Daguerre-Beach

Daguerre-Beach. Agnès Varda, 2008.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 15) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.

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

Daniel

Daniel. Ingmar Bergman, 1967.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema, released 2018. Swedish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Daniel was Bergman’s contribution to the omnibus film Stimulantia, and is included on disc #11 of 30 in Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema.

The Dante Quartet (Brakhage)

The Dante Quartet. Stan Brakhage, 1987.

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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 6 minutes, 3 seconds.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Dark August

Dark August. Martin Goldman, 1976.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow box set American Horror Project Vol. 2, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.

Summary: Depicted murder of a German Shepherd

Details: The movie concludes with a demon apparently occupying a man’s body, causing his dog to attack him. The man arguably is forced to shoot his dog in self defense at 1:24:57, and we see the dying bloody dog through the final few seconds of the film. 

Indistinct pinball machine in the bar around 19:30. 

Dark Places

Dark Places. Gilles Paquet-Brenner, 2014.

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Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 113 minutes.

Summary: Murderous attack on cows.

Details:

1) Mid-way through the movie there is a montage of media reports about satanism, including a quick image of a black-and-white photo of a dead cat, as though from a police file. It is quick, small on the screen, and not graphic or memorable.

2) Three young people who think they are satanists take drugs and attack corralled cows with pick axes and knives, 1:03:55-1:04:32. It happens at night and we don’t see impacts or injured animals, but there is a lot of weapon flailing, grunts and screams, and splattering blood.

I had forgotten how terrible made-for-TV movies were. 

The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower. Stan Brakhage, 1999.

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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, 19 seconds.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Darkroom

Darkroom. Terrence O’Hara and Nico Mastorakis, 1989.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #272, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

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

Days of the Arcane Light

Day of the Arcane Light. Jeff Keen, 1969.

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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. Runtime approximately 14 minutes.

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

De Niro & De Palma: The Early Years

De Niro & De Palma: The Early Years. Brian De Palma, 1968-1970.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray box set, released 2018. English language. Cumulative runtime of three feature films approximately 267 minutes.

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

The Arrow box set includes many interviews and documentary featurettes to supplement the three films:

Greetings (1968)

The Wedding Party (1969)

Hi, Mom! (1970)

The Dead (Brakhage)

The Dead. Stan Brakhage, 1960.

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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, 21 seconds.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Deadbeat at Dawn

Deadbeat at Dawn. Jim VanBebber, 1988.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.

Summary: Depiction of a drug-addled man attacking a rat with a baseball bat, but no we see no impact shots, blood, dead rat or similar; just a crazy 50-year-old man slamming a baseball bat into the drywall of his disgusting apartment.

“Shocking” is the best word to describe this movie. It is shockingly violent, shockingly well-conceived and entertaining to watch, shockingly impressive for a young director’s first film, and shockingly free of animal violence.

The Arrow release includes four additional short films by VanBebber, the second and third of which contain unpleasant violence to animals. Click on titles for details:

Into the Black (1983)

My Sweet Satan (1993)

Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin (1994)

Gator Green (2013)

Deadbeat at Dawn features nice Xenon and Haunted House machines in the bar set.

Deadly Daphne’s Revenge

Deadly Daphne’s Revenge (The Hunting Season). Richard Gardner, 1981.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #229, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: A small dog is shot.

Details:

1) A cockapoo-type dog who is just walking calmly, is kicked and yelps at 1:17:06.

2) The dog, just sitting doing nothing, is shot at 1:23:50. His owner holds the bloody body through 1:25:42.

This movie is completely unlikable and offensive in every way. The main drama is a rape-and-revenge tale. The rapist and the victim both are excruciatingly repugnant, although he is more vile. The film is riddled with crude, mean-spirited racist and misogynistic dialogue. Social content aside, Deadly Daphne’s Revenge also is a badly written, disorganized movie mostly about a hunting trip that turns into a rape party, with a framing mechanism (the irrelevant story of Daphne’s history with one of the hunters) tenuously tacked-on and barely justified with a few lines of dialogue. Scenes of lawyers quibbling in their bathroom-sized offices pad the middle fifty-percent of the movie between the brutal rape and the shoulder-shrugging resolution.

Deadpool 2

Deadpool 2. David Leitch, 2018.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox “Super Duper Cut” Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 134 minutes.

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

Dear Dead Delilah

Dear Dead Delilah. John Farris, 1972.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #240, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

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

Death in the Garden

Death in the Garden (La mort en ce jardin). Luis Buñuel, 1956.

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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #167, released 2017. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.

Summary: Killing of a python.

Details:

1) A python hangs in a tree at eye level, seen well in advance by the party and posing no particular threat. So of coarse Georges Marchal hacks it with his machete, 1:13:47-1:13:55. We soon learn that they intend to consume the snake when we see Marchal butchering it and explaining that it will be good eats, 1:14:11 - 1:14:25. While the killing and butchering could have been much more gruesome and violent, this poor snake absolutely was hacked to death in the making of the film.

2) The poor snake’s hacked-up carcass is tossed to the ground and forgotten while everyone joins in the panic about not being able to start a fire in the wet environment. Fire started, Michel Piccoli looks at the snake’s body to see it engulfed by fire ants and writhing as if alive, 1:15:27-1:15:35.

Death in the Garden is not the torrent of surrealist wit and challenges that denote Buñuel’s more famous films. It is more of a masculine adventure movie, typical of the mid-1950s in some ways but leaning toward the Wages of Fear echelon in quality and theme, and intentionally evoking that exact film occasionally. But Buñuel’s intellect and political acumen are evident, and there are several scenes that would hold their own against any of his color films. One of these is the horrifying image of the dead snake brought back to life by ants, which cuts abruptly to a nighttime scene of cars driving around Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile. This tourist fantasy scene grinds to a stop as though the film projector has broken, parallel to Charles Vanel realizing he never will reach Paris. Excellent. 

Deep Throat II

Deep Throat II. Joseph Sarno, 1974.

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Edition screened: Included in Film Movement’s Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect Series Vol. 3 Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

This is not a pornographic or even particularly erotic film. It is a comedy starring Linda Lovelace who has a few nude or topless scenes. The opening sequence of her short morning stretch routine is by far the most explicit scene in the film.

  

Def by Temptation

Def by Temptation. James Bond III, 1990.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #248, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

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

A few passages of badly written “comedic” banter hurt this otherwise watchable vampire movie.

Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse

Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse. Stan Brakhage, 1990.

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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 8 minutes, 16 seconds.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Desert

Desert. Stan Brakhage, 1976.

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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, 7 seconds.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Desistfilm

Desistfilm. Stan Brakhage, 1954.

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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 6 minutes, 48 seconds.

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

Detour

Detour. Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #966, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 69 minutes.

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

The Devil’s Eye

The Devil’s Eye (Djävulens öga). Ingmar Bergman, 1960.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema, released 2018. Swedish language with English subtitles. Approximately 87 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

The Devil’s Eye and All These Women share disc #17 of 30 in Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema (parts of ‘Centerpiece 2’). 

DFK6498

DFK6498. Cameron Duncan, 2004.

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Edition screened: Included in New Line The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy - Extended Edition Blu-ray box set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 4 minutes.

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

Diary Films: Stolen Moments, Lone Star, Godzilla, Rosa Canina

Diary Films. Jeff Keen, 1972-76.

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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 26 minutes.

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

Diary Films divides the screen into four equal rectangles, each showing a separate film: Stolen Moments (1972), Lone Star (1975), Godzilla–Last of the Creatures (1976), and Rosa Canina (1970s).

Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood. Josef von Sternberg, 1930-1935.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray set #930, released 2018. English language. Cumulative runtime of feature films approximately 538 minutes.

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

The Criterion set includes a bounty of interviews and featurettes, along with six films directed by von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich:

Morocco (1930)

Dishonored (1931)

Shanghai Express (1932)

Blonde Venus (1932)

The Scarlet Empress (1934)

The Devil Is a Woman (1935)

The Dinner

The Dinner. Oren Moverman, 2017.

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Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.

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

The Dinosaur and the Baby

The Dinosaur and the Baby (Le dinosaure et le bébé, dialogue en huit parties entre Fritz Lang et Jean-Luc Godard). André S. Labarthe, 1967.

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Edition screened: Included on Lionsgate Contempt (Le Mépris) Blu-ray, released 2010. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 61 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A wonderful discussion between Lang and Godard, in which Godard asks pretentious, ethereal questions about art, and Lang answers them with grandfatherly wisdom. Entertaining, enlightening, and well worth watching.

Disciples of the Crow

Disciples of the Crow (originally filmed as ‘Children of the Corn’). John Woodward, 1983.

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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray Children of the Corn, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 19 minutes.

Summary: Rabbits murdered for religious sacrifice.

Details:

1) Live animals including a large bullfrog are (seemingly) dropped into boiling water, 1:27-1:36. We don’t actually see them land in the pot.

2) A rabbit is trapped in a steel-jawed trap. We see him struggling for his life and screaming in pain 7:32-7:46, which is exactly what these poor animals go through, you miserable cowardly ‘sportsmen’.

3) Mutilated rabbit hanging with blood dripping, as a sacrifice, 8:24-8:31.

4) Another mangled rabbit as religious sacrifice, 14:42-14:44.

Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti

Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. Teiji and Cherel Ito, after Maya Deren, 1954.

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Edition screened: Excerpt included on Mystic Fire DVD Maya Deren: Experimental Films, released 2002. Original Haitian on-site audio track. Runtime approximately 8 minutes.

Summary: Chickens killed in a religious ceremony.

Details: We see three chickens killed by having their nicks twisted during a voodoo dance ritual, 6:05-6:50. Of course these animals were killed, but the 1950s’ documentation is not bloody or violent. A child would think the chickens merely were being twirled around.

The Mystic Fire DVD includes this 8-minute excerpt from a longer film that Teiji and Cherel Ito created from many hours of documentary footage that Deren made in Haiti but never used.

The Doctor and the Devils

The Doctor and the Devils. Freddie Francis, 1985.

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Edition screened: Scream Factory Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: Cock fights to the death.

Details:

1) A street scene of peddlers includes an apparent dead rat vender, 4:09-4:16. He holds a live white rat in his hands as he strolls, and is fitted with a shoulder armature from which is suspended dead rats.

2) Cock fighting scene including two close shots of the dead bloody roosters, 43:46-46:18.

Dog Star Man

Dog Star Man. Stan Brakhage, 1961-1964.

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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 74 minutes, 34 seconds.

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