutes.

Summary: Some films contains scenes of substantial violence to animals. Click on individual titles as they become available for details.

The MPI set includes 14 tales starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Homes.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1943)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942)

Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)

The Spider Woman (1944)

The Scarlet Claw (1944)

The Pearl of Death (1944)

The House of Fear (1945)

The Woman in Green (1945)

Pursuit to Algiers (1945)

Terror by Night (1946)
Dressed to Kill (1946)

The Snails

The Snails (Les Escargots). René Laloux, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #006 Fantastic Planet, released 2006. No dialogue track. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
@ BL

Monkey’s Teeth

Monkey’s Teeth (Les Dents du singe). René Laloux, 1960.

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Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #006 Fantastic Planet, released 2006. French language introduction, with no dialogue track in featurette. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
@ BL

How Wang-Fô Was Saved

How Wang-Fô Was Saved (Comment Wang-Fo fut sauvé). René Laloux, 1987.

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Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #006 Fantastic Planet, released 2006. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 15 minutes.

Summary: Brief and tame animated sequence of fish being cleaned, 9:30-9:34.
@ BL

Dead Times

Dead Times (Les Temps morts). René Laloux, 1964.

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Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #006 Fantastic Planet, released 2006. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.

Summary: Stock footage of hunting violence.

Details: From 5:06 through 5:45 are scenes of deep sea spear fishing, quail shooting, and bull fighting. The scenes are not particularly graphic except for a long shot of the bull lying on its side kicking in death throws. Laloux’s point is that human violence is reprehensible.

@ BL

The Captive

The Captive (La Prisonnière). René Laloux, 1988.

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Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #006 Fantastic Planet, released 2006. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 6 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
@ BL

Fantastic Planet

Fantastic Planet (La Planete sauvage). René Laloux, 1973.

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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #006, released 2006. French language with English subtitles, or alternate English audio track. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.

Summary: Animated depictions of fantasy animals hurting or killing other fantasy animals.

The art style of Fantastic Planet is lovely and I can’t argue with the didactic themes. But the indebtedness to fantastic creatures popularized five years earlier in Yellow Submarine compromises Laloux’s work. Laloux was an accomplished animator by the time he made Fantastic Planet and surely could have conceived psychedelic beasts that were not visually interchangeable with Countdown Clowns, Snapping-Turtle Turks, and the Vacuum Cleaner Monster. Most distracting is the huge blue hand that comes from above to oppress with its extended index finger. … I’ve told you before, Oh! You can’t do that! Not in 1973 at least.

Masters of Cinema also gives us five Laloux animated shorts on the disc:

Monkey’s Teeth (1960)

Dead Times (1965)

The Snails (1966)

How Wang-Fô Was Saved (1987)

The Captive (1988)

SLON Tango

SLON Tango. Chris Marker, 1993.

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Edition screened: Included on Icarus DVD The Case of the Grinning Cat, released 2008. No dialogue track. Runtime approximately 4 minutes.

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

An elephant filmed at the Ljubljana Zoo, Slovenia, is choreographed to Stravinsky.

@ BL

Bullfight in Okinawa

Bullfight in Okinawa. Chris Marker, 1994.

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Edition screened: Included on Icarus DVD The Case of the Grinning Cat, released 2008. No dialogue track. Runtime approximately 4 minutes.

Summary: A horn-grappling match between two bulls is cheered and spotted by their trainers. The contest ends when the losing bull is turned away in defeat, but not gored.
@ BL

A Bestiary

A Bestiary (Bestiaire). Chris Marker, 1985-1990.

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Edition screened: Included on Icarus DVD The Case of the Grinning Cat, released 2008. No dialogue track. Runtime approximately 9 minutes.

Summary: Image of dead mice in one segment.

Bestiaire is composed of three short films:

Cat Listening to Music (Chat écoutant la musique), approximately 3 minutes. No animal violence.

Marker’s beloved cat, Guillaume-en-Egypte, “was fond of Ravel (any cat is) but he had a special crush on Mompou. That day (a beautiful sunny day, I remember) I placed Volume I of the complete Mompou by Mompou on the CD player to please him ..."

An Owl Is an Owl Is an Owl, approximately 3 minutes.

A computer-manipulated montage of owls’ other-worldly countenances. One clip in an aviary, 1:40-1:45, shows five dead white mice lying on a plate.

Zoo Piece, approximately 3 minutes.

This montage documentary of animals in confinement shows the mental anguish they feel, but does not show any physical cruelty or harm to them.

Three Cheers for the Whale

Three Cheers for the Whale (Vive la baleine). Chris Marker and Mario Ruspoli, 1972, updated 2007.

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Edition screened: Included on Icarus DVD The Case of the Grinning Cat, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 17 minutes.

Summary: The film is a plea to stop the slaughter of whales and contains many graphic images of the animals being killed and dismembered.

Important images often are not pleasant. Moronic images often are.

The Case of the Grinning Cat

The Case of the Grinning Cat (Chats perchés). Chris Marker, 2004.

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Edition screened: Icarus DVD, released 2008. French and English language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 58 minutes.

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

In addition to the feature film, the Icarus DVD includes the 1-minute Leila Attacks showing Marker’s pet white rat chasing his house cat, along with:

Three Cheers for the Whale (1972)

A Bestiary (1990)

SLON Tango (1993)

Bullfight in Okinawa (1994)

Glorious Technicolor

Glorious Technicolor. Peter Jones, 1998.

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Edition screened: Included on Warner Blu-ray The Adventures of Robin Hood, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 60 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

@ BL

The Cruise of the Zaca

The Cruise of the Zaca. Errol Flynn, 1952.

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Edition screened: Included on Warner Blu-ray The Adventures of Robin Hood, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 18 minutes.

Summary: Appropriation of aquatic creatures.

The Zaca is on a scientific exploration/pleasure cruise to compare sea life of the Pacific with that of the Atlantic. We see various fish and other animals being brought on board and again later as specimens later.

Errol Flynn narrates and stars in this real-life adventure and comes across as a great, down-to-earth guy. The Zaca ends up at a touristy Trinidadian festival featuring “traditional” transvestite dancers, at which point Flynn ends the featurette rather abruptly.

Freddie Rich and His Orchestra

Freddie Rich and His Orchestra. Lloyd French, 1938.

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Edition screened: Included on Warner Blu-ray The Adventures of Robin Hood, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Orchestra performs four musical numbers.

Cavalcade of Archery

Cavalcade of Archery. Howard Hill, 1946.

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Edition screened: Included on Warner Blu-ray The Adventures of Robin Hood, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 9 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Howard Hill wrote, directed, and starred in this monument to his archery prowess. The cornball self-infatuation is somewhat entertaining.

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