Violence to Animals in Film: June 2018

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.

The Assignation

The Assignation. Curtis Harrington, 1953.

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Edition screened: Included on Flicker Alley Blu-ray The Curtis Harrington Short Film Collection, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 8 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

L’Atalante

L’Atalante (Le Chaland qui passe). Jean Vigo, 1934.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #578, The Complete Jean Vigo, released 2011. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.

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

Cats play prominently in some scenes. Occasionally they are handled (tossed) carelessly, but there is no real abuse apparent. First mate Père Jules (played by the great Michel Simon) is the cat fancier in the film, and his affectionate interaction with the animals contributes to L’Atalante’s appropriate status as one of the world’s very finest films.

Ātman

Ātman. Toshio Matsumoto, 1975.

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Edition screened: Included on Cineliciouspics Blu-ray Funeral Parade of Roses, released 2017. No dialogue track, score by Toshi Ichiyanagi. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.

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

The Atomic Submarine

The Atomic Submarine. Spencer Gordon Bennet, 1959.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #366, included in Monsters and Madmen box set #364, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.

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

Audition

Audition (Ôdishon). Takashi Miike, 1999.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2016. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.

Summary: Murdered dog.

Details: Early in the movie we meet a nice house dog, who later is seen murdered and lying on the bloody floor with a broken neck, 1:33:53-1:33:58.

This short scene can be skipped with no harm done to the structure or comprehensibility of the film.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

The Autopsy of Jane Doe. André Øvredal, 2016.

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Edition screened: IFC Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.

Summary: A cat is attacked and subsequently killed.

Details: The cat who lives at a crematorium is found badly injured, near death, at 35:09. He is held gently and comforted by his owner, who then snaps the cat’s neck to end the presumed suffering at 35:49. The wrapped body is placed in the crematorium furnace, 36:20.

Violence to Animals in Film