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.

The Witch Who Came from the Sea

The Witch Who Came from the Sea. Matt Cimber, 1976.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray included in the American Horror Project Vol. 1 box set, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.

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















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A Woman Is a Woman

A Woman Is a Woman (Une femme est une femme). Jean-Luc Godard, 1961.
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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #238, released 2004. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.

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

The Criterion release also includes Godard’s short film All the Boys Are Called Patrick (1959)







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Batman Forever

Batman Forever. Joel Schumacher, 1995.
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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 121 minutes.

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

At the time of this film’s theatrical release it was not understood that the Batman franchise itself would go on Forever. As such, the titular adverb originally referred only to the perceived length of the action-packed snoozefest that is the final scene.


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An American in Sophiatown

An American in Sophiatown. Michael Rogosin, 2007.
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Edition screened: Included on Milestone Blu-ray Come Back, Africa: The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume 2, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 52 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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American Horror Project Vol. 1

American Horror Project Vol. 1. Various directors, 1973-1976.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray box set, released 2016. English language. Cumulative runtime of feature titles approximately 255 minutes.

Summary: A pet turtle is killed in The Premontion. The two other titles have no violence to animals.

This first installment of Arrow’s American Horror Project includes:

Malatesta’s Carnival of Blood (1973 Christopher Speeth)
The Premonition (1976 Robert Allen Schnitzer)

Three good and entertaining films that just happen to be horror movies. Recommended.


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Alphaville

Alphaville: A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution (Alphaville: une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution). Jean-Luc Godard, 1965.
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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #25, released 1998. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

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All the Boys Are Called Patrick

All the Boys Are Called Patrick (Charlotte et Véronique, ou Tous les garçons s’appellent Patrick). Jean-Luc Godard, 1959.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #238 A Woman Is a Woman, released 2004. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 21 minutes.


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

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Alain Robbe-Grillet: Six Films 1963-1974

Alain Robbe-Grillet: Six Films 1963-1974. Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1963-1974.
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Edition screened: BFI 3-Blu-ray set, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Collective runtime of features approximately 587 minutes.

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

This BFI package includes:

L’immortelle (1963)
Eden and After (1970)
N. Rolls the Dice (1971)
Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974)


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Requiem for a Village

Requiem for a Village. David Gladwell, 1975.
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Edition screened: BFI ‘Flipside’ Blu-ray #018, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 78 minutes.

Summary: A toad is hanged.

Details: A toad is hanged from a branch by one leg at 23:25. He dangles and squirm for 10 seconds, after which the film cuts to the toad’s suspended skeleton (23:35). There is no depiction of the animal dying or decomposing, just the implicit slow death after the hanging.

The BFI Blu-ray also contains four short films by Gladwell:


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The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume 2

Come Back, Africa: The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume 2. Lionel Rogosin and Michael Rogosin, 1959-2007.
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Edition screened: Milestone Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Collective runtime approximately 308 minutes.

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

Come Back Africa is the name of Lionel Rogosin’s 1959 documentary and also the name of Milestone Film’s second anthology of his work. Come Back, Africa: The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume 2 also includes Black Roots, making-of documentaries by his son Michael Rogosin, and other supplemental material:

Black Roots (1970)

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The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume 1

On the Bowery: The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume 1  Lionel Rogosin and Michael Rogosin, 1956-2009.
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Edition screened: Milestone Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Collective runtime approximately 161 minutes.

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

On the Bowery is the name of Lionel Rogosin’s 1956 masterpiece and also the name of Milestone Film’s first anthology of his work. On the Bowery: The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume 1 includes additional films by the director, very good related short documentaries by his son Michael Rogosin, and some other well-chosen period films:

Out (1957)

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