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.

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies. Peter Brook, 1963.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #43, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: Killing and mutilation of pigs.

Details: There are two pig killing sequences.
1) The first begins at 27:08 when a small pig is pursued by the boys, cornered and killed with sharpened poles at 27:33. We see the boys yelling and stabbing and hear the pig squealing, but don’t see the actual death. The film returns to Ralph at the fire site, 27:36-29:32. From 29:32 through 33:20 are vignettes of the dead pig being hauled to the fire site, cooked and eaten. This sequence ends with Jack wearing the skin of the pig’s face as a mask, 33:23-33:35.

2) The second sequence occurs 58:20 through 1:01:52. The first 15 seconds are of the pig being pursued and stabbed as in the previous scene, followed by 22 seconds of the boys mutilating the pig (off-screen), laughing and discussing their actions. The famous mounting of the pig’s head on a pole and Simon’s meditative experience watching the flies gather on that offering occurs 59:40-1:01:52.

The boys’ behavior is violent and stupidly adult-like, but the actual visual images presented are not horribly graphic. If you skip these scenes, note that the first one contains the major confrontation and power struggle between Jack and Ralph, resulting in Jack striking Piggy and breaking his eyeglasses. The second scene is intercut with dialogue among the more peaceful faction of boys who acknowledge that trouble is eminent.

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