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.

Native Land

Native Land. Leo Hurwitz, 1942.
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Edition screened: Included on DVD #373 Paul Robeson: Citizen of the World, in Criterion 4-DVD set #369 Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

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
















Natural Born Killers

Natural Born Killers. Oliver Stone, 1994.
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Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 122 minutes.

Summary: Insect killing and display of dead animals.

Details:
1) Closeup of a scorpion being crushed under a truck tire, 2:20-2:23.
2) Dead deer tied to the top of that same truck, 2:33-2:50.
3) Quick, noncontextual image of a horse lying dead in the desert, 28:31-38:32.

1990 Williams Whirlwind pinball machine in the incredible opening scene in the diner.

Naughty Girls Need Love Too!

Naughty Girls Need Love Too! Edwin Brown, 1983.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #226, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 4/5


Naughty Network

Naughty Network. Howard Ziehm (as Linus Gator), 1981.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #232, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 78 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 3.5/5


Naughty Words

Naughty Words. Curt McDowell, 1974.
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Edition screened: Included in Synapse Thundercrack! Blu-ray/DVD set, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 2 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Neighbor

The Neighbor. Marcus Dunstan, 2016.
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Edition screened: Arrow DVD, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.

Summary: Realistic rural killing of animals for no reason.

Details:
1) Rabbit’s bloody body after being shot, 6:53-7:02.
2) Dead raccoon along the side of the road, 9:31-9:36.
3) A pit in the yard filled with dead rabbits, 34:47-34:57.
4) A man is suffocated with a rabbit’s body during a fight in the rabbit pit, 56:50-57:16.




New Battles Without Honor and Humanity

New Battles Without Honor and Humanity (Shin jingi naki tatakai). Kinji Fukasaku, 1974.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, included in the New Battles Without Honor and Humanity box set released 2017. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.


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













New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Complete Trilogy

New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Complete Trilogy. Kinji Fukasaku, 1974-1976.
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Edition screened: Three-film saga in Arrow Blu-ray box set, released 2017. Japanese language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 283 minutes.

Summary: Last Days of the Boss includes a brief image of a suffering fish.

The Arrow box set includes all three follow-up films to the original Battles Without Honor and Humanity saga. Click on individual titles for details.



The New Land

The New Land (Nybyggarna). Jan Troell, 1972.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #797 and packaged with The Emigrants #796, released 2016. Swedish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 202 minutes.

Summary: Animal slaughter.

Details:
1) Robert brings home a rabbit he has caught and killed, 7:26-7:31. (Not a graphic depiction.)
2) Both The New Land and The Emigrants have occasional scenes of fish butchering and cleaning. Most are typical kitchen action, but a particularly gory scene occurs here, 25:00-25:32.
3) An ox is murdered by blows to the head, then slit open as a means to warm a freezing child, 1:19:16-2:48:25.
4) Goose slaughter and butchering, 2:47:43-2:48:25.

Many themes are explored during six-and-a-half magnificent hours of these two films. One motif, if a viewer cares to notice, is that people’s fates can mirror their treatment of animals. The Emigrants introduces the grandest presentation of this idea early in the film when young Robert is appropriately guilt-ridden for the cruel drowning of his cat. Years later he remorses that the animal suffered and wonders if he can be forgiven. No, in fact. Robert suffers the rest of his life from excruciating nerve damage and recurrently endures the cruel fate of The Fool. Most overtly at the end of The New Land, we see a goose that has been butchered by a gash to the neck, and the next scene is a human-on-human attack in which a man is shot through the neck. He falls and grasps at the plucked goose feathers to try to stop the blood that gushes from his wound.

I do not think Troell intends a strong tit-for-tat message about animal cruelty. It is more just an aspect of very good writing, to help express the larger theme of human interaction in the larger world. Early in The Emigrants Robert has a small textbook about Natural History, given to him by an elder who explained that natural history contains all the wisdom that need be known. Robert reads to his family an example passage that limply explains how water, like wine and blood, cannot be grasped in the hands because those things are “wet”. The Swedish family and friends that we follow for 60-odd years across the Atlantic Ocean and most of North America never make much progress in understanding the natural world. 

The inability to work with nature, or the lack of flexibility to rebound from the blows nature deals us all, is their recurring downfall. Sometimes the incidents are beyond the family’s control and are appropriate reminders to us all: Despite years of body-crushing labor to remove massive stones from your field, you will break your delicate wooden plow on a barely-submerged boulder. Other times their stupidity and stubbornness is their own undoing, as with the continual pregnancies despite their poverty and warnings by a doctor of the mother’s fragility.

The New Testament


The New Testament (Le nouveau testament).
Sacha Guitry, 1936.
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Edition screened: Included in the Arrow Blu-ray box set Sacha Guitry: Four Films 1936-1938, released 2018. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.



Niagara

Niagara. Henry Hathaway, 1953.
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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

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


Night Caller

Night Caller. Anthony Spinelli (as Wes Brown), 1975.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #211, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 3/5


Night Music

Night Music. Stan Brakhage, 1986.
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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 30 seconds.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead. George A. Romero, 1968.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #909, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.

Summary: A ghoul plucks something, presumably a large insect or similar, off a tree trunk and eats it at 47:20. Not particularly clear or traumatic. 

The Criterion release also includes the working print “Night of Anubis” and a variety of supplemental materials.

A Night to Remember

A Night to Remember. Roy Ward Baker, 1958.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #7, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 123 minutes.

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

Nightbirds

Nightbirds. Andy Milligan, 1970.
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Edition screened: BFI ‘Flipside’ Blu-ray #23, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 78 minutes.

Summary: Murder of a pigeon.

Details:
1) A woman removes a pigeon from a cage and twists its head off at 1:09:42. She carries the body onto the rooftop and drops it, through 1:10:12.
2) More of the dead pigeon, 1:16:45-1:17:00.

The BFI release also includes Milligan’s The Body Beneath (1970).

Nightmare

Nightmare. Freddie Francis, 1963.
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Edition screened: Included in Universal Blu-ray set Hammer Horror: 8-Film Collection, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.

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

No al no: Visca el piano!

No al no: Visca el piano! Pere Portabella, 2006.
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Edition screened: Included on Second Run Blu-ray Cuadecuc, vampir, released 2017. Musical performance, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 3 minutes.


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

Norte, the End of History

Norte, the End of History (Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan). Lav Diaz, 2013.
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Edition screened: New Wave Blu-ray, released 2014. Tagalog language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 250 minutes.

Summary: Off-screen murder of a dog.

Details:
1) A young pig is dragged down a street against his will, 28:51-29:15.
2) We see the physical motions of a man (apparently) stabbing his dog to death, 3:44:49-3:45:50. The alleged dog is hidden behind a bush during the long and emotional scene.


O’Horten

O’Horten. Bent Hamer, 2007.
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Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2009. Norwegian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

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


Objects in the Mirror Are Further Than They Appear

Objects in the Mirror Are Further Than They Appear. Gorman Bechard, 2003.
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Edition screened: Included on Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #185 Psychos in Love, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 15 minutes.

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


Oldboy

Oldboy (Boksuneun naui geot). Park Chan-Wook, 2003.
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Edition screened: Included in Palisades/Tartan Vengeance Trilogy Blu-ray set, released 2010. Korean language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.

Summary: Depicted death of a dog; gory killing of an octopus.

Details:
1) Oldboy begins with a small dog and his owner dangling off a tall building, 0:53-1:18. Same scene from a different angle, 20:05-20:41. We see the man crash on to the roof of a car, still clutching the dog, 21:50-21:55. This scene is played for a quick laugh of sorts, with no blood, detail, or effort made to disguise that both bodies are dummies.
2) A live octopus is served at a sushi bar. Its head is violently bitten off and its writhing tentacles partially eaten, 27:35-28:35. The scene succeeds in its intension to be repulsive and horrifying.

The Olympic Games as They Were Practiced in Ancient Greece

The Olympic Games as They Were Practiced in Ancient Greece. Jean de Rovera, 1924.
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Edition screened: Included on Disc 02 (Chamonix 1924, I Olympic Winter Games) in Criterion’s 100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012 Blu-ray box set #900, released 2017. Scored, with French intertitles and English subtitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 8 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

An enjoyable, artful interpretation of Greek athletic competition. Well-lit, dramatic tableaus of athletes posing as though engaged in various sports seem inspired by Greek bas-relief carvings.









The Olympic Games Held at Chamonix in 1924

The Olympic Games Held at Chamonix in 1924. Jean de Rovera, 1924.
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Edition screened: Included on Disc 02 (Chamonix 1924, I Olympic Winter Games) in Criterion’s 100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012 Blu-ray box set #900, released 2017. Scored and with English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 37 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Vignettes from the I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix, France.















The Olympic Games in Paris 1924

The Olympic Games in Paris 1924 (Les jeux olympiques, Paris 1924).
Jean de Rovera, 1924.
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Edition screened: Included on Disc 02 (Chamonix 1924, I Olympic Winter Games) in Criterion’s 100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012 Blu-ray box set #900, released 2017. Scored and with English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 174 minutes.

Summary: No live depictions of violence or harm to animals. The first sequence of equestrian events shows horses with nasty branding scars on their necks.

Long scenes from the VIII Olympiad, Paris 1924, with an emphasis on running events, polo, and rugby.














Omozap/Omozap 2

Omozap and Omozap 2. Jeff Keen, 1991.
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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 1 minute each.

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


Omozap in Artwar

Omozap in Artwar. Jeff Keen, 1995.
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Edition screened: Included in BFI Gazwrx: The Films of Jeff Keen Blu-ray/DVD set, released 2009. English language and sound effects track. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.

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


Omozap Terribelis/Afterblatz 2

Omozap Terribelis and Afterblatz 2. Jeff Keen, 2002.
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Edition screened: Twin-screen production, included in BFI Gazwrx: The Films of Jeff Keen Blu-ray/DVD set, released 2009. No audio track. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.

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


On Pascal

On Pascal (Reading Between the Lines: On Pascal/En profil dans le texte:Entretien sur Pascal). Éric Rohmer, 1965.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #345 My Night at Maud’s, in Criterion DVD box set #342 Éric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales, released 2006. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 22 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.