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.

Arrival

Arrival. Denis Villeneuve, 2016.

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Edition screened: Paramount Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 116 minutes.


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


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The Caller (Parkhill)

The Caller. Matthew Parkhill, 2011.

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Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 9 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


A surprisingly entertaining low-thought supernatural thriller, also surprising because the nice golden retriever we see throughout the film is not murdered by the violent ex-husband.


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Casino

Casino. Martin Scorsese, 1995.

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Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 179 minutes.


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


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Colt 38 Special Squad

Colt 38 Special Squad (Quelli della calibro 38). Massimo Dallamano, 1976.

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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray box set Years of Lead: Five Classic Italian Crime Thrillers 1973-1977, released 2021. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Deadly Games: Dial Code Santa Claus

Deadly Games: Dial Code Santa Claus (36.15 code Père Noël). René Manzor, 1989.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #335, released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.


Summary: Violent killing of a dog.


Details: An intruder dressed as Santa Claus is challenged by the family dog. Santa begins to kick the dog harshly at 35:22 then stabs the dog in the throat with a silver pie server. Intercut scenes of the dead dog through 35:44. At 1:1:05 we see the dog’s sentimental and mournful burial by the boy who witnessed the dog’s killing.


The VS release also includes Manzor’s very good 1981 animated short Synapses.


Long view of a pinball in the family game room, 43:12-43:39, unfortunately too unfocused to identify.


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The Donut King

The Donut King. Alice Gu, 2020.

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Edition screened: Kino DVD, released 2021. English language and Cambodian with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.


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


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Dragons Forever

Dragons Forever (Fei lung mang jeung). Sammo Kam-Bo Hung and Corey Yuen, 1988.

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Edition screened: Submitted by a kind friend. Cantonese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.


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


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Elf

Elf. Jon Favreau, 2003.

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Edition screened: New Line DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.


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


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Gangs of New York

Gangs of New York. Martin Scorsese, 2002.

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Edition screened: Buena Vista DVD released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 167 minutes.


Summary: Recurring images of dead rabbits, and a pig’s head.


Details: 

1) The film begins with the Dead Rabbits gang assembling for a fight. Several times, and a few times later in the film, we see their battle standard of several dead rabbits hanging from a pike. These quick images have no clear view or anything intentionally gruesome.

2) A public wagering game in which a terrier is released in a fighting pit along with rats, and bets are placed on how many rats the dog will kill in a set amount of time. We do not see or hear any rat killing, and only understand what is happening from a few seconds of shouting among the spectators. 

3) A more graphic scene of a rabbit impaled on an iron fence picket then the carcass on a table, 29:03-29:14

4) A bloody pig’s head on a tray, 47:30-47:44.


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Goodfellas

Goodfellas. Martin Scorsese, 1990.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 145 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.



A 1976 Bally Capt. Fantastic can be seen several times in the bar between 1 hour 36 minutes and 1 hour 44 minutes. A 1971 Gottlieb Astro and a 1980 Bally Nitro Ground Shaker are on the sidewalk at 2 hours 10 minutes.



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The Irishman

The Irishman. Martin Scorsese, 2019.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1058, released date. English language. Runtime approximately 209 minutes.


Summary: One chicken killed off-screen


Details: In the back room of a city butcher shop, the owner pulls a chicken from a crate, grabs a straight razor in his other hand, and slits the chicken’s throat at 9:07.  This happens, or the simulation of it happening, occurs barely below screen and what we really see is a spray of blood hitting the man. This one second of non-plot violence is easily skipped and not a reason to avoid the film.


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Naked Girl Murdered in the Park

Naked Girl Murdered in the Park (Ragazza tutta nuda assassinata nel parco). Alfonso Brescia, 1972.

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Edition screened: Full Moon Blu-ray, released 2021. English dub over Italian. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


The only audio option is English dub over the original Italian, with substantial volume fluctuations. No subtitles or original Italian available.



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A Night at the Roxbury

A Night at the Roxbury. John Fortenberry, 1998.

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Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 82 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.



A 1978 Williams Disco Fever can be seen through an open door upstairs in the family house at 19:58.


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Le notti bianche

Le notti bianche (White Nights). Luchino Visconti, 1957.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #296, released 2005. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


Unidentified pinball machine seen twice in the “Bar Sport”, 20:52-20:33. The backglass shows what appears to be a duotone metropolitan intersection.


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Reflections in a Golden Eye

Reflections in a Golden Eye. John Huston, 1967.

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Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.


Summary: Beating of a horse.


Details: Marlon Brando brutally beats Elizabeth Taylor’s horse with a small tree limb, leaving bloody gashes on the horses neck and head, 56:50-57:10. We later see the horse lying on his side and groaning while his wounds are dressed. 


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Some Kind of Heaven

Some Kind of Heaven. Lance Oppenheim, 2020.

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Edition screened: Magnolia DVD, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.


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


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A Star Is Born (Cooper)

A Star Is Born. Bradley Cooper, 2018.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 136 minutes.


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


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Synapses (Manzor)

Synapses. René Manzor, 1981.

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Edition screened: Included on Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #335 Deadly Games: Dial Code Santa Claus, released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 6 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in this good animated short.


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Tommy Boy

Tommy Boy. Peter Segal, 1995.

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Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 1995. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.


Summary: Comedy about killing animals.


Details:

A gag ensues 42:00 - 47:00, in which a deer is hit by a car (off screen) and presumably killed, then it’s loaded into the back seat of the GTX, then it’s not really dead, trashes the car and escapes. We don’t see the car hit the deer. Or anything funny.


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Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars. Rob Thomas, 2014.

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Edition screened:Warner Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.


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


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Wanda Whips Wall Street

Wanda Whips Wall Street. Larry Revene, 1982.

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Edition screened: Distribpix DVD, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 82 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 1.5/5❤


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Wise Blood

Wise Blood. John Huston, 1979.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #470, released 209. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.


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


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Zatoichi and the Chess Expert

Zatoichi and the Chess Expert (Zatōichi jigoku-tabi). Kenji Misumi, 1965.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set #679 Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman, released 2013. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.


The twelfth film in the Zatoichi series.

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