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.

Me, Myself, & Irene

Me, Myself, & Irene. Bobby & Peter Farrelly, 2000.
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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 116 minutes.

Summary: Depictions of violent animal abuse as comedy.

Details:
1) A diary cow is found lying on the road, presumably hit by a vehicle. From 30:45 through 33:09, Jim Carrey attempts to put the completely still cow “out of her misery” by repeatedly shooting, kicking, wrestling, and strangling her. It is shockingly violent and unfunny.
2) From 1:23:03 through 1:23:17 a man is seen with the head of a live chicken up his anus. The chicken is flapping its wings and the man is yelling for help. I kid you not. 

The first 30 minutes of this movie were disappointing enough, but the scene with the cow is a total bomb and goes on forever, even if the viewer isn’t offended by the animal abuse. The chicken thing also is on the screen way too long. Even if those scenes were cut, Me, Myself, & Irene would remain boring, socially offensive in a just rude and not provocative way, and distinctly unfunny. 
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