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.

Marketa Lazarová

Marketa Lazarová. František Vláčil, 1967.
😿😿😿
Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #661, released 2013. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 165 minutes.

Summary: Butchering and animal sacrifice.

Details:
1) A panoramic overview of the clan’s compound includes in the background a large hanging animal carcass being split 15:19-15:21. This carcass is seen again during dialogue 16:16-18:05.
2) A white chicken is carried by her feet to sacrifice, 22:10, and we see blood coming from her neck area 22:44-23:14.
3) A poisonous snake is stabbed with a knife, 23:50-23:54.
4) A man grabs a mouse, apparently squeezes her to death in his hand, and suspends her by the tail, 1:33:50-1:34:00
5) Typical campfire scene with an unidentified but somewhat gruesome animal turning on a spit, 1:46:52-1:47:40.

Despite the killing of these animals, Marketa Lazarová is one of the very finest films I have seen. Like the best works by Bergman or Ophüls, it expands and helps to define concepts of quality and artistry in film making. 

Despite the rather long list of animal offenses and their bloody content, the visual content is not too gruesome due largely to the black-&-white film stock and artful filmography. The carcass is shocking primarily because it is so huge. There is no blood involved, and the image foreshadows another scene later in the film. The chicken sacrifice does have some blood and fluttering, but artful closeup technique softens the imagery. The snake stabbing is quick, but clearly a killing. We see a dead mouse, but not a mouse being killed.

Watch this movie. Skip 22:00 through 24:00 (chicken and snake killing) if you want, but watch this movie.

at
Labels: , , , ,