Spend It All. Les Blank, 1971.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #737 Les Blank: Always for Pleasure, released 2014. English language. Music by the Balfa Brothers and others. Runtime approximately 43 minutes.
Summary: Graphic slaughtering and butchering of a young pig; persistent fishing violence.
Details:
1) The first six minutes of the film is generously intercut with fishing gore such as a large live fish scalded with hot water and crawfish cleaning.
2) Scenes of gathering, cleaning, and transporting shrimp, oysters, and crabs, 17:35-19:55.
3) A young pig is killed sort-of-barely off-screen, followed by rather graphic butchering and idiotic buffoonery with entrails and the head, 34:35-35:53.
It seems that Les Blank set out to make a documentary about drinking Schlitz from the can, then decided to promote the film as an exposé on Cajun culture instead. And here’s another one of those pig-butchering-party scenes that concludes with fat ugly guys clowning around with the entrails. As always, it comes across as an embarrassing display of misogyny and sexual anger disguised as just relaxin’ and bein’ yo’self. This time, one of these jackasses takes the skinned pig head and chases a child around with it while the womenfolk glance up from their cans of Schlitz to hoot and laugh. This is not the same jackass who extracts one of his own teeth with a pair of pliers a few minutes earlier as part of the picnic entertainment. Man, those Cajuns. They sho’ do know them some fun I’ll tell you.
