Violence to Animals in Film: April 2022

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.

Blonde Cobra

Blonde Cobra. Ken Jacobs, 1963.

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Edition screened: Included on Keno Lorber Blu-ray Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 33 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. A dead chicken, like from a butcher shop, is handled oddly, briefly.

Fraternity Vacation

Fraternity Vacation. James Frawley, 1985.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Image DVD Fraternity Vacation/Reform School Girls, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

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

High Life

High Life. Claire Denis, 2018

😿😿

Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 113 minutes.

Summary: Images of dead dogs.

Details:

1) A dog lies dead in a stream, 24:10-24:20.

2) A neglected kennel with dogs lying dead or near death, 1:32:24-1:34:14.

Hot Legs/California Gigolo

Hot Legs/California Gigolo. Bob Chinn, 1979.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #071 Peekarama: Hot Legs/California Gigolo, released 2016. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 150 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals in either feature.

Hot Legs, 1979, approximately 79 minutes. 1.5/5❤

California Gigolo, 1979, approximately 71 minutes. 3/5❤

I, Daniel Blake

I, Daniel Blake. Ken Loach, 2017.

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Edition screened: eOne Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

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

Reform School Girls

Reform School Girls. Tom DeSimone, 1986.

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Edition screened: Included on Image DVD Fraternity Vacation/Reform School Girls, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: Implication of a murdered kitten.

Details: Pat Ast chases a kitten across the dormitory, attempting to stomp on it. We see only floor’s-eye-view shots of her gigantic shoes descending, but she apparently is successful in smashing the kitten at 1:07:55 based on reaction shots from the girls. No blood or dead kitten depicted, but the worst kind of cheap laughs for the cheaply enlaughed.

Wild Things (McNaughton)

Wild Things. John McNaughton, 1998.

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Edition screened: Arrow UHD, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals, despite scenes filmed at an alligator farm.

A 1975 Chicago Coin Olympics can be identified in the closing credits.

Witchfinder General

Witchfinder General. Michael Reeves, 1968.

😿

Edition screened: Tigon Blu-ray, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.

Summary: Implication of shooting a horse.

Details: At 59:39 we see Vincent Price shoot at a soldier on horseback and hear the horse whinny; cut to the man rising up from the ground uninjured but no sign of the horse.

The Tigon release also includes Reeves’ 1961 film Intrusion (10 minutes, silent, black-and-white, no animals).

Violence to Animals in Film