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.

Even Dwarfs Started Small

Even Dwarfs Started Small (Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen). Werner Herzog, 1970.
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Edition screened: Included in Shout! Factory Blu-ray box set Herzog: The Collection, released 2014. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.

Summary: Relentless mistreatment and killing of animals.

Details:
1) A dead white hen lies in the dirt and is pecked at by another hen, 3:00-3:27. We later see a motorcycle run through the flock of chickens, probably the cause of this hen’s recent death.
2) A chicken dashes around with a dead mouse, 34:39-36:00.
3) The dead hen lying in the dirt, again, 39:35-39:40.
4) Mother and baby pigs tormented with a stick, 40:07-40:27.
5) It is announced that the pig has been killed. Cut to the mother pig lying on her side barely able to move at 44:25. We watch her die as the babies continue to try to suckle.
6) The baby pigs are tormented and handled roughly for comedic effect, 46:19-47:42.
7) Return to hen pecking the dead hen, this time the dead hen is much more mutilated and distorted, 1:03:15-1:03:30.
8) Two blind dwarfs discover the dead mother pig and explore her body, 1:04:45-1:05:34. Nothing additionally offensive here, just weird.
9) Another clip of the dead pig, 1:07:54-1:08:23.
10) A dead chicken is set on fire and carried on a stick, 1:19:04-1:19:09, as part of the general carnage that comprises the final 30 minutes of so of the film.
11) Two roosters are made to fight to the death. We see the entire event including the killing, 1:21:09-1:23:08. After this, cut immediately to . . .
12) A monkey we saw previously leaping around in a cage, now is tied to a wooden cross and carried at the front of a mock religious procession. The monkey is in great distress and trying to free himself, through 1:24:18.
13) Chickens are thrown aggressively and handled very roughly, obviously causing injury and pain, 1:24:37-1:27:03. Less than a 30 second break before . . .
14) A chicken is swung carelessly by her feet during other action, as though in preparation to be thrown, then finally hurled, 1:27:30-1:28:54.
15) The movie ends with a very long scene of a camel kneeling in the dirt, frequently starting either to stand or lie down completely, but never doing so. The particularly idiotic dwarf who is the star of the film stands and laughs stupidly at the camel throughout. Although there is no abuse depicted, the scene goes on for so long and the psychological distress is so immense that a real feeling of horror and dread is created, for, around, and about the poor camel. She seems to be next in line for abuse and murder.

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