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.

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
at
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