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.

Red River

Red River. Howard Hawks, 1948.

😿😿😿

Edition screened: “Theatrical Version” on Criterion Blu-ray #709, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 127 minutes.


Summary: Patriotic cow mutilation.


Details:

1) John Wayne gives a young’un an important lesson in citizenship as he brands a cow with a hot steel rod, 15:17-15:28. This is very real, with the cow trussed up, lying on her side, obviously in pain, and understandably angry that she is the only one not being paid here.

2) More cow humiliation and bound torture, 18:28-18:45.  (These two cows are trussed up, lying on their sides and panting during the intervening time while The Duke takes a moment to shoot a Mexican.)

3) The ground is littered with dead cows and horses after some attack during a cattle drive, 52:55-58:15.

4) A cow is found dead with an arrow through the neck, 1:24:03 - 1:24:24.



This is not one of those old westerns that makes you reconsider and reflect more generously on the genre.




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