Violence to Animals in Film: June 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.

The Little Chaos

The Little Chaos (Das Kleine Chaos). Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-Ray Rainer Werner Fassbinder: The Early Works, released 2016. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 9 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

Le Lion des mogols

Le Lion des mogols (The Lion of the Moguls). Jean Epstein, 1924.

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Edition screened: Included in Potemkine DVD set Jean Epstein, released 2014. English subtitles. No dialogue track. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Life of Oharu

The Life of Oharu (Saikaku ichidai onna). Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #664, released 2013. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 136 minutes.

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

A Letter to Uncle Boonmee

A Letter to Uncle Boonmee. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2009.

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Edition screened: Included on the Strand Blu-Ray Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, released 2011. Thai language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 17 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A Letter to Three Wives

A Letter to Three Wives. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Charming, funny, well made and well acted. Highly recommended.

Kwaidan

Kwaidan (Kaidan). Masaki Kobayashi, 1965.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #90, released 2015. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 183 minutes.

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

Kobayashi’s Kwaidan is an anthology of four films adapted from Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things:

The Black Hair (Kurokami)

The Woman of the Snow (Yukionna)

Hoichi the Earless (Miminashi Hōichi no Hanashi)

In a Cup of Tea (Chawan no Naka)

Jurassic World

Jurassic World. Colin Trevorrow, 2015.

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Edition screened: Included in Universal Jurassic Park Collection Blu-ray set, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.

Summary: Many dinosaur deaths.

Details:

1) Dead white rats fed to raptors as a training exercise, 19:35-20:00.

2) Dead shark fed to a mosasaur as an amusement park attraction, 31:35-32:24.

3) Dinosaur battle and death, 58:12-58:25.

4) Detailed encounter with a sympathetic dinosaur who is injured and dying, 1:01:45-1:03:30, followed by discovery of a field littered with similar dead dinosaurs, through 1:04:00.

5) Numerous pterodactyls are intentionally killed in various ways after they escape, 1:21:06-1:23:35.

6) Commando attack on a large dinosaur, 1:34:10-1:36:00.

7) Small dinosaur killed with a taser, 1:38:23-1:38:28.

8) Final violent battle scene with numerous dinosaur deaths, 1:45:40-1:52:00.

Jurassic Park III

Jurassic Park III. Joe Johnston, 2001.

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Edition screened: Included in Universal Jurassic Park Collection Blu-ray set, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: Dinocentric violence and deaths.

Details:

1) One huge dinosaur kills another huge dinosaur, 26:53-27:27.

2) A pterodactyl falls into the water and is killed/drowned by a giant cage that crashes down on him, 1:05:05.

I enjoyed Jurassic Park III substantially more that the first two Jurassic Park movies, mostly because III lacked the obnoxious Spielbergian cute kiddie crap.

On the negative side, the special effects were not as good as those in the first two films; just not up to Spielberg’s standards.

On the positive side,

Not 60, nor 20, nor even a single close-up of a kid screaming cutely
A drastic reduction in Spielbergian charming quips and stupid jokes
Only 5 minutes of Laura Dern making gruesome faces, rather than 50 minutes
The 90-minute runtime felt like 90 minutes, rather than a 2-hour+ runtime that felt like 4 hours

1986 Williams Pin•Bot and 1985 Bally Fireball Classic in the restaurant.

Jurassic Park

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Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg, 1993.

Edition screened: Included in Universal Jurassic Park Collection Blu-ray set, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 127 minutes.

Summary: Dinocentric violence and deaths.

Details:

1) A caged dinosaur is tasered and shot, 3:00-3:25.

2) A triceratops is dying from eating poisonous vegetation, 49:57-51:36 and 53:45-54:11.

3) As though at Wendy’s drive-thru, someone asks, “Where’s the Goat?” and is answered by a bloody goat leg landing on the windshield of the car, 1:02:57. [That Steven Spielberg. He cracks me up.] A dinosaur eats the rest of the goat 1:03-12-1:03:15.

4) A few flocking Gallimimus are eaten by T-Rex, 1:35:25-1:35:35.

5) Velociraptors eaten by T-Rex, 1:57:12-1:58:04.

Je t’aime, Je t’aime

Je t’aime, Je t’aime. Alain Resnais, 1968.

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Edition screened: Kino Blu-ray, released 2015. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Laboratory mice appear prominently in the film, but they simply accompany the protagonist and are treated kindly.

Good Times, Wonderful Times

Good Times, Wonderful Times. Lionel Rogosin, 1964.
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Edition screened: Included on Milestone Blu-ray On the Bowery: The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume 1, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 69 minutes.

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

Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Denis Heroux, 1975.

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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 97 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

Mort Shuman stars in this presentation of Jacques Brel’s play.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto). Elio Petri, 1970.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #682, released 2013. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.

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

Interstellar

Interstellar. Christopher Nolan, 2014.

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Edition screened: Paramount Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 168 minutes.

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

Infrasexum

Infrasexum. Carlos Tobalina, 1969.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #112, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 1/5❤

What a strange but strangely watchable movie. A successful businessman overcomes his erectile disfunction by pursuing the life of a painter, a childhood dream squelched by his father we learn in the last minutes of the film. Along the way he has some unsatisfying adventures such as a $250k win in Las Vegas and killing two murderous kidnappers with a stick that happens to be lying in the yard.

In Celebration

In Celebration. Lindsay Anderson, 1975.

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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 and Brian Cox star in this presentation of David Storey’s play.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Terry Gilliam, 2010.

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Edition screened: Sony Blu-ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 122 minutes.

Summary: Crass murder of a chicken.

Details:

1) A chicken’s neck is wrung on-camera at 40:50, then partially plucked at 40:20. The dead chicken is prominent in frame during dialogue through 44:22.

2) A fantasy gondola runs into a bloated dead cow floating in the water, 55:42-55:57.

The worst aspect is Gilliam’s directorial poor taste, having the dead chicken with its distended broken neck held pointlessly in front of the camera for four minutes while characters talk. I’m sure he thought it was hilarious: “It looks like a rubber chicken, but it’s real! A real chicken!” Similar to directorial decisions in The Brothers Grimm, it’s not so much that killing an animal constitutes the joke, but that it just isn’t funny at all and that Gilliam thinks a dead animal makes it funny. It’s no different, no better, no funnier, than comedians who think their unlaughable material suddenly is hilarious if they force drug references or vulgarity into the doldrum. Actually, Gilliam does just that in Fear and Loathing … and nothing else … for two hours.

Ida

Ida. Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013.

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Edition screened: Artificial Eye Blu-ray, released 2014. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

I Knew Her Well

I Knew Her Well (Io la conoscevo bene). Antonio Pietrangeli, 1965.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray 801, released 2016. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.

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

An exceptionally good film. Comparisons to La Dolce Vita are easy and inevitable, but the Pietrangeli surpasses the Fellini in script, acting and directorial maturity.

Criterion includes an excellent 22-minute interview with likable film scholar Luca Barattoni, who discusses Pietrangeli’s place among the Neorealist and New Wave directors.

The Hurricane

The Hurricane. John Ford, 1937.

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Edition screened: Koch Lorber Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: Killing of a shark.

Details: A starving man in a canoe jumps overboard into the ocean to grapple with two sharks. One is killed by knife, 1:02:50-1:03:00.

House of the Living Dead

House of the Living Dead. Ray Austin, 1974.

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Edition screened: Included on Vinegar Syndrome DVD #117 Drive-In Collection: Crypt of the Living Dead/House of the Living Dead, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

Summary: Tortured and murdered animals.

Details:

1) The movie begins with a screaming black monkey (identified as a baboon in the film) held by the head by a man in a hooded black cloak, 00:09. The largish monkey then is wrapped in burlap and carried away through 00:58.

2) Montage of caged laboratory animals through the opening credits, ending at 4:09.

3) The monkey is carried into the lab at 4:09, limp and seemingly dead if not for his blinking, and is strapped to a table through 4:37.

4) Bloody cranial operation to the monkey with a large auger drill and needles, 4:59-5:30, and again at 6:29-6:50.

5) Severed head of a horse found lying in a garden, 51:14-51:25.

This is a terrible movie in every way, and would remain terrible without the mean animal abuse. The acting, the sound quality, the script, all are atrocious. Much of the film has very bad lighting and contrast, making long scenes even more unpleasant and aggravating to watch.

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