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.

Stroszek

Stroszek. Werner Herzog, 1977.
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Edition screened: Included in Shout! Factory Blu-ray box set Herzog: The Collection, released 2014. English language and German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.

Summary: Display of dead deer; animal exploitation

Details:
1) Two hunters have a dead deer strapped across their car during a dialogue scene, 1:01:15-1:02:40. Nothing explicit is emphasized.
2) Bruno S. visits a real 1970s roadside tourist trap where caged animals are trained to perform for food. We get a general overview of the animals’ routines 1:40:38-1:41:23; a brief return 1:42:47-1:42:59; and an extended reprise which ends the film, 1:45:24-1:47:17. This last episode focuses on a chicken that is lured to stand on a hot plate to eat – not so hot that she is seriously injured, but hot enough that she “dances” in constant discomfort.

The animal circus tourist trap is the setting for Stroszek’s astounding ending. A child or a childish viewer might find the scenes cute or funny, but Herzog clearly is condemning the spectacle. While an adult viewer will understand that these poor animals live in constant torment, nothing visually “cruel” is depicted.


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