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.

They Took Us to the Sea

They Took Us to the Sea. John Krish, 1961.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray A Day in the Life, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 21 minutes.


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

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Our School

Our School. John Krish, 1962.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray A Day in the Life, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 28 minutes.


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

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Mr. Marsh Comes to School

Mr. Marsh Comes to School. John Krish, 1961.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray A Day in the Life, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 28 minutes.

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


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I Want To Go to School

I Want To Go to School. John Krish, 1959.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray A Day in the Life, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 30 minutes.

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


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I Think They Call Him John

I Think They Call Him John. John Krish, 1964.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray A Day in the Life, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 28 minutes.


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

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The Elephant Will Never Forget

The Elephant Will Never Forget. John Krish, 1953.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray A Day in the Life, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.


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

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Rabid

Rabid. David Cronenberg, 1977.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.

Despite the title and main setting in a hospital, Rabid has nothing to do with animals or some perceived need to destroy them. Rabid is about Marilyn Chambers spreading a rabies-like infection that turns people into murderous zombies.
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Rage Net

Rage Net. Stan Brakhage, 1988.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set #518 By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volumes One and Two, released 2010. Silent. Runtime 35 seconds.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

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Rayday Film

Rayday Film. Jeff Keen, 1968-70, reworked in 1976.
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Edition screened: Included in BFI Gazwrx: The Films of Jeff Keen Blu-ray/DVD set, released 2009. Scored and/or with sound effects track; no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 13 minutes.

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

Re-Animator. Stuart Gordon, 1985.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime of ‘Unrated’ version, approximately 86 minutes.

Summary: Graphic and prolonged depiction of a mangled cat for humorous intent.

Details:
1) The pet cat is found murdered in the creepy renter’s mini-refrigerator, 22:12-22:55. Slight return, 23:40-23:43.
2) The murdered cat has been re-animated, and is wildly aggressive in the basement. Two men beat it with clubs and throw it against a wall until the cat is a mangled and broken mess. Then the mutilated body is reanimated and howls in agony. All of this, 25:41-30:17.

The Arrow release also includes a longer 105-minute ‘Integral’ version. Timing cues may be different for that version, but the violent scenes are well-telegraphed. The action mentioned above happens exactly when you think it is going to happen.
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Red Mob

Red Mob (Chtoby vyzhit/To Survive). Vsevolod Plotkin, 1992.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #170, released 2017. Russian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 113 minutes.

Summary: Indifference to animals.

Details:
1) Gratuitous display of, and hacking at, a roasted wild boar, 8:05-8:36.
2) Brief cock fighting scene, no blood or real violence, 35:54-35:57.
3) A tethered donkey is endangered, possibly injured, by an exploding car, 57:50-57:52.
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Red Roses of Passion

Red Roses of Passion. Joe Sarno, 1966
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #182, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 2/5❤


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Red Sparrow

Red Sparrow. Francis Lawrence, 2018.
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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 139 minutes.

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

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Redes

Redes (The Wave). Fred Zinnemann and Emilio Gómez Muriel, 1936.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #686 in box set #684 Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 1, released 2013. Spanish with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 60 minutes.

Summary: Careless treatment of fish.

Details: Predictably, this film about peasant fishermen has scenes of fish in nets and lying in the bottoms of boats, but there are no scenes of violent killing or butchering. The worst and longest scene occurs 24:48-27:10, during which we see large fish hauled in en masse, tossed roughly into boats, then hanged on scales to determine their weights.

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Remember Me

Remember Me. Ashley Pearce, 2014.
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Edition screened: BBC/PBS, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 180 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.

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Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. Jon Foy, 2011.
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Edition screened: Focus DVD, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Resurrect Dead is the type of documentary that consists mostly of people talking slowly and sincerely to the camera. That said, the subject is rather charming and the stars - the investigators of the mystery - are likable, authentic young men. I won’t bother explaining the easily researched topic, but I do have two discussion points:

1) Nobody involved in this film seems to have any concept of the complicated process required to install a mosaic composition into pavement. Our investigators think they have discovered that the Mystery Tiler “drops” the tiles into the pavement through a hole in the floorboards of a car. This would result in small ceramic pieces sitting on top of the pavement, soon to be smashed and scattered by the next few passing vehicles. The tiles in question are embedded into the asphalt or cement, flush with the road surface. Such an installation is a lot of work and requires a lot of time in the middle of the road, logistical facts that augment the mystery substantially: not just Who and Why, but How?

2) Why was the irrelevant life story of one of our three investigators included? “Jason” is a young artist of modest talent, misunderstood at school, different drummer, etc. While viewing it seems that some interesting link will emerge between the investigator and the mystery artist, or that Jason would have some special artistic insight helpful in cracking the case. But no, Jason is just another person who doesn’t understand how mosaics are installed.
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Return of Silver Head

Return of Silver Head. Jeff Keen, early 1980s.
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Edition screened: Included in BFI Gazwrx: The Films of Jeff Keen Blu-ray/DVD set, released 2009. Scored and/or with sound effects track; no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 21 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
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The Return of Spïnal Tap

The Return of Spïnal Tap (A Spïnal Tap Reunion: The 25th Anniversary London Sell-Out). Jim Di Bergi, 1992.
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Edition screened: Included on Studiocanal ‘30th Anniversary’ This Is Spïnal Tap Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 58 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.














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Ride the Pink Horse

Ride the Pink Horse. Robert Montgomery, 1947.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #750, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.

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

The Rink. Charles Chaplin, 1916.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #543 Modern Times, released 2010. Scored and with English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.













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Rio das Mortes

Rio das Mortes. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow DVD box set The Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Commemorative Collection 69-72 Volume 1, released 2007. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

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A River Called Titas

A River Called Titas (Titash Ekti Nadir Naam). Ritwik Ghatak, 1973.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #687 in box set #684 Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 1, released 2013. Bengali with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 156 minutes.

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


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Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin

Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin. Jim VanBebber, 1994.
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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray Deadbeat at Dawn, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 14 minutes.

Summary: Perpetual display of mutilated animals.

Details: The first seven minutes (one half of the film’s runtime) is a scene of disemboweling an opossum and similar passtimes in a bloody rat-infested house where other animal corpses lie rotting. This is followed by a short scene where two stranded motorists are abducted, then the movie concludes with their torture and murder back in the original set.

I rarely say ‘just stay away’ and am glad to have that advice untrivialized for this opportunity. 

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Robinson Crusoe on Mars

Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Byron Haskin, 1964.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #404, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

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


A monkey has a starring role in the film. He is shown in some perilous situations for dramatic effect, but the story does not involve him being injured or traumatized.
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Rock Star

Rock Star. Stephen Herek, 2001.
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Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.


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

Fireball Classic at the band audition.

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Rubber Band Pistol

Rubber Band Pistol (Gomudeppou). Jûzô Itami, 1962.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #868 Tampopo, released 2017. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 33 minutes.

Summary: Pointless insect smashing and cat tormenting.

Details:
1) Bug is smashed ‘in fun’ 3:28-2:29.
2) A cat is snapped in the face with a rubber band, 3:34-3:37.



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The Saga of Gösta Berling

The Saga of Gösta Berling (Gösta Berlings saga). Mauritz Stiller, 1924.
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Edition screened: Kino DVD, released 2006. Scored and with English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 183 minutes.

Summary: Around the 2 hour 33 minute mark, a sleigh races across the frozen land, trying to escape a pack of wolves. Greta Garbo throws her muff, purse, and some other fur accessory out behind the sleigh to distract the wolves. Several long shots show the wolves viciously tearing apart some wolf-sized animal, definitely not a handbag. It all is hazy and vague, but the sight of the wolves ripping apart the “prop” is successfully violent.

This is an excellent film. Well told, well acted, and the new score is consistently enjoyable, sometimes excellent. 
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Same Player Shoots Again

Same Player Shoots Again. Wim Wenders, 1967.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #814 Alice in the Cities, in The Road Trilogy box set #813 released 2016. German language. Runtime approximately 12 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
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Sartana’s Here … Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin

Sartana’s Here … Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin (C'è Sartana ... vendi la pistola e comprati la bara! / Fistful of Lead). Giuliano Carnimeo (as Anthony Ascott), 1970.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set The Complete Sartana, released 2018. Original English or original Italian dub with English subtitles. Approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: Animal abuse as light comedy.

Details:
1) Sartana shoots a crowing rooster from his hotel window. Slow motion viewing suggests that the shot hits just below the rooster’s foot, and he tumbles from his perch. Subsequent dialogue portrays that the rooster has been killed. 42:42-42:46.
2) A knife is thrown at, and hits, an obviously plastic spider. 1:07:13.

No, it does not appear that the rooster was killed. No the spider was not real. No I do not care. No these portrayals are not appropriate or funny.









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Satan’s Brew

Satan’s Brew (Satansbraten). Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1976.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow DVD box set The Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Commemorative Collection 73-82 Volume 2, released 2007. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.


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The Scarlet Claw

The Scarlet Claw. Roy William Neill, 1944.
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Edition screened: Included in MPI The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 74 minutes.

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

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Scenes at Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner Underground Stations

Scenes at Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner Underground Stations. Unknown director, 1931.
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Edition screened: Included in BFI Blu-ray/DVD set Underground, released 2013. Scored, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 6 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Scenes of passengers in Underground stations.
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Scenes From Under Childhood, Section One

Scenes From Under Childhood, Section One. Stan Brakhage, 1967.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set #518 By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volumes One and Two, released 2010. No dialogue track. Runtime 23 minutes, 46 seconds.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

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