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.

Tom Jones

Tom Jones. Tony Richardson, 1973.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 129 minutes.

Summary: Hunting violence.

Details:
1) Comparatively mild pheasant shooting, 7:21 through 7:48, followed immediately by Tom running with a dead bird through 8:28.
2) Squire Western is shown a dead sheep, 8:54-8:59.
3) A deer huntings scene, 25:24-28:47, including pursuit by a pack of hounds, a horse spurred until his flanks bleed, the deer torn apart by the hounds, and the deer’s upper body raised in triumph.
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Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider (Laura Croft: Tomb Raider). Simon West, 2001.
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Edition screened: Paramount DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.
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Tomorrow We Move

Tomorrow We Move (Demain on déménage). Chantal Akerman, 2004.
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Edition screened: Kimstim DVD, released 2005. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
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Tomorrow’s Merseysiders

Tomorrow’s Merseysiders. Eric Marquis, 1974.
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Edition screened: Included in the BFI 4-DVD set Shadows of Progress: Documentary Film in Post-War Britain 1951-1977, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 24 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


Daily life in economically depressed Merseyside is intercut with the action of designing and printing the region’s two papers, the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.
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Too Naughty to Say No

Too Naughty to Say No. Humphry Knipe (as Victor Nye), 1984.
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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 2016 as DVD #102. English language. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.

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

Top of the Lake. Jane Campion and Garth Davis, 2013.
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Edition screened: BBC Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 342 minutes.

Summary: Animal killing and mutilation, typical of asinine culture.

Matt, portrayed by Peter Mullen, is the leader of a group of Texas-style New Zealanders who ride around on motorcycles, in love with their over-compensating beards and tattoos, shooting anything that moves, and raping little girls. The show is not overloaded with animal torture but there are three or four incidents sprinkled through the six 50+ minute episodes including a dog shot point blank for no reason, juvenile desecration of  hunted animals, and similar. Pretty much the standard These Colors Don’t Run backyard family fun.

Jane Campion is a smart progressive woman, and as such usually is overtly animal-kind in her productions. Top of the Lake portrays some feminist ideals in a very unflatteringly way, combining with the scenes of violent Texan-style idiocy to show how a culture can push women to grasp at strains of alternative life; any alternative life.
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Topsy-Turvy

Topsy-Turvy. Mike Leigh, 1999.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #558, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 160 minutes.


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

Torment. Alf Sjöberg, 1944.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 1: Early Bergman 5-DVD set, released 2007. Swedish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.

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

An excellent film written by a young Bergman and directed by Sjöberg.


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Tosca (Puccini/de Ana)

Tosca (Puccini). Hugo de Ana, 2006.
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Edition screened: Arthaus Musik Blu-ray, released 2011. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

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A Touch of Class

A Touch of Class. Melvin Frank, 1973.
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Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

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


The Undesirable (A tolonc). Michael Curtiz as Mihály Kertész, 1915.
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Edition screened: Olive Blu-ray, released 2016. Scored with English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 65 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Valentino: The Last Emperor

Valentino: The Last Emperor. Matt Tyrnauer, 2008.
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Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2009. English language and Italian with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.

This is an immensely pleasant film; coolly directed, interesting in subject, and somewhat inspiring even to someone with little knowledge of haute couture. 

The Sony DVD also provides three shorts made during the filming of the main feature. Much better than the typical deleted scenes or extended out-takes, these are polished, well-directed vignettes that apparently just didn’t fit into the final release:

The Perfect Life: Around the World with Valentino (30:03) allows Valentino’s majordomo to show us behind-the-scenes party preparation at the Swiss, French, and New York residences.

The Last Collection (8:29) shows the 2008 collection coming to Paris.

A Red Dress (8:22) shows the development of one gown from design to final adjustments on a model.
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The Valley

The Valley (Obscured by Clouds/La Vallee). Barbet Schroeder, 1972.
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Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray, released 2010. French and Tos Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin) languages with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.

Summary: Pig butchering

Details:
1) We hear a gunshot, followed by mournful handling of a dead exotic bird during dialogue, 1:02:46-1:03:35.
2) We see several pigs clubbed to death, 1:20:18-1:21:04, then a brief scene of their carcasses being scraped of hair, 1: 21:45-1:21:55.

The killing of the pigs cannot be overlooked. The gentle intelligent animals squeal in pain and try to flee for their lives. 

However.  The scene is over comparatively quickly and is part of an important tribal celebration in which the animals are eaten with respect and purpose. This contrasts sharply with the longer, gratuitously graphic scenes of animal murder and mutilation in several Les Blank films celebrating American rural life. Blank showcases asinine rural buffoons mutilating animals, beer in hand, for the entertainment of their cackling wives and mutant-looking children. That, of course, is presented as adorable folk culture from better times in a better ’murika.

The Valley is a gorgeous, spiritual film, and viewing is recommended. If you like, simply fast-forward to around 1:22 as soon as the pigs are brought onscreen. Also note that the beautiful green snake encountered around 46 minutes into the film is not abused in any way.

The BFI dual-format release also includes three short documentaries of life among the New Guinea tribe. These films are longer versions of scenes in The Valley:

Le Cochon aux patates (Pork with sweet potatoes), approximately 8 minutes.😿😿😿
Marquillages (Make-up), approximately 12 minutes.😸
Sing Sing (Singing), approximately 5 minutes.😸
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Woodenhead


Woodenhead. Florian Habicht, 2003.
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Edition screened: Olive DVD, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

The Olive DVD includes generous bonus material (all free of animal violence) including:

• Hospice for Destitute Lovers music video (5 minutes)
• Circus Acts music video (4 minutes)
• Horoscope with Lutz comedy short (2 minutes)
• Libestraume 1997 short (7 minutes)
• Killer Ray in Bangkok documentary short (16 minutes)
• Featurette about the making of Woodenhead (49 minutes)


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WR: Mysteries of the Organism

WR: Mysteries of the Organism (W.R.–Misterije organizma). DuÅ¡an Makavejev, 1971.
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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #389, released 2007. Serbo-Croatian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Criterion release also contains DuÅ¡an’s Hole in the Soul (1994).


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Zardoz

Zardoz. John Boorman, 1973.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.


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

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