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.

Du côté d’Orouët

Du côté d’Orouët (Near Orouët/The Beaches of Orouët). Jacques Rozier, 1969.
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Edition screened: Included in Potemkine DVD box set Jacques Rozier, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 154 minutes.

Summary: Mistreatment and butchering of eels.

1) A tub of eels is spilled on a floor, then grappled and chased around a house, 1:05:40-1:09:35.
2) A Conger eel (a very large eel with a disconcertingly happy smile) is brought back dead and hanging from a cord, 1:51:50-1:52:42. It is cleaned for cooking 1:56:42-1:57:25.

A delightful viewing experience that makes you feel like you had a three-week vacation on the French coast with three giggly girls. Please do not be put off by eel sequences. There is no harm or injury in the first scene mentioned, just a lot of girly screaming and grappling. The cleaning and cooking scenes are averagely graphic, not exceptionally. Just skip them if you want, but enjoy the experience of this film!




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