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.

Midsommar

Midsommar. Ari Aster, 2019.

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Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 147 minutes.


Summary: Ritual use of a bear’s body.


Details: Several non-violent images early in the film let us know that a bear ultimately will be sacrificed. As Midsommar reaches its dramatic conclusion at 2:16:25, we see the already-dead bear laid out respectfully on a table with his chest cut open. There is no particular blood or gore, just an overhead shot of the room which includes the opened bear. An elder then instructs children about removing organs without making a mess. We see a few seconds of intestines being handled at 2:16:30, then through 2:17:10 we return to the overhead shot of the room, this time with the bear’s carcass cleaned and respectful-looking. 


This is not like one of those gory cow slaughter scenes that the Italian Realists loved, and certainly nothing like the typical idiot-hillbilly-cleaning-a-deer scene. The bear obviously is fake, there really is no blood or mess, and the tone is calm and constructive.  It you are inclined to see Midsommar anyway, this scene is not a reason to avoid it. 


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