Violence to Animals in Film: August 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.

Zatōichi (Kitano)

Zatōichi. Takeshi “Beat Takeshi” Kitano, 2003.

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Edition screened: Artificial Eye Blu-ray, released 2008. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.

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

Beat Takeshi directs and stars in this enjoyable retelling of Zatoichi’s story.

A Walk Through the Bowery

A Walk Through the Bowery. Michael Rogosin, 2009.

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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 12 minutes.

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

@ BL

An Untitled Film

An Untitled Film. David Gladwell, 1964.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI ‘Flipside’ Blu-ray #018 Requiem for a Village, released 2011. No dialogue track. Runtime approximately 9 minutes.

Summary: Repeated images of a chicken being being killed, often in slow motion, throughout the film. It is not possible to skip these scenes and retain any coherency or practical viewing experience.

The Transporter

The Transporter. Corey Yuen, 2002.

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Edition screened: Fox Searchlight Blu-ray, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Track of the Vampire

Track of the Vampire. Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow 4-film Blu-ray box set Blood Bath, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

See Blood Bath for an explanation of how Track of the Vampire relates to that more famous film . . . which you should watch instead.

Three Sisters

Three Sisters. Laurence Olivier, 1970.

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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 162 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

Alan Bates and Laurence Olivier star in this impossible to hear presentation of Anton Chekhov’s play.

Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould

Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. François Girard, 1993.

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Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A Summer Discord

A Summer Discord. David Gladwell, 1955.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI ‘Flipside’ Blu-ray #018 Requiem for a Village, released 2011. No dialogue track. Runtime approximately 17 minutes.

Summary: At times it seems that a bird or cat might come to some cruel fate, but there are no plot elements or depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Street of Forgotten Men

Street of Forgotten Men. Director unknown, 1933.

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Edition screened: Included on Milestone Blu-ray On the Bowery: The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume 1, released 2012. No Dialogue track. Runtime approximately 4 minutes.

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

Stray Cat Rock (film series)

Stray Cat Rock (Nora-neko rokku). Yasuharu Hasebe and Toshiya Fujita, 1970-71.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray box set, released 2015. Japanese language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 419 minutes.

This set includes retrospective interviews and all five films in the Stray Cat Rock series. Only Beat ’71 contains any mistreatment to animals. See each title for details:

Delinquent Girl Boss (1970)

Wild Jumbo (1970)

Sex Hunter (1970)

Machine Animal (1970)

Beat ’71 (1971)

Shoah

Shoah. Claude Lanzmann, 1985.

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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #100, included in the box set Shoah and 4 Films After Shoah, released 2015. Various languages with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 550 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Saw V

Saw V. David Hackl, 2008.

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Edition screened: Included in Lions Gate Blu-ray set Saw: The Complete Movie Collection, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Saw IV

Saw IV. Darren Lynn Bousman, 2007.

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Edition screened: Included in Lions Gate Blu-ray set Saw: The Complete Movie Collection, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Roy Andersson Collection

The Roy Andersson Collection. Roy Andersson, 1970-2014.

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Edition screened: Artificial Eye 4-Blu-ray box set, released 2015. Swedish language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 408 minutes.

Summary: You, the Living contains a mild simulation of abuse to a dog, and A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence depicts animal experimentation.

Please click the links below for further details about these intelligent, important films.

A Swedish Love Story (1970)

Songs from the Second Floor (2000)

You, the Living (2007)

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)

The Rounder

The Rounder. J.C. Nugent, 1930.

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Edition screened: Included on Warner DVD To Be or Not To Be, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 20 minutes.

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

Roger and Me

Roger and Me. Michael Moore, 1989.

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Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 2003. English language with. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: Graphic killing and skinning of a rabbit.

I no longer have the DVD to access a time cue, but when it looks like the tough woman is going to kill a rabbit, she does. I recall it being very brutal.

Robin’s Nest

Robin’s Nest. Victor Bertini (as Vic Burton), 1980.

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Edition screened: Included on Vinegar Syndrome DVD #101 Peekarama: Robin’s Nest/Bella, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 3.5/5❤

@ BL

The Ribald Tales of Canterbury

The Ribald Tales of Canterbury. Bud Lee, 1985.

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Edition screened: Included in Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray set #201, 5 Films • 5 Years Vol 1: Golden Age Erotica, released 2018; also released in 2015 as DVD #063. English language. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 2.5/5❤

The 2015 DVD includes Bud Lee’s Tasty (1985), also free of violence to animals.

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros. Tom O’Horgan, 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 104 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

Gene Wilder, Karen Black, and Zero Mostel star in this presentation of Eugene Ionesco’s play.

Revenge of the Ninja

Revenge of the Ninja. Sam Firstenberg, 1983.

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Edition screened: Included in Eureka! The Ninja Trilogy Blu-ray set, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Raffaello Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas

Raffaello Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas. Raffaello Matarazzo, 1949-1955.

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Edition screened: Criterion Eclipse Series 27, 4-DVD set, released 2011. Italian language with English subtitles. Collective runtime approximately 388 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

This 27th volume in Criterion’s Eclipse Series includes

Chains (1949)

Tormento (1950)

Nobody’s Children (1952)

The White Angel (1955)

Radio Days

Radio Days. Woody Allen, 1987.

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Edition screened: MGM/UA DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

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

Proxy War

Proxy War (Battles Without Honor and Humanity Vol. 3 / Yakuza Papers Vol. #3 / Dairi sensô). 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 102 minutes.

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

The Proposition

The Proposition. John Hillcoat, 2005.

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Edition screened: First Look DVD, released 2006. English language. Optional English subtitles sometimes are helpful to understand the mixed 19^th-century Australian and Irish accents. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.

Summary: Images of dead animals in a context of desperation.

Details:

1) An animal hangs from a tree at a cooking fire, 36:10-36:18.

2) Guy Pearce finds his horse dead with a cloth over its bloody head, 37:33-37:39.

The Pretty Peaches Trilogy

The Pretty Peaches Trilogy. Alex de Renzy, 1978-1989.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome 2-Blu-ray set #103, released 2016. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 267 minutes.

There are no depictions of violence or harm to animals in any of the three features in this Vinegar Syndrome compilation:

Pretty Peaches (1978, 87 minutes). 4/5❤

Pretty Peaches 2 (1987, 82 minutes). 2/5❤

Pretty Peaches 3: The Quest (1989, 90 minutes). 3/5❤

Presenting Sacha Guitry

Presenting Sacha Guitry. Sacha Guitry, 1935-1938.

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Edition screened: Criterion Eclipse Series 22, 4-DVD set, released 2010. French language with English subtitles. Collective runtime approximately 378 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

This 22nd volume in Criterion’s Eclipse Series includes

The Story of a Cheat (1936)

Désiré (1937)

The Pearls of the Crown (1937)

Quadrille (1938)

Presentation, or Charlotte and Her Steak

Presentation, or Charlotte and Her Steak (Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak). Éric Rohmer, 1951.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #343 The Bakery Girl of Monceau, in Criterion DVD box set #342 Éric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales, released 2006. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 12 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A fun little film starring Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

The Premonition

The Premonition. Robert Allen Schnitzer, 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 94 minutes.

Summary: Depicted killing of a turtle.

Details: The little girl plays with her pet turtle several times in the first part of the film, so of course this animal must die. When we see the very small turtle crawling on the floor at 29:50 when human tension is running high, we know the animal’s death is eminent. We see the bloody turtle and a small blood mess on the floor at 31:35.

The Arrow release includes three early student films by Schnitzer, all free of animal violence:

Vernal Equinox (30 minutes, 1968) is a surprisingly watchable commentary on communication and counterculture made when Schnitzer was still in high school.

Terminal Point (41 minutes, 1969) is a drama made as film student.

A Rumbling in the Land (11 minutes, 1969) documents and narrates an anti-ROTC protest, made while Schnitzer was active in his university SDS.

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