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.

El Sur

El Sur. Victor Erice, 1983.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #927, released 2018. Spanish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


The Criterion Blu-ray also includes an informative roundtable with four Spanish film critics about Erice in general and El Sur in particular.


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Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives. Nicolas Winding Refn, 2012.

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Edition screened: Anchor Bay Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Idiocracy

Idiocracy. Mike Judge, 2006.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.



Partial view of an unidentified pinball machine in the White House, about 40 minutes into the movie.


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L’humanité

L’humanité. Bruno Dumont, 1999.

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Edition screened: Submitted by a colleague, available as Criterion Blu-ray #981, released 2019. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 148 minutes..


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. John McNaughton, 1986.

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Edition screened: Submitted by a colleague. English language. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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The Giant Claw

The Giant Claw. Fred F. Sears, 1957.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. Downing of the giant - sorry, “big as a battleship”, as we were told numerous times -  prehistoric bird made of styrofoam antimatter just doesn’t count. 

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Double Suicide

Double Suicide (Shinjû: Ten no Amijima). Masahiro Shinoda, 1969.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #104, released 2001. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.


Summary: No animals in the film.


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Dingo

Dingo. Rolf de Heer, 1991.

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Edition screened: Submitted by a colleague. English language. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Bronson

Bronson. Nicolas Winding Refn, 2008.

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Edition screened: Magnet Blu-ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Angst

Angst. Gerald Kargl, 1983.

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Edition screened: Submitted by a colleague. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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