Violence to Animals in Film: February 2016

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.

Enthusiasm: Symphony for the Donbass

Enthusiasm: Symphony for the Donbass (Entuziazm: Simfoniya Donbassa). Dziga Vertov, 1931.

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Edition screened: Included on Flicker Alley Blu-ray The Man with a Movie Camera, released 2015. Scored with sound effects and English subtitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 66 minutes.

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

Enthusiasm is a solid, well-crafted propaganda film that shows a productive and engaged Ukrainian citizenry. The scenes of men working in the steel mills and wire mills are mesmerizing.

@ BL

Enter the Ninja

Enter the Ninja. Menahem Golan, 1981.

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Edition screened: Included in Eureka! The Ninja Trilogy Blu-ray set, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Dirty Pretty Things

Dirty Pretty Things. Stephen Frears, 2002.

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Edition screened: Miramx/Echo Bridge, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

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

Coffret Éric Rohmer

Coffret Éric Rohmer. Éric Rohmer, 1954-2007.

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Edition screened: Potemkine dual format Blu-ray/DVD box set, released 2013. French language with English subtitles. Collective runtime of feature films approximately 2,471 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

This mammoth set includes rare early films such as Bérénice (1954) and Sonate à Kreutzer (1956), a wealth of supplemental material, and the feature films:

The Sign of Leo (1959)

The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1962)
Suzanne’s Career (1963)
La Collectionneuse (1967)
My Night at Maud’s (1969)
Claire’s Knee (1970)
Love in the Afternoon (1972)
The Marquise of O (1976)
Perceval (1978)
The Aviator’s Wife (1981)
A Good Marriage (1982)
Pauline at the Beach (1983)
Full Moon in Paris (1984)
The Green Ray (Summer) (1986)
4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (1987)
My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend (Boyfriends and Girlfriends) (1987)
A Tale of Springtime (1989)
A Tale of Winter (1992)
The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque (1993)
Rendezvous in Paris (1995)
A Summer’s Tale (1996)
Autumn Tale (1998)
The Lady and the Duke (2001)
Triple Agent (2004)
The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007)

City of God

City of God (Cidade de Deus). Fernando Meirelles, 2002.

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Edition screened: Buena Vista DVD, released 2004. Portuguese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 130 minutes.

Summary: Chicken slaughter.

Details:

1) The film begins with a montage of Rio de Janeiro street life including quick images of chickens being butchered by street venders. We then focus on one chicken who flees and is chased by a band of heavily armed street thugs who apparently have some honor-based death grudge against this chicken, or perhaps against all of chickendom. The chicken escapes after being almost run over by a car. That is the first four minutes of the movie.

2) These same clips are recapped at the end of the film, 1:52:40-1:53:35.

The Bakery Girl of Monceau

The Bakery Girl of Monceau: Six Moral Tales #1/6 (La boulangère de Monceau). Éric Rohmer, 1962.

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Edition screened: Blu-ray included in Potemkine box set Coffret Éric Rohmer, l’intégrale, released 2013. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 23 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Six Moral Tales

Six Moral Tales. Éric Rohmer, 1951-1972.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD set #342, released 2006. French language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 480 minutes.

Summary: A Modern Coed includes scenes of animals subjected to laboratory experimentation. The other films are free of cruelty or violence to animals.

The Criterion DVD set includes informative supplemental material, the six Moral Tales, and six short films not included in the Potmekine box set Coffret Éric Rohmer. Click titles for details as available.

The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1962)

Presentation, or Charlotte and Her Steak (1951)

Suzanne’s Career (1963)

Nadja in Paris (1951)

My Night at Maud’s (1969)

On Pascal (1965)

La Collectionneuse (1967)

A Modern Coed (1966)

Claire’s Knee (1970)

The Curve (dir. Edwige Shaki, 1999)
Love in the Afternoon (Chloé in the Afternoon) (1972)

Véronique and Her Dunce (1958)

Du côté de la côte

Du côté de la côte. Agnès Varda, 1958.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 2) released 2020, and also on DVD #420 Le bonheur in Criterion box set #418 4 by Agnès Varda, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 26 minutes.

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

A smart and beautiful modernist film cloaked as a fun tourism piece.

Dreams

Dreams (Kvinnodröm). Ingmar Bergman, 1955.

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Edition screened: Included in Artificial Eye Blu-ray box set Classic Bergman, released 2012; also included in Criterion Blu-ray set Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema, released 2018. Swedish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Dreams is on disc #6 of 30 in Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema (part of ‘Opening Night’).

The Dominici Affair by Orson Welles

The Dominici Affair by Orson Welles (aka The Tragedy of Lurs). Christopher Cognet, 2000.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Around the World with Orson Welles, released 2015. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 52 minutes.

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

Delinquent Girl Boss (Stray Cat Rock)

Delinquent Girl Boss (Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss / Nora-neko rokku: Onna banchô). Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set Stray Cat Rock, released 2015. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A Delicate Balance

A Delicate Balance. Tony Richardson, 1973.

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Edition screened: Included in Kino DVD box set The American Film Theatre: The Complete 14 Film Collection, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 132 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

Joseph Cotton and Katharine Hepburn star in this presentation of Edward Albee’s play.

The Cut-Throats

The Cut-Throats. John Hayes, 1969.

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Edition screened: Included in Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray set #235, 5 Films • 5 Years Vol 4: Horror and Exploitation, released 2018; also released in 2015 as DVD #080. English language. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 1.5/5❤

The script for The Cut-Throats contains about one page of dialogue, all of it explaining that a Nazi outpost must be raided. When da ’Throats arrive at this previously mentioned run-down administrative building at a poorly attended state park, it turns out to be a bar-and-brothel where average-looking women provide unerotic massage to Nazi officers, and one cute girl wears clown makeup. The handful of Nazis are killed. The end. There is no aspect of acting, props, story, costumes, or sets that can be recalled five minutes after viewing. Except the clown makeup.

And the cowpoke Jimmy Johnson.

Trivia Time! What movie opens with a prolonged still shot of a painting of a cowboy practicing with his lariat, while the mournful song “Ballad of Jimmy Johnson” tells the story of a cowpoke gone to war?

Need a hint? The film begins with G.I. Jimmy Johnson practicing with his lariat in a German forest. He encounters a Nazi on the road and is thusly killed four minutes into the movie.

Give up? Well, the completely unrelated story of The Cut-Throats then takes over, having no association with or reference to Jimmy Johnson, cowboys, or the Road Nazi scene. The only explanation I can think of is that the production house accidentally burned the titles over incorrect cowboy artwork and music, and it would have cost more to reburn the credits than to shoot the short skit about Jimmy Johnson.

Code Unknown

Code Unknown (Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages). Michael Haneke, 2000.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #780, released date. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 117 minutes.

Summary: Depictions of murdered cows.

Details:

1) A war zone documentary photograph shows a girl embracing a small dog who has been shot, 13:10-13:15.

2) We hear a sound like a gunshot at 1:09:14, which cuts to a scene of a man who has just downed all of his cattle with a captive bolt pistol. He walks past the fallen cows through 1:09:44.

Those interested in top-tier contemporary film must see Code Unknown. Its structure, sociological content, and pervasive filmic quality make it a superb and edifying viewing experience.

The cattle stunning scene can be skipped very easily. The film has prolonged black screens between scenes, and during one of these black screens we hear the BANG of the bolt pistol at 1:09:14. When the scene opens a second later we see a farmer standing in a barn beside a cow that has just fallen. He then walks the length of the barn, past all the other fallen cows, exits the barn and closes the door. There is no blood or display of physical trauma to the cows if you choose to watch. If you choose to skip the scene, simply jump to 1:09:45, where the farmer has closed the door and lights a cigarette.

@ BL

Closely Observed Trains

Closely Observed Trains (Closely Watched Trains/Ostre sledované vlaky). Jiří Menzel, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray, released 2015. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: Rabbit killing and skinning.

Details:

1) A large rabbit screams at 14:26 as he is removed from his hutch and held upside-down. He is clubbed at 14:40 and we see him suspended with blood around his face 14:50-14:58.

2) Rabbit nailed to a wooden fence and being skinned, 1:02:04-1:02:10.

3) A woman calmly force-feeds a goose by hand in her cottage, 1:13:41-1:16:00. The goose certainly is not eating voluntarily, but the scene seems more perverse than violent if you don’t understand why she is doing this.

@ BL

The Beyond

The Beyond (...E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà). Lucio Fulci, 1981.

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Edition screened: Grindhouse Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

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

Cléo from 5 to 7

Cléo from 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7). Agnès Varda, 1962.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 3) released 2020, and also as DVD #73 in Criterion box set #418 4 by Agnès Varda, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.

Summary: Frog swallowing.

Details: A street performer swallows several live tiger frogs 44:29-44:56.

Both Criterion releases include (all free of animal violence) Varda’s, Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald ou (1961) and L’opéra-mouffe (1958), along with supplemental material relevant to Cléo from 5 to 7 including:

Cléo from 5 to 7: Remembrances (2005, Varda) 0:36

Cléo's Real Path Through Paris (2005, Pierre-William Glenn) 0:09

The Music of Michel Legrand (2006, Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos) 0:10

Side view of an unidentified pinball machine in a café, 45:40.

Ceiling

Ceiling (Strop). Vera Chytilová, 1962.

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Edition screened: Included on Second Run DVD #095 Fruit of Paradise, released 2015. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 42 minutes.

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

Butley

Butley. Harold Pinter, 1974.

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Edition screened: Included in Kino DVD box set The American Film Theatre: The Complete 14 Film Collection, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 129 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

Alan Bates stars in this presentation of Simon Gray’s play.

Bus Stop

Bus Stop. Joshua Logan, 1956.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: Typical rodeo violence.

Details:

1) Bull dogging, in which a young steer is chased, attacked, and wrestled to the ground by twisting his neck, 0:40-0:58.

2) Calf roping, in which a calf is chased, lassoed, jerked to the ground by a rope while fleeing at full speed, then hog tied, 44:45-45:28.

3) More bull dogging, 48:40-49:18.

Poor, poor Marilyn Monroe. She did her best in this monstrous piece of crap.

Well I’ll be gull-durned blasted if’n this here moving picture ain’t wunna the most obnoxious pieces of gompf-smeared calico I ever set eyes upon. The acting is turrible. The music is turrible. But the sanctimonious misogyny is Gospel Pure and sumpin’ to be proud of WA-HOO! WA-HOO!

I barely can even recall the physical abuse to the poor calves. The superlatively offensive nature of this movie which takes a drunken piss on every aspect of civility, screen craft, and social consciousness is overwhelming in its minuscule tiny-mindedness. I am ashamed to be the off-spring of the culture that brought it forth and embraced such poor filmmaking and destructive socialization as good fun. Poor, poor Marilyn Monroe.

1949 Genco Black Gold pinball machine in the café.

A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time. Errol Morris, 1991.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #699, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

In this film we appreciate how gossamer the veil between Hertfordshire and rural North Carolina.

Blonde Venus

Blonde Venus. Josef von Sternberg, 1932.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #934 included in box set # 930 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

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

Beat ’71 (Stray Cat Rock)

Beat ’71 (Stray Cat Rock: Beat ’71 / Nora-neko rokku: Bôsô shudan ’71). Toshiya Fujita, 1971.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set Stray Cat Rock, released 2015. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.

Summary: Bratty kid kicking at a rabbit.

Beat ’71 concludes at a Japanese movie set depicting a 19^th-century American western town. The idiotic kid who drags this barely-tolerable film down an extra 25% every time he’s on camera, caps off his performance by pointlessly kicking at a fat white domestic rabbit who is tying to hide in a road rut. The rabbit is not depicted as injured, but hope remains that the child may have been.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity

Battles Without Honor and Humanity (Yakuza Papers Vol. #1 / Jingi naki tatakai). Kinji Fukasaku, 1973.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, included in the Battles Without Honor and Humanity box set released 2015. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

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

Battles Without Honor and Humanity (saga)

Battles Without Honor and Humanity (The Yakuza Papers Volumes 1-5). Kinji Fukasaku, 1973-1974.

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Edition screened: Five-film saga in Arrow Blu-ray box set, released 2015. Japanese language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 500 minutes.

Summary: Hiroshima Death Match implies the killing of a dog. The other four titles are free of violence to animals.

The beautiful box set from Arrow includes generous supplemental materials and all five films from the original saga:

Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)

Hiroshima Death Match (1973)

Proxy War (1973)

Police Tactics (1974)

Final Episode (1974)

@ BL

Two Days, One Night

Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit). Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #771, released 2015. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Criterion release also includes the Dardenne brothers’ Lorsque le bateau de Léon M. descendit la Meuse pour la première fois (1979).

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