Wail. Jeff Keen, 1960.
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Edition screened: Included in BFI Gazwrx: The Films of Jeff Keen Blu-ray/DVD set, released 2009. No audio track. Runtime approximately 5 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Wake Up and Kill
Wake Up and Kill (Svegliati e uccidi). Carlo Lizzani, 1966.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2015. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 124 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Great scenes of an Italian parade and Parisian night clubs.
1963 Gottlieb Sweet Hearts at 1:24:30.
A Walk Among the Tombstones
A Walk Among the Tombstones. Scott Frank, 2014.
😿
Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 114 minutes.
Summary: Taser used on a dog.
Details: A two-second shot beginning at 1:13:39 shows a Rottweiler lying on his side and twitching after having been stunned with a taser. We do not see the actual use of the weapon, and the dog is shown alive and healthy afterwards.
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds. Byron Haskin, 1953.
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Edition screened: Paramount DVD, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
We Are the Flesh
We Are the Flesh (Tenemos la carne). Emiliano Rocha Minter, 2016.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2017. Spanish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 3/5❤
We Are the Flesh is an intelligent and visually shocking film with evident roots in performance art and environmental art. Press comparisons to Lynch and Jodorowsky prepared me to watch something that must deviate slightly from a Spiderman movie. But the smart ideas and compelling lead performance got and held my attention.
We Won’t Grow Old Together
We Won’t Grow Old Together (Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble). Maurice Pialat, 1972.
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Edition screened: Kino Blu-ray, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Weavers of Nishijin
The Weavers of Nishijin (Nishijin). Toshio Matsumoto, 1961.
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Edition screened: Included on Cineliciouspics Blu-ray Funeral Parade of Roses, released 2017. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 25 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
An excellent, artful documentary showing the traditional textile workers of Nishijin as they struggle with their craft, labor relations, and changing culture. Matsumoto’s self-styled aesthetic of “the Avant-Garde Documentary” presents images that tap into the viewer’s subconscious to support theme and emotion.
Wedlock House: An Intercourse
Wedlock House: An Intercourse. Stan Brakhage, 1959.
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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 10 minutes, 47 seconds.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Weed
Weed. Alex de Renzy, 1971.
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Edition screened: Included on Vinegar Syndrome DVD #144, 3 Documentaries by Alex de Renzy, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 116 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Weed explores the cultivation, transportation, trade, legality, and usage of marijuana, beginning in the southwest U.S. and Mexico, then including generous travel and interviews in Nepal, Cambodia, and Thailand. Street scenes filmed in Vietnam War-era cities in southwest Asia are particularly interesting. As someone with no investment in marijuana issues one way or the other, I found Weed an enjoyable and informative travelogue with a provocative theme.
Welcome Home Brother Charles
Welcome Home Brother Charles. Jamaa Fanaka, 1975.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #213, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
I found WHBC, Fanaka’s first film and allegedly a university senior project, to be completely enjoyable. It is not boring, not poorly made or acted, and is mercifully free of the endless third-grade humor that makes most of the Dolemite series painful.
The Vinegar Syndrome release also includes Fanaka’s Emma Mae (1976), another winner.
What a Way To Go!
What a Way To Go! J. Lee Thompson, 1964.
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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox DVD, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
This DVD release includes an enjoyable newsreel of What a Way To Go! cast members traveling to the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
Whiskey Galore (MacKinnon)
Whiskey Galore! Gillies MacKinnon, 2016.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
White Dust
White Dust. Jeff Keen, 1972.
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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 33 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
White Heaven in Hell
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set #841, Lone Wolf and Cub, released 2016. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
This is the last of six films in the original Lone Wolf and Cub series.
White Lite (Keen)
White Lite. Jeff Keen, 1968.
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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 3 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The White Ribbon
The White Ribbon (Das weiße Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte). Michael Haneke, 2009.
😿😿
Edition screened: Sony Blu-ray, released 2010. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 144 minutes.
Summary: Murder of a horse and a bird.
Details:
1) A galloping horse is maliciously tripped with a wire at 2:41. We see the horse crash to the ground, and both horse and rider in agony through 2:54.
2) The dead horse is examined and dragged away, 6:47-7:20.
3) A pet parakeet is found murdered, impaled on a pair of scissors. A long stagnant shot, 1:41:22-1:41:30.
White Vertigo
White Vertigo (Vertigine bianca). Giorgio Ferroni, 1956.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion’s 100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012 Blu-ray box set #900, released 2017. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
An enjoyable documentary about the 1956 winter Olympics held at the Italian ski resort Cotina d’Ampezzo. The travelogue aspect of the film showing architecture and charm of the old town is wonderful.
The Wildcat (Lubitsch)
The Wildcat (Die Bergkatze/The Mountain Lion). Ernst Lubitsch, 1921.
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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #180, included in the box set Lubitsch in Berlin: Fairy-Tales, Melodramas, and Sex Comedies, released 2017. Scored, with German intertitles and English subtitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 82 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Willard (Morgan)
Willard. Glen Morgan, 2003.
😿😿
Edition screened: New Line DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.
Summary: Killing and harm to animals.
Details:
1) A nice orange cat is trapped by a pack of rats. The cat is attacked and apparently eaten, 55:12-55:22. No graphic depictions.
2) A white rat (Socrates) is bludgeoned to death, 1:09:50-1:10:15.
3) Socrates’ bloody body, 1:11:02-1:11:39.
4) Dead rats after extermination by gas, 1:19:55-1:20:13.
5) Large rat (Ben) with his leg in a trap, 1:30:01-1:30:05.
6) Ben’s bloody severed foot, still in trap, 1:30:33-1:30:35.
7) Ben is beaten to death (gauzy silhouette depiction), 1:33:10-1:33:18.
The Wind-of-Youth Group Crosses the Mountain Pass
The Wind-of-Youth Group Crosses the Mountain Pass (Tôge o wataru wakai kaze). Seijun Suzuki, 1961.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years Vol. 1: Seijun Rising: The Youth Movies, released 2018. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.
Summary: A pair of ducks are handled thoughtlessly for one second during a magic show but are not injured. No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Window Water Baby Moving
Window Water Baby Moving. Stan Brakhage, 1959.
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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 12 minutes, 11 seconds.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Witches (Dino De Laurentiis)
The Witches (Le Streghe). Various directors, Dino De Laurentiis producer, 1967.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2018. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Five short films starring Silvana Mangano, better than some Italian portmanteau films of the era, containing:
- The Witch Burned Alive (La strega bruciata viva), Luchino Visconti, 40 minutes
- Civic Duty (Senso civico), Mauro Bolognini, the longest 6 minutes in the world that do not include Peter Sellers
- The Earth as Seen from the Moon (La Terra vista dalla Luna), Pier Paolo Pasolini, 31 minutes
- The Sicilian Belle (The Girl from Sicily, La siciliana), Franco Rossi, 5 minutes
- An Evening Like the Others (Una serata come le altre), Vittorio De Sica, 27 minutes
Witchtrap
Witchtrap (The Presence). Kevin Tenney, 1989.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #158, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Witchtrap showcases the worst of 1980s film style. The dialogue is heavily padded with pointless comments like “Gee, look at that” and unfocused perfunctory bickering. The acting is the horrible sort that only C-list professionals can muster, far worse than non-professional actors. There are endless childish jokes and some squirmy racial volleys that try, fail, and try again to level some social playing field.
The special effects are the most ambitious part of Witchtrap, with splatter that holds up well even by current standards. Every character suffers a gory death except for the most unlikable one.
A brief shower scene by Linnea Quigley is the highlight of the film. Quigley is the first character to be killed and unfortunately has only about eight minutes on screen. Still, she smiles her adorable little smile several times and delivers Witchtrap’s best performance by far.
The Vinegar Syndrome release also includes Tenney’s student film The Book of Joe (1984), which is easier to watch and better than Witchtrap in some ways.
The Wizard of Gore (Kasten)
The Wizard of Gore. Jeremy Kasten, 2007.
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Edition screened: Dimension DVD, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.
Summary: Theatrical depiction of eating rats.
Details: As the introduction to a nightly stage show, a ‘geek’ bites the head off a live rat, 12:35-12:55, and again 47:22-47:28.
Kasten’s reinterpretation of Herschell Gordon Lewis’s 1970 film takes the originals’s paper-thin plot and adds heavy style, set design, and costuming notes from Naked Lunch, plus an overarching investigation into personal involvement reminiscent of A Pure Formality. While not an excellent film, Kasten’s Wizard of Gore at least is ambitious, textural, and complex, perhaps excessively so, while still retaining the shock factor that constitutes the entirety of Lewis’s original.
The Wold-Shadow
The Wold-Shadow. Stan Brakhage, 1972.
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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 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A Woman’s Torment
A Woman’s Torment. Roberta Findlay (as Robert W. Norman), 1977.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #194, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.
Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 3.5/5❤
Women at Play/Good Girls, Bad Girls
Women at Play/Good Girls, Bad Girls. Ron Dorfman (as Art Ben), 1984.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #217 Peekarama: Women at Play/Good Girls, Bad Girls, released 2018. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 191 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals in either feature.
Women at Play. 1984, approximately 85 minutes. 3/5❤
Good Girls, Bad Girls. 1984, approximately 83 minutes. 4.5/5❤
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios). Pedro Almodóvar, 1988.
😸
Edition screened: MGM ‘World Film’ DVD, released 2001. Spanish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Wonder Ring
The Wonder Ring. Stan Brakhage, 1955.
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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 5 minutes, 34 seconds.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Wormwood Star
The Wormwood Star. Curtis Harrington, 1955.
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Edition screened: Included on Flicker Alley Blu-ray The Curtis Harrington Short Film Collection, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
