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 Wicker Man (Hardy)

The Wicker Man. Robin Hardy, 1973.
😿😿😿
Edition screened: “The Final Cut” in StudioCanal 3-version Blu-ray set released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: Depiction of many animals burned alive.

Details:
1) A dead hare is shown in a human coffin 46:40-46:50, and seen periodically during subsequent conversation through 48:30. The hare is not bloody or decomposing, just dead.
2) Climactic final scene in which a a gigantic wicker structure containing calves, goats, fowl, and other animals in small cages is burned, 1:28:33-1:31:30. We do not see any animals actually burned to death, but hear them scream in horror as the huge fire rages beneath them.

Director Hardy said that the fire was extinguished before any animals died. Actress Britt Ekland says some animals died. As always, I do not regard that distinction as pivotal, and mourn eternally for every animal that suffered or perished during this extravagance.

This excellent Steelbook package from StudioCanal includes three of the many cuts, edits, and reassemblies of The Wicker Man: The UK theatrical release (1973, 87 minutes), the Director’s Cut (2001, 102 minutes), and The Final Cut (94 minutes), which director Hardy considers the best available version of the film. It differs from the longer Director’s Cut almost entirely in the elimination of introductory scenes at police headquarters.

It is entirely possible to view this film and extract every bit of meaning and  artfulness without watching the final sequence of the animal sacrifice. In any version, the sacrifice by burning is the very last scene preceded by a long passage of everyone standing around the large Wicker Man-shaped cage full of animals. Just turn it off. The film ends with the giant structure engulfed in flames and toppling. 



at
Labels: ,