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.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron). Roy Andersson, 2014.
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Edition screened: Included in Artificial Eye 4-Blu-ray box set The Roy Andersson Collection, released 2015. Swedish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

Summary: Depicted cruel animal experimentation

Details: A laboratory monkey (clearly an automaton) is tied spread eagle while electrodes in its head deliver shocks, 1:21:22-1:22:59. We see the monkey shudder in pain with each jolt.

Andersson’s film is an extended and thoughtful meditation on aspects of human existence, often poignant, sometimes ridiculous. A recurring vignette in the film involves telephone conversations wherein “I’m glad to hear that you’re doing fine” is the only content. In this laboratory the torture the monkey endures, as well as the expense of time and equipment, all are wasted as the scientist stands at a window with a cell phone, glad to hear that someone is doing fine.

This scene is followed by a vision of 19th-century colonialists leading African natives to a perverse, theatrical death as the upper class watches and drinks tea.

Andersson’s point in showing the animal experimentation is important and clear. But since the question asked by this website is “Are there upsetting scenes depicting or implying animal abuse?” then the answer is Yes.

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