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.

Cría cuervos

Cría cuervos. Carlos Saura, 1976.
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Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray, released 2913. Spanish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: A pet guinea pig dies.

Details: We see the adorable pet guinea pig several times in the film. He is loved and well cared for. One day Ana goes to her room and finds him in bad shape. She gently picks him up, tells him that she will take care of him, and lays him on a pillow. The camera focuses on the girl’s face as she whispers “You’re dead.” The discovery and off-camera ‘death’ occur 1:25:20-1:26:20, followed by a serious, modest, and appropriate funeral as only a little girl would design.

I annotate this scene on principle, but there is NO reason to skip this brief and non-violent acknowledgement of beloved pet’s death. Cría cuervos is a truly superb film, distinguished by an excellent script, one of the best child performances I’ve ever seen, and time shifts within scenes that are handled with unequalled fluidity and directorial good judgement.

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