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.

Orchestra Rehearsal

Orchestra Rehearsal (Prova d'orchestra). Federico Fellini, 1978.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2018. Italian dub with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.

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


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Orgies of Edo

Orgies of Edo (Zankoku ijô gyakutai monogatari: Genroku onna keizu). Teruo Ishii, 1969.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2018. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.

Summary: Inappropriate interaction with living and dead animals.

Details:
1) The opening title sequence concludes with a man dancing with a dead goose in his mouth. The goose is unclear in the first portion of this dance sequence, but becomes obvious 2:30-2:36.
2) Presented as a carnival performance, a man puts a small snake or possibly an eel partially down his throat then pulls it out, still alive, 42:13-42:45.
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The Orgy at Lil’s Place

The Orgy at Lil’s Place. Jerald Intrator as J. Nehemiah, 1963.
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Edition screened: Included on Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #195 Pick-up, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Another one of those ho-hum stories about a small town girl moving to The Big Apple gets a HUGE boost from excellent location shooting around Coney Island and Manhattan. Probably half of the film’s runtime is top-notch documentation of real New York. The story and acting are good enough.
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Orgy of the Dead

Orgy of the Dead. Stephen C. Apostolof (as A.C. Stephen), 1965.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #186, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 3/5❤

I strongly recommend Million Monkey Theater’s comments on this film, here.
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The Orphanage

The Orphanage (El Orfanato). Juan Antonio Bayona, 2007.
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Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 2008. Spanish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.


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

The Oyster Princess (Die Austernprinzessin). Ernst Lubitsch, 1919.
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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #177, 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 61 minutes.


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










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