Bandolero! Andrew V. McLaglen, 1968.😿
Edition screened: 20th Century Fox DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.
Summary: Display of dead chickens.
Details: A man stands in the middle-ground with a dead chicken in each hand, 39:08-39:17.
Upon starting this project I did not anticipate cataloging such things as the spotting of two dead chickens. No slaughter, no blood, no close-ups of bulging cold eyes; just two dead birds irrelevant to plot or dialogue. But I quickly realized that background body counts of this sort are common and must be noted for both ethical and aesthetic reasons. From the perspective of respect toward living things, it is inappropriate to routinely suggest that it is standard, often cool or hilarious, to carry dead chickens down the street and tie deer to your car. From a filmmaking perspective dead animals as secondary props are cheap and trite at best, and also often offensive in cultural stereotyping. Country folks lug dead chickens around. Real men go huntin’. Women kill every insect they see. Unnecessary, perfunctory animal carcasses are as offensive as scenes of abuse, more so in that the latter is designed to shock while the former is expected to be appreciated as thoughtful character development.