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.

Xtro 3: Watch the Skies

Xtro 3: Watch the Skies. Harry Bromley Davenport, 1995.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #308, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

Summary: Repeated staging of a dying or dead rabbit.

Details:
1) A slightly bloody white rabbit is found 22:16-11:18, assessed as dying and euthanized offscreen by a gunshot.
2) A slightly bloody white rabbit is found in an alien web, 58:27-58:50.
3) A slightly bloody white rabbit can be seen in the background after an explosion, 1:19:18-1:19:25.

A seemingly deserted island has many friendly white rabbits hopping around. This is “explained” by telling of an experimentation lab that operated there forty years earlier. The production crew seems to have had one white rabbit body (real, fake, who knows) that was recycled for these three scenes. In the first two encounters, the rabbit’s slight movement is accomplished by tugging on a leg with monofilament. These are not graphic or gruesome scenes.

Xtro 3 is not a quality film, but for one second it did provide the giggly sensation of having just been hit on the back of the head with a 2x4.

The female in our rag-tag squad of military misfits is intended to be somewhat sexy, but her slightly weird facial features are her most  distinctive feature. The first time Corporal Banta was on camera I thought "Huh. She looks like Tonya Harding." 

Maybe five minutes later, standing on the deck of a military boat in full uniform and on their way to Mission Deadly, the commanding officer asks, "So, Banta, how did you end up in the military?"

"Well I used to be an ice skater. And there was this other bitch who was an ice skater, and I hated her. So I hired someone to break her fucking legs. The judge said I could have a year behind bars or three years in the military." Then they resume discussing the mission.


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