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.

Avenged

Avenged (Savaged). Michael S. Ojeda, 2013.

😿

Edition screened: Uncork’d Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.


Summary: A dead coyote or wild dog is found in the desert in a state of decomposition, 5:08-5:30.


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Babel

Babel. Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2006.

😿😿😿

Edition screened: Paramount DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 143 minutes.


Summary: Cruel murder of a chicken


Details: A chicken is brutally killed by twisting her head off, 35:23- 35:34


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Blue Movie (Verstappen)

Blue Movie. Wim Verstappen, 1971.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.


Summary: No animals in the film. 2.5/5❤



The Blue Movie BD in the Cult Epics set also includes three short films:

• Heart Beat Fresco. 1966, Pim de la Parra

• Joop. 1969, Pim de la Parra

• Joop Strikes Again. 19670, Wim Verstappen


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Broken Flowers

Broken Flowers. Jim Jarmusch, 2005.

😸

Edition screened: Universal DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.


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


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The Burmese Harp

The Burmese Harp (Biruma No Tategoto). Kon Ichikawa, 1956.

😸

Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema # BD 013, released 2012. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 117 minutes.


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


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City of Lost Children

City of Lost Children. Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, 1995.

😸

Edition screened: Columbia/TriStar DVD, released 1999. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 112 minutes.


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


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Coffee and Cigarettes

Coffee and Cigarettes. Jim Jarmusch, 2003.

😸

Edition screened: MGM/UA DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.


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


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Commando Fury

Commando Fury. Godfrey Ho, 1986.

😸

Edition screened: Watched on Amazon. English dub. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


Nothing to see here. Nothing entertaining, exciting, sexy, or inadvertently funny.  Do not be misled by Amazon’s image of the girl in the black boots, criminally opposite of anything in the film.


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Dead Man

Dead Man. Jim Jarmusch, 1996.

😿😿

Edition screened: Buena Vista DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 121 minutes.


Summary: Murdered fawn.


Details: A young deer is found dead, shot through the neck 1:23:44 - 1:25:44.  Johnny Depp reacts with sympathy.


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Embodiment of Evil

Embodiment of Evil (Encarnação do Demônio). José Mojica Marins, 2008.

😿 😿

Edition screened: Synapse Blu-ray, released 2011. Portuguese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.


Summary: Desecration of a pig’s body; animals used as instruments of torture.


Details:

1) 1:03:56 through 1:04:27, we see the body of a large dead pig, clean on the exterior and stitched up the belly. The stitches are snipped, releasing a nude woman.

2) Soon thereafter are two torture scenes involving animals. The first shows a woman’s face forced into a crock full of live roaches. The second involves a large rat turned loose on a restrained woman after a honey-like substance has been poured on her body. We do not see the roaches or the rat injured.


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Everything Everywhere All at Once

Everything Everywhere All at Once. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022.

😿😿

Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2022. English and Mandarin with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 139 minutes.


Summary: “Comedic” depiction of extreme physical abuse of a dog.


Details: From 1:15:30 through 1:16:33, a leashed Pomeranian is used as a martial arts weapon. The dog repeatedly is twirled on his leash and used as a rope dart, then kicked hard enough to send him soaring across a large room.


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Frank & Eva

Frank & Eva: Living Apart Together (Frank en Eva). Pim de la Parra, 1973.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.


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Heart Beat Fresco

Heart Beat Fresco. Pim de la Parra, 1966.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.


Summary: No animals in the film.



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Joop

Joop. Pim de la Parra, 1969.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.


Summary: No animals in the film.


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Joop Strikes Again

Joop Strikes Again (Joop slaat weer toe). Wim Verstappen, 1970.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.


Summary: No animals in the film.


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Jubilee

Jubilee. Derek Jarman, 1977.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #191, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.


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


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The Madness of King George

The Madness of King George. Nicholas Hynter, 1994.

😸

Edition screened: MGM/UA DVD, released 1994. English language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.


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


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Monster (Jenkins)

Monster. Patty Jenkins, 2003.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Columbia/TriStar DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.


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


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The Purge

The Purge. James DeMonaco, 2013.

😸

Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.



The game room in the house has a 1980 Stern Galaxy, and a 1992 Williams The Getaway: High Speed II.  Partial views of both starting at 1:04:10.


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Redd Inc.

Redd Inc. (Inhuman Resources/Headhunt). Daniel Krige, 2012.

😸

Edition screened: Green Light Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.


Summary: There is a closeup of a cockroach lying on its back, apparently near death.  No other animals or references to animals in the film.


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Szinbád

Szinbád. Zoltán Huszárik, 1971.

😸

Edition screened: Second Run DVD #058, released 2011. Hungarian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


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



The Second Run DVD also includes Peter Strickland’s Szinbád: An Appreciation (2010, 12 minutes).


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Under the Volcano

Under the Volcano. John Huston, 1984.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion DVD #410, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 112 minutes.


Summary: Día de los Muertos festivities include amateur Capeas, a bullfighting style in which the bulls are provoked with pink capes but not injured.



The Criterion DVD also includes Donald Brittain’s 1976 documentary Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry. 


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A Very Long Engagement

A Very Long Engagement. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004.

😸

Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 2005. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 133 minutes.


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


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Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry

Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry. Donald Brittain, 1976.

😿😿

Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #410 Under the Volcano, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.


Summary: Physical abuse of bulls


Details:

1) A man hacks at a skinned bull skull with a hatchet, 47:07-47:45. The intact eyeballs and general violence make this unpleasant.

2) Bulls are downed, tied, hit, dragged, etc. as part of rodeo “fun”, 58:02 - 59:37.


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