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 Girl Who Knew Too Much (Bava)

The Girl Who Knew Too Much (La ragazza che sapeva troppo / Evil Eye). Mario Bava, 1963.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2014. Original English language or original Italian dub with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
This excellent package from Arrow provides the original Italian The Girl Who Knew Too Much (recorded with English-speaking actors and dubbed into Italian) as well as the re-edited and re-scored American AIP version, Evil Eye. The American version has some longer scenes, some different shots, and clocks in at just over 92 minutes.

The film is well made, and both versions of this mystery/thriller are entertaining. I slightly prefer the longer American version which makes a bit more of the humor in the film and includes 1st-person narration by the main female character rather than 3rd-person male narration. Both versions have a short and unnecessary “happy ending” scene after the real wrap-up of the film. The Italian ending is predictable and forgettable. The American ending is unexpected but frivolous.

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