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65. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, 2023.

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Edition screened: Sony Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: Frequent use of futuristic weapons to slaughter CGIosaurs. There also is saur-on-saur violence in the film, notably about 20 minutes in, right after our heroine rescues the adorable baby CGIosaur from the adorable baby tar pit. The baby immediately is ripped apart by those dang velociraptors. Of course this scene aims to honor gun-humpers’ dull-witted rhetorical misdirection that Hey, animals kill other animals!  So in this film we learn that flawed analogies originated in prehistoric times.

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls). Michael Haneke, 1994.

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Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #1163 Michael Haneke: Trilogy, released 2023. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

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

Abduction of an American Playgirl/Winter Heat

Abduction of an American Playgirl/Winter Heat. Walter Hart and Jerome S. Kaufmann (as Claude Goddard), 1975-1976.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #027 Peekarama: Abduction of an American Playgirl/Winter Heat, released 2014. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 141 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Abduction of an American Playgirl. Walter Hart, 1975, 71 minutes.  3/5❤

Winter Heat. Jerome S. Kaufmann (as Claude Goddard), 1976, 70 minutes. 3.5/5❤

Benny’s Video

Benny’s Video. Michael Haneke, 1992.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #1163 Michael Haneke: Trilogy, released 2023. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: Repeated video of a pig being killed.

Details:

1) The film opens with a video of a pig being led outdoors and killed with a captive bolt pistol. We then see this repeated in slow motion, both takes completed at 2:13.

2) The same video sequence of initial killing followed by slow motion killing and death, 23:00-23:54.

The point of this website is to identify scenes of animal abuse, see above. We also talk about film in general, especially how people don’t get it. And manohboy do people not get Benny’s Video. Almost any ‘review’ boils it down to Haneke warning us that young people will commit violent acts due to what they’ve learned from watching violent movies. What a noble and unique observation, except for the tiny details that the film is made by Michael “Wow this guy is smart and wow his films are violent” Haneke, and that this is not Haneke’s point. 

Let’s review the plot: Teenager Benny is devoted to renting videos and learning to make his own videos. We see him rent and watch a variety of garbage popular films, the longest sequence being some ridiculous movie where a zombie has highjacked a car and is terrorizing the driver with zombie antics.

Benny’s well-to-do urban professional parents have a hobby farm la-di-da, and the young man has made a video of his father supervising the murder of the poor pig.

The teen has stolen the bolt pistol and videotapes himself killing a friend in the way the pig was killed. Then a surprise ending, The End.

 

So: Is Benny imitating a car-jacking zombie? Is he imitating some terrorist attack, or Charles Bronson blowtorching whatever? Or even reckless or drunk driving?  No.  He is imitating his parents. His parents demonstrate unprovoked murder of the innocent on video, and the young man is imitating the exact source that society says he should emulate: his successful, educated parents.

Coal Miner’s Daughter

Coal Miner’s Daughter. Michael Apted, 1980.

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Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.

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

The Cranes Are Flying

The Cranes Are Flying (Letyat zhuravli ). Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957.

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Edition screened: Criterion #146, released 2020. Russian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.

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

The Criterion BD of this perfect film includes several interview segments and Patrick Cazals’ 74-minute documentary Hurricane Kalatozov.

David Lynch: The Art Life

David Lynch: The Art Life. Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes, & Olivia Neergaard-Holm, 2016.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #895, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

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

Fragile

Fragile (Frágiles). Jaume Balagueró, 2005.

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Edition screened: Lightning Media DVD, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.

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

Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff

Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff. Marvin J. Chomsky, 1978.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray # 013, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

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

The front half of an unidentified pinball cabinet is seen from the side in the bus station, 44:03.

Hurricane Kalatozov

Hurricane Kalatozov (L’ouragan Kalatozov). Patrick Cazals, 2009.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion #146 The Cranes Are Flying, released 2020. English other languages with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 74 minutes.

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

An enjoyable documentary about Kalatozov’s work and relationship with the Soviet government. Comments by Kalatozov’s grandson, also a filmmaker, anchor segments with French film historians and key crew members who worked on landmark films including Salt for Svanetia, The Cranes Are Flying, Letter Never Sent, and I Am Cuba. 

In the Loop

In the Loop. Armando Iannucci, 2009.

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Edition screened: IFC DVD, released 20089. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

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

Latex She-Devils

Latex She-Devils. Unknown director, circa 1970.

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Edition screened: Included on Something Weird DVD Satan in High Heels, released 2001. Library music; no original audio track. Runtime approximately 8 minutes.

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

This bit of silly BDSM must be an as-found clip from an uncredited softcore film. The transfer quality is terrible and the audio is a loop of library music that Something Weird favors in the absence of original audio.

LYNCH2

LYNCH2. Jason S. (as blackANDwhite), 2007.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #1175 Inland Empire, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 31 minutes.

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

Martin

Martin. George Romero, 1977.

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Edition screened: Second Sight Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: A scene near the end of the movie, 1:29:03 -1:29:24, is a chicken forced through a metal bucket with a cylindrical tube at the end so that it cannot move and its head is held in place while its throat is slit. We see it writhe in blood, dunked in boiling water, horribly defeathered, and processed for sale.  Another needless scene of animal cruelty done only to add shock value and to heighten a theme of morbidity. 

Michael Haneke: Trilogy

Michael Haneke: Trilogy. Michael Haneke, 1989-1994.

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Edition screened: Criterion 3-Blu-ray set #1163, released 2023. German language with English subtitles. Combined runtime of three feature films approximately 317 minutes.

Summary: The Seventh Continent and Benny’s Video include prolonged scenes of animals dying through human actions. 71 Fragments has no particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

It always is interesting to hear Haneke discuss his work, including this “Glaciation Trilogy.” The Criterion set includes several director interviews and similar featurettes along with the films:

The Seventh Continent (1989)

Benny’s Video (1992)

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994)

My Cousin Vinny

My Cousin Vinny. Jonathan Lynn, 1992.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.

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

Satan and the Virgin

Satan and the Virgin. Unknown director, 1948.

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Edition screened: Included on Something Weird DVD Satan in High Heels, released 2001. Scored and with an introductory scrolled text; no dialogue. Runtime approximately 5 minutes.

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

A quaintly ambitious solo dance performance that is worth watching once on YouTube.

Satan in High Heels

Satan in High Heels. Jerald Intrator, 1962.

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Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

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

This Something Weird release includes a generous loop of long trailers for films presently difficult to obtain, along with:

• The Wild and the Naked (1962, Stan Roberts)

• Satan and the Virgin (1948, unknown director)

• Latex She-Devils (c. 1970, unknown director)

Satan in High Heels’ opening scene is a montage of early-60’s carnival fun, including a 4-second shot in a pinball room at 0:42.  A 1959 Gottlieb Atlas is featured prominently, with a 1955 Williams King of Swat partially visible to the right.

The Seventh Continent

The Seventh Continent (Der siebente Kontinent). Michael Haneke, 1989.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #1163 Michael Haneke: Trilogy, released 2023. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.

Summary: Prolonged scenes of domestic fish dying out of water. 

Details: As part of the family’s plan to demolish everything in the house, the father smashes a very large aquarium. The water and a dozen or so beautiful exotic-looking fish spill onto the debris-covered floor.

1) Focused shots of individual fish struggling on the floor, 1:25:35-1:26:18.

2) After a short interlude of the daughter’s upset, focused shots of the fish gasping as they expire, 1:27:36-1:28:18.

elu

The Sky Socialist: Environs and Outtakes

The Sky Socialist: Environs and Outtakes. Ken Jacobs, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included on Keno Lorber Blu-ray Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1, released 2021. No audio track. Runtime approximately 47 minutes.

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

They Call Her One Eye

They Call Her One Eye. Bo Arne Vibenius, 1974.

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Edition screened: Blu-ray included with Vinegar Syndrome UHD set Thriller: A Cruel Picture, released 2022. Original English dub. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

They Call Her One Eye is the family-friendly version of Thriller.