Ô saisons ô chateaux. Agnès Varda, 1958.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 2) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 21 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A sumptuous tour of exteriors and grounds of les châteaux de la Loire.
Harold and Maude. Hal Ashby, 1971.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #608, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Various late 60s pinball machines in the arcade around 1:17:00, mostly side views.
He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection. William Grefé, 1966-1981.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray box set, released 2020. English language. Cumulative runtime of seven feature films and significant alternate versions approximately 841 minutes.
Summary: Death Curse of Tartu, Mako, and the Bacardi promotional film include violence to animals, click through links below.
Ironically presented in Arrow’s grand style, this set includes seven feature films:
Sting of Death (1966)
Death Curse of Tartu (1966)
The Hooked Generation (1968)
The Psychedelic Priest (1971)
The Naked Zoo (1970)
Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976)
Whiskey Mountain (1977)
Bonuses include about five new featurettes focusing on topics such as the awkward amateur dancing sequences that everyone involved with this project insists on calling ‘go-go dancing’, Grefé’s special effects, and Crown International Pictures. We get alternate versions of two films: a Super-8 cut of Mako and the “Barry Mahon” version of The Naked Zoo (more on that through the link).
Also included is the two-hour 2016 documentary They Came from the Swamp: The Films of William Grefé and a 7-minute promotional video disguised as a trip to a rodeo, Bacardi and Coke Bonanza (1981).
Heaven’s Gate. Michael Cimino, 1980.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #636, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 216 minutes.
Summary: cockfighting; horses in gun fights
Details:
1) A backyard butchering scene starts at 21:57 and highlights the chore of getting the mountain of discarded guts into the mountainous discarded gut cauldron. Other action with the hanging carcass in the background through 24:00.
2) A man is ready to shoot a calf in the head but is interrupted and nothing comes of this; just before the cockfighting scene below.
3) Cockfighting scene starts at 58:15 and is intercut with other action until the fight is interrupted at 1:04:07 by people squabbling. We see the white rooster injured and his owner reviving him to make him continue.
4) While unloading horses from a box car, a white horse slips and falls due to missing battens on the ramp, 2:07:09. This disregard for the animals’ safety is easily corrected both in the film and in the real world, and I am left wandering about the reality of this “accident”. The ramp is not a 19th-century artifact but part of the set built for the movie, suggesting that some battens were intentionally left off and the camera ready for the impending fall.
5) A rather spectacular battle scene unfortunately includes a horse rearing up as he is shot at 3:02:00. The battle scene concludes at 3:07:00 with a few milder implications of injured horses, the sort of depictions common in Western movies that are unclear whether the horse or the rider has been shot.
Holmes & Watson. Etan Cohen, 2018.
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Edition screened: Sony Blu-ray, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: Violence to a pet turtle.
Details: Early in the film, at about 2:40, young Sherlock’s large pet turtle is snatched away and hurled over or onto a roof. We just see the aggressive child’s action briefly, not the consequences. Next scene shows Young Sherlock sitting on a bench with the turtle in an elaborate wheeled bed/sling contraption.
Holmes & Watson could have been funny but was simply awful. A rather long compilation of outtakes started automatically after the credits, just Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly snowballing funny lines that were far more entertaining that the scripted comedy.
The Hooked Generation. William Grefé, 1968.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Inspector Lavardin Collection. Claude Chabrol, 1985-1989.
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Edition screened: Cohen Media Blu-ray, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 389 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Cohen 2-BD set includes the two feature mystery films Chicken with Vinegar (1985) and Inspector Lavardin (1986), along with two made-for-TV-movies, The Black Snail (1988) and Danger Lies in the Words (1989). Click on individual titles for details.
Interview. Steve Buscemi, 2007.
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Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.
Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.
A very good conversation drama with a captivating performance by Sienna Miller.
Island of Blood (Whodunit?). William T. Naud, 1982.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #334, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The most interesting thing about Whogivesa? is the dynamic contrast between two insipidly unlikeable pieces of music that repeat throughout the movie. Most often we see a tape recorder playing a garbage song in a trite commercial style that people unfortunately have become conditioned to call ‘punk’. Interspersed, however, are plaintiff interludes by a David Gates impersonator who gazes wistfully out a window with his knock-off Gibson Dove and croons “There’s a hole in the sky”. One’s cringing inner wager as to which of these atrocities one next must hear again is the most compelling reason to keep watching.
It. Andy Muschietti, 2017.
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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 135 minutes.
Summary: Murder of a sheep.
Details:
1) A sheep is executed with a bolt gun, 10:10-10:24. Although a quick image, we see the impact on the animal’s head with blood.
2) Another sheep is killed, this time screened from our view, 1:30:14-1:30:17.
3) A criminal teenager is about to shoot a nice cat that is held in distress by the thug’s toady, but there is last-minute intervention 1:30:42-1:30:58.
I did not realize directors still followed this 1980s Spielberg formula in which a group of twelve-year-olds convenes every ten minutes to stand in a circle and shout vulgar over-written dialogue.
Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page, 2003.
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Edition screened: Rhino DVD set, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 320 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Library Report. Ron Underwood, 1984.
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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray Tremors, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 25 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A dog is ‘walked’ in a rather inconsiderate way, but certainly not hurt, by a badly-dressed Dalek at the opening of this surprisingly watchable film that captures 1984’s prediction of c. 2020 junior high school life. Many small things are amusingly close misses, but of course the big glitch is the failure to predict the internet. In this film our young Trump-era scholar is taught to write a “Library Report” by taking notes on 3x5 cards and then organizing those thoughts on a word processor the size of a Hammond organ.
Lost Highway. David Lynch, 1997.
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Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 135 minutes.
Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.
Once Upon a Time in . . . Hollywood. Quentin Tarantino, 2019.
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Edition screened: Columbia Blu-ray, released 2019 English language. Runtime approximately 161 minutes.
Summary: Combat with a dog.
Details: Home invaders are attacked by a dog, with depictions of the dog being punched 2:25:40-2:26:20. After the invaders are quelled we see the good doggie go check on other family members.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. John Hughes, 1987.
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Edition screened: Paramount DVD, released 2000. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Polar Express. Robert Zemeckis, 2004.
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Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Raw. Julia Ducournau, 2016.
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Edition screened: Universal DVD, released 2017. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.
Summary: Recurring scenes of animal dissection and similar in the context of veterinary training.
Details:
1) Quick flashes of fetal animal specimens in jars of formaldehyde, 13:09-13:20.
2) A horse in tethering restraints is forced to run on a treadmill, 24:25-25:03.
3) A cow in a stanchion hooked up with electrode monitors, 28:38-28:48.
4) A scene in a dissection class includes images of cut-up cows and horses and an explicit scene of a dog being cut open, 54:23-55:30.
5) Dog with rigor mortis on a lab table, 58:05-58:17.
Recorded Live. S.S. Wilson, 1975.
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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray Tremors, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 8 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Rest in Pieces. José Ramón Larraz, 1987.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #336, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: Depiction of a dog being struck.
Details: A bottle of scotch is smashed on the head of an attacking dog at 1:02:42. The dog runs off apparently uninjured.
Tremors. Ron Underwood, 1990.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.
Summary: Animals attacked by sand worms.
Details:
1) Ariel view of a pen full of dead bloody sheep, 16:32-16:43; no closeups or details.
2) A horse is attacked and killed by sand worms, 32:26-32:48; somewhat graphic.
The Arrow release also includes three early short films by Tremors crew:
Dictionary: The Adventure of Words (1963 Brent Maddock)
Recorded Live (1975 S.S. Wilson)
Library Report (1984 Ron Underwood)
Varda by Agnès (Varda par Agnès). Agnès Varda and Didier Rouget, 2019.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 1) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.
Summary: Two clips from early films.
Details:
1) From Cléo from 5 to 7: A street entertainer swallows live frogs, 14:12-14:32.
2) From La Pointe-Courte: Fish are netted then seen flapping in a box, 54:28-54:44.
This first component in Criterion’s massive box set is an enjoyable and illuminating retrospective of Varda’s work, hosted by the director herself. Do not dismiss this as just another ho-hum overview. Varda’s warmth, intelligence, and humanity are revealed as gifts to the world.
Wanda. Barbara Loden, 1970.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #965, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Bonus material included with this good film includes Loden’s 1975 educational film The Frontier Experience, Katja Raganelli’s 1970 documentary I Am Wanda, and an appearance by Loden on The Dick Cavett Show.