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.

My 20th Century

My 20th Century (Az én XX. századom). Ildikó Enyedi, 1989.
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Edition screened: Second Run Blu-ray #BD 005, released 2017. Hungarian language with English subtitle. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

Summary: Implications of animal torture and murder.

Details:
1) Beginning at 29:05 and continuing through 33:00, we see a laboratory dog wearing head straps with simulated electronic attachments. We see the dog break free and go on a life-changing adventure to experience the world – still wearing his headgear.
2) We see a man reach into a birdcage and grasp a dove, then at 33:45 we hear a noise suggesting that he has broken the bird’s neck.

Important:  The “lab dog” sequence clearly is rooted in compassion. There are no background images of the laboratory, and the headgear is intentionally joke-like. The dog is happy. Also, the caged birds are seen several times throughout the movie and the sound effect suggesting off-screen killing is not glamorized.

These scenes are not a reason to avoid this wonderful and creative film.