Shanghai Express

Shanghai Express. Josef von Sternberg, 1932.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #933 included in box set # 930 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 82 minutes.

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

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death. Roy William Neill, 1943.

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Edition screened: Included in MPI The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 68 minutes.

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

Sherlock Holmes in Washington

Sherlock Holmes in Washington. Roy William Neill, 1943.

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Edition screened: Included in MPI The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 71 minutes.

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

The Shipping News

The Shipping News. Lasse Hallström, 2001.

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Edition screened: Buena Vista DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.

Summary: Mild interaction with dead fish; nothing graphic or exploitive.

Shivers

Shivers (The Parasite Murders, They Came from Within). David Cronenberg, 1975.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

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

Short Working Day

Short Working Day (Krótki dzien pracy). Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1981.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set Dekalog and Other Television Works, released 2016. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 73 minutes.

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

Shot

Shot (Death Shot). Mitch Brown, 1973.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #242, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

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

A VS custom slipcover (not included in the Amazon version shown here) includes a cartooned enumeration of things destroyed in the film (two bottles, one police radar unit, etc.) concluding with ‘one dog’. Shot includes a lot of police radio talk, including the call We ran over a dog or something. The artwork must be a joking reference to this police call, as we see no dog hit by a car or otherwise hurt. 

Shutter Island

Shutter Island. Martin Scorsese, 2009.

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Edition screened: Paramount Blu-ray, released 2010. English language with extensive whoosh! whack! Runtime approximately 137 minutes.

Summary: Leonardo DiCaprio kicks at a colony of rats, but there is no particular depictions of them being hurt.

1960 Gottlieb Seven Seas in the guards room around 1:38:00.

Shuttle

Shuttle. Edward Anderson, 2008.

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Edition screened: Magnolia DVD, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

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

The Siamese Twin Pinheads

The Siamese Twin Pinheads. Curt McDowell, 1972.

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Edition screened: Included in Synapse Thundercrack! Blu-ray/DVD set, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 4 minutes.

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

Signs

Signs. M. Night Shyamalan, 2002.

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Edition screened: Buena Vista DVD, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: Semi-accidental killing of a dog.

Details: Animals are acting strangely because of alien invaders. Mel Gibson finds his children crying beside their dead German Sheppard, and the boy relates that the dog “fell” on him (and a barbecue fork) while the dog was attacking the girl. Mel Gibson scolds Joaquin Phoenix for not watching the kids, and a county cop pulls the meat fork from the dog’s neck. All of this, 9:59-11:36. Substantially later in the film we hear the second of the two family dogs being killed by aliens.

Signs of Life

Signs of Life (Lebenszeichen). Werner Herzog, 1968.

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Edition screened: New Yorker DVD, released 2005. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.

Summary: Dead animals used for symbolic effect.

Details:

1) Insecticide applied to trapped roaches, 17:18-18:15.

2) A child recites a poem while sitting beside the head and legs of a dismembered goat, 55:56-56:39.

3) A donkey lies dead in a plaza after being shot, 1:03:45-1:03:51.

4) Another brief view of the dead donkey, 1:16:31-1:16:35.

5) The donkey is dragged away, 1:19:38-1:20:17.

Signs of Life, Herzog’s first feature-length film, contains the stylistic fortitude, visual poetry, and social ironies that would bring him fame in ensuing centuries. Signs of Life also debuts the director’s career-long impulse to include animals for meditative content and in juxtaposition to the world of Man, often living but just as often dead, as in this film.

Despite the inclusion of dead animals, Signs of Life is a beautiful, tranquil, and sometimes funny film about a soldier’s struggle to both retain and reject his sanity.

The Silence

The Silence (Sokout). Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1998.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray set The Poetic Trilogy, released 2018. Persian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to any of the animals who appear throughout this film.

Sin You Sinners

Sin You Sinners. Joseph W. Sarno, 1963.

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Edition screened: Included with Vampire Ecstasy on Film Movement’s Sarno Retrospect Series Volume 1 Blu-ray, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 67 minutes.

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

The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star/Kinky Tricks/China Lust

The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star/Kinky Tricks/China Lust. Charles Webb and Summer Brown, 1976-1977.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #189, released 2017. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 205 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the any of the three films films.

Vinegar Syndrome attributes all three films in this compilation to Charles DeSantos, which is one alias of Charles Webb. That doesn’t seem right, but the films aren’t interesting enough to merit a debate. China Lust is better than the other two and features footage of a Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

• The Sinful Pleasures of Reverend Star (Star-Crossed Maidens). Charles Webb as Chuck Angel, 1976, approximately 66 minutes. 1/5❤

• Kinky Tricks. Charles Webb as Bob W. Davis, 1977, approximately 73 minutes. 1.5/5❤

• China Lust. Summer Brown as Sam Lee, 1976, approximately 66 minutes. 2.5/5❤

The Slayer

The Slayer. J.S. Cardone, 1982.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: Mild fishing gore.

Details:

1) Two quick scenes of fish gutting, 17:47-17:49 and 18:40-18:42.

2) Narrative of a kitten’s murder, 53:02-53:09, told in a quick matter-0f-fact way.

The Slayer is another one of those movies: a group of friends go away for a vacation and are gruesomely murdered one-by-one despite warnings by the least desirable female that something seems wrong. The Slayer is not a particularly good film, but it is far more watchable than most of its kin simply because the Dead Vacationers Walking are young adults rather than obnoxious teenagers. Gone is the endless unfunny joking, gone is the torrent of self-described “practical jokes” by the resident wit who does outrageous things like talking in a spooky voice to scare the girls, gone is the torrid suspense over whether Kristie will sleep with Matt. The Slayer is basically the same movie as The Mutilator, but becomes tolerable rather than intolerable due to a cast of dopey young professionals rather than idiotic high schoolers.

Kafka lovers! There is an interesting reverse-fishing scene around the one-hour mark. The soon-to-be-slaughtered guy is out alone at night searching for the recently-slaughtered guy. He pauses at the fishing dock, confounded that someone has tangled up his line and hooks and what have you, dag nab it. We hear the waves lapping, then see a line with a man-sized hook fly in  from nowhere and wrap around his neck, circling a few times so that both hook and line cut into his face reel good. Reel good, I say. He then is yanked off the dock, onto the beach, and slowly dragged into the water headfirst. Pet fish in your home will love it.

The Sleeping Beast Within

The Sleeping Beast Within (Kemono no nemuri). Seijun Suzuki, 1960.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years Vol. 2: Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies, released 2018. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Smokey and the Bandit

Smokey and the Bandit. Hal Needham, 1977.

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Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.

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

Snapshot

Snapshot (The Day After Halloween/One More Minute). Simon Wincer, 1979.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #180, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: Dead animals used as props.

Details:

1) A photographer is making photographs of a dead mouse in a trap, 11:20-13:38.

2) A pig’s head is found under a bedspread, 59:38-59:55.

Snows of Grenoble

Snows of Grenoble (Neiges de Grenoble). Jacque Ertaud and Jean-Jacques Languepin, 1968.

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Edition screened: Included on Disc 16 (Grenoble 1968, X Olympic Winter Games) in Criterion Blu-ray set #900 100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012, released 2017. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Snuff Box: The Complete Series

Snuff Box: The Complete Series. Michael Cumming, 2006.

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Edition screened: Severin DVD, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 168 minutes.

Summary: Recurring jokes about murdering animals, and general contempt for people who don’t hate animals.

The two principal comedians are very funny, although many of the episodes contain skits that involves some aspect of murdering an animal or ridiculing respectful treatment of animals. The word “Snuff” in the series title does not have a double meaning corresponding to a theme of killing. The principal comedians simply have no interest in treating animals kindly and see people who feel otherwise as good fodder for jokes.

Solaris (Tarkovsky)

Solaris (Solyaris). Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray, released 2011. Russian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 166 minutes.

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

The Song of Stone

The Song of Stone (Ishi no uta). Toshio Matsumoto, 1963.

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Edition screened: Included on Cineliciouspics Blu-ray Funeral Parade of Roses, released 2017. Japanese language with English subtitles, and score by Kuniharu Akiyama. Runtime approximately 24 minutes.

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

An avant-garde documentary using photographs by Ernest Satow of sculptor Masayuki Nagare combined with documentation of industrial rock cutters at work.

The Song Remains the Same

The Song Remains the Same. Peter Clifton and Joe Massot, 1976.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 138 minutes.

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

A superb 1976 performance at Madison Square Garden. Page and Plant are bewitching in their stage presence and musical prowess.

A Special Day

A Special Day (Una giornata particolare). Ettore Scola, 1977.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #778, released 2015. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.

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

The Criterion release also contains Edoardo Ponti’s short film Human Voice (2015). 

The Spider Woman

The Spider Woman. Roy William Neill, 1944.

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Edition screened: Included in MPI The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 63 minutes.

Summary: Depicted murder of a huge sider.

Details: A gigantic tarantula-like spider is released into Holmes’ bedroom in an attempt to murder the sleeping detective. Holmes stabs the spider, 26:44-26:46.

We see a real giant hairy spider crawling across Holmes’ bed, but the creature that is stabbed is a dummy.

Spontaneous Combustion

Spontaneous Combustion. Jeff Keen, 1980s.

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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 34 minutes.

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

The Square

The Square. Ruben Östlund, 2017.

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Edition screened: Curzon Artificial Eye Blu-ray, released 2018. English and Swedish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 151 minutes.

Summary: Contextualized depiction of a murdered cat.

Details: As a publicity stunt for a new art exhibition, a fictitious internet video is made in which a young girl and the kitten she holds are blown up. We only see the video once (1:40:12), it happens very fast, nothing graphic is depicted, and the whole point is that the event depicted in the video never happened.

I question if this counts as an image of animal violence. But, is there a depiction of a cat being killed? Yes.

St. Christopher

St. Christopher. Barney Platts-Mills, 1967.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI ‘Flipside’ #14 Private Road, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 48 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A documentary about a school that provides education to mentally disadvantaged individuals.

Star Garden

Star Garden. Stan Brakhage, 1974.

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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 20 minutes, 58 seconds.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Star Time

Star Time. Alexander Cassini, 1991.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #214, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.

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

The Vinegar syndrome release also includes Cassini’s short film The Great Performance.

The Stars Are Beautiful

The Stars Are Beautiful. Stan Brakhage, 1974.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set #518 By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volumes One and Two, released 2010. English language. Runtime 18 minutes, 27 seconds.

Summary: Chickens have their wing feathers trimmed to restrict flight, but there are no depictions of violence or harm to animals.