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.
The Eleventh Commandment
The Films of Don Davis
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Girls, Guns and G-Strings: The Andy Sidaris Collection
In a Lonely Place
In a Year with 13 Moons
German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 124 minutes.
Our friend Edward reports a long and especially graphic slaughterhouse scene, 18:33-23:52. This difficult-to-sit-through scene is most unfortunate in an otherwise favorite film from the Fassbinder catalogue.
Kings of the Road
L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies: Return to Savage Beach
The Layout
The Lonely Sex
The Love Merchant
Old Dracula
Perfect Strangers (Cohen)
Ann Magnuson has a western-themed pinball table operating in her thrift shop. It’s in the background and hard to see, but I think it has the El Dorado backglass with one of the alternate titles, like Lucky Strike or Gold Strike. .
Public Affairs
Purely Physical/Cathouse Fever
The Raid: Redemption
Red Cliff: Part I & Part II
The Road Trilogy
The Severed Arm
A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine
Something Different
Edition screened: Included along with A Bagful of Fleas on Second Run DVD #106 Two Films by Věra Chytilová, released 2016. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.
A Sweet Sickness
Throat: A Cautionary Tale
Where the Green Ants Dream
Wrong Move
13 Assassins
Adventures of Zatoichi
The Altar of Lust/Angel on Fire
An American in Paris
Anatomy of a Psycho
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
A Bagful of Fleas
Edition screened: Included along with Something Different on Second Run DVD #106 Two Films by Věra Chytilová, released 2016. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 43 minutes.