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.

100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012

100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012. Various directors, 1912-2012.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray box set #900, released 2007. Various languages with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 6,253 minutes.

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

The massive Criterion box set includes:

Stockholm 1912
  • The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912 (dir. Adrian Wood) 
Chamonix 1924
Paris 1924
St. Moritz 1928
  • The White Stadium (dirs. Arnold Fanck, Othmar Gurtner) 
Amsterdam 1928
  • The IX Olympiad in Amsterdam (dir. unknown)
  • The Olympic Games, Amsterdam 1928 (dir. Wilhelm Prager) 
Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936
  • Youth of the World (dir. Carl Junghans) 
Berlin 1936
  • Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (dir. Leni Riefenstahl)
  • Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty (dir. Leni Riefenstahl) 
St. Moritz 1948
  • Fight Without Hate (dir. André Michel) 
London 1948
  • XIVth Olympiad: The Glory of Sport (dir. Castleton Knight) 
Oslo 1952
  • The VI Olympic Winter Games, Oslo 1952 (dir. Tancred Ibsen) 
Helsinki 1952
  • Where the World Meets (dir. Hannu Leminen)
  • Gold and Glory (dir. Hannu Leminen)
  • Memories of the Olympic Summer of 1952 (dir. unknown) 
Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956
Melbourne/Stockholm 1956
  • Olympic Games, 1956 (dir. Peter Whitchurch)
  • The Melbourne Rendez-vous (dir. René Lucot)
  • Alain Mimoun (dir. Louis Gueguen)
  • The Horse in Focus (dir. unknown) 
Squaw Valley 1960
  • People, Hopes, Medals (dir. Heribert Meisel) 
Rome 1960
  • The Grand Olympics (dir. Romolo Marcellini) 
Innsbruck 1964
  • IX Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1964 (dir. Theo Hormann) 
Tokyo 1964
  • Tokyo Olympiad (dir. Kon Ichikawa)
  • Sensation of the Century (prod. Taguchi Suketaro)
Grenoble 1968
Mexico City 1968
  • The Olympics in Mexico (dir. Alberto Isaac) 
Sapporo 1972
  • Sapporo Winter Olympics (dir. Masahiro Shinoda) 
Munich 1972
  • Visions of Eight (dirs. Milo Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Yuri Ozerov, Arthur Penn, Michael Pfleghar, John Schlesinger, Mai Zetterling) 
Innsbruck 1976
  • White Rock (dir. Tony Maylam) 
Montreal 1976
  • Games of the XXI Olympiad (dirs. Jean-Claude Labrecque, Jean Beaudin, Marcel Carrière, Georges Dufaux) 
Lake Placid 1980
  • Olympic Spirit (dirs. Drummond Challis, Tony Maylam) 
Moscow 1980
  • O Sport, You Are Peace! (dir. Yuri Ozerov) 
Sarajevo 1984
  • A Turning Point (dir. Kim Takal) 
Los Angeles 1984
Calgary 1988
  • Calgary ’88: 16 Days of Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan) 
Seoul 1988
  • Seoul 1988 (dir. Lee Kwang-soo)
  • Hand in Hand (dir. Im Kwon-taek)
  • Beyond All Barriers (dir. Lee Ji-won) 
Albertville 1992
  • One Light, One World (dirs. Joe Jay Jalbert, R. Douglas Copsey) 
Barcelona 1992
  • Marathon (dir. Carlos Saura) 
Lillehammer 1994
  • Lillehammer ’94: 16 Days of Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan) 
Atlanta 1996
  • Atlanta’s Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan) 
Nagano 1998
  • Nagano ’98 Olympics: Stories of Honor and Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan)
  • Olympic Glory (dir. Kieth Merrill) 
Sydney 2000
  • Sydney 2000: Stories of Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan) 
Salt Lake City 2002
  • Salt Lake City 2002: Bud Greenspan's Stories of Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan) 
Athens 2004
  • Bud Greenspan's Athens 2004: Stories of Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan) 
Turin 2006
  • Bud Greenspan's Torino 2006: Stories of Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan) 
Beijing 2008
  • The Everlasting Flame (dir. Gu Jun) 
Vancouver 2010
  • Bud Greenspan Presents Vancouver 2010: Stories of Olympic Glory (prods. Bud Greenspan)
London 2012
  • First (dir. Caroline Rowland)




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