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.

Alison’s Birthday

Alison’s Birthday. Ian Coughlan, 1981.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.


Summary: No animals in the film.


Alison’s Birthday is a surprisingly watchable film, something of an ABC Afterschool Special companion piece to Rosemary’s Baby. It is supplemented by an 18-minute video essay “The Devil Down Under: Satanic Panic in Australia from Rosaleen Norton to Alison’s Birthday”, which traces the hysteria about alleged Satanism in popular culture from its moronic roots in the U.S to Australia’s film industry. Entertaining, nostalgic, and informative.


The Alison’s Birthday BD in the box set also features Ann Turner’s 1989 Celia and The CSIRO Film Unit’s 1979 The Rabbit in Australia.


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Baxter, Vera Baxter

Baxter, Vera Baxter. Marguerite Duras, 1977.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #1172 Two Films by Marguerite Duras, released 2021. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


Films by Duras often include something structural that is fresh and interesting to me. In Baxter, Vera Baxter, Duras allows a simple up-tempo musical repeat to be heard through the entire film; just a two-beat rhythmic strumming between two chords with percussion and improvised meandering flute. This diegetic music is acknowledged by the characters as local revelers. The volume rises and falls to match the action and sometimes fades away almost completely.


The Criterion BD also includes Duras’ India Song (1975).


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The Blancheville Monster

The Blancheville Monster (Horror). Alberto De Martino, 1963.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray set Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror, released 2022. English dub or Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


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


The original title of this film is simply Horror, flashed dramatically in the opening scene. I am reminded of the Word Art popular a decade ago, motivating people to put a gigantic sticker in the kitchen reminding you to “EAT” or in the living room permitting you to “Live, Laugh, Mario Kart”.  There may come a day that I need these reminders of what to do in specific rooms of my house, and please don’t overlook the water closet.  Until then, I can watch The Blancheville Monster, confident that I will not accidentally Laugh or Love because “Horror”. 



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Celia

Celia. Ann Turner, 1989.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.


Summary: Torturing and killing of domestic and wild rabbits.


Details:

1) The second scene in the film after the credits (3:30 - 5:30) takes place in a classroom where the teacher reads the English fairy tale The Hobyas to her class, a story which involves incremental dismemberment of the family dog. See the wonderful Storytelling + Research = LoiS blog for a good telling and interpretation of the story

2) Newsreel footage from the 1950s’ rabbit purge, showing huge numbers of wild European rabbits killed and intentionally inflicted with disease, 20:14 - 20:41.

3) A second clip of newsreels footage, this time showing mounds of dead rabbits set on fire, 57:12-57:35.

4) An extremely gentle and affectionate domestic rabbit is tortured with a red hot iron bar, 1:01:45-2:02:45. The reaction of the rabbit and subsequent bloody wound certainly look genuine.

5) Two dead pet rabbits are retrieved from a water trough, 1:23:22-1:24:17, by their little girl companion humans. Again, very genuine in appearance and almost certainly in fact.


Celia is an unsettling struggle between good (moderate adults who understand that non-capitalist ideas are not inherently evil, their comparatively pleasant children and gentle pet rabbits) and evil (adulterous commie hunters and their hideous violent kids, rabbit exterminators and the corporate church).


The Celia BD in the box set also features Ian Coughlan’s 1981 Alison’s Birthday and the CSIRO Film Unit’s 1979 The Rabbit in Australia.


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Dark Waters (Baino)

Dark Waters. Mariano Baino, 1993.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.


Summary: A mutilated animal and distasteful encounters with dead fish.


Details:

1) A deranged man picks up dead fish from the floor of a small boat, tears at them and eats the raw flesh, 22:23-22:45.

2) A rocky beach covered in stranded dead fish, 59:36-1:00:31.

3) At 1:20:05, a one-second shot of a mutilated small animal (cat?) on a table with 6-year-old Elizabeth standing by, all guilty smiles. We saw Elizabeth in her bloody nightgown holding - this - earlier but it looked like a stuffed animal. 

4) Another shot of the of the mutilated animal on the table, 1:26:37-1:26:39.

5) Elizabeth walks down the rocky beach again. This time it is littered with both dead fish and dead nuns, 1:27:42-1:28:24.



The Dark Waters BD in the Severin box set also includes Il demonio (1963 Brunello Rondi).


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Il demonio

Il demonio. Brunello Rondi, 1963.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.


Summary: Dead cat used as a prop.


Details: Purif produces a stiff dead cat while cursing a newlywed couple, then throws the cat at men guarding the house, 30:05-30:47.


A superbly crafted horror drama and clear source material for The Exorcist.


The Il demonio BD in the Severin box set also includes Dark Waters (1993, Mariano Baino).


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Dynamic:01

Dynamic:01: The Best of davidlynch.com. David Lynch, 2002-2007.

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Edition screened: Subversive Cinema DVD, released 2007. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 133 minutes.


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


Count me among the seeming majority who do not have much to say about this compilation of short films originally available on Lynch’s website. DVD Talk offers some typically dispassionate comments; Eye For Film is a little more interested. 


I personally liked “Industrial Soundscape” quite a lot. Dig the delicate changes in pitch and interesting deviations in seemingly monotonous mechanical motions.


Dynamic:01 includes:


The Darkened Room (2002, approx. 11 minutes)

Boat (2007, approx. 7 minutes)

Lamp (2003, approx. 31 minutes)

Out Yonder: The Neighbor Boy (2001, approx. 10 minutes)

Industrial Soundscape (2002, approx. 11 minutes

Bug Crawls (2004, approx. 4 minutes)

Intervalometer Experiments: View with Nitro (2004, approx. 14 minutes)

Intervalometer Experiments: Sunset #1 (2004, approx. 6 minutes)

Intervalometer Experiments: Steps (2004, approx. 4 minutes)

Intervalometer Experiments: Interior Dining Room (2004, approx. 3 minutes)

Member Questions (2007, approx. 32 minutes)


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The First Films of Akira Kurosawa

The First Films of Akira Kurosawa. Akira Kurosawa, 1943-1945.

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Edition screened: Criterion Eclipse Series #23 4-DVD set, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Collective runtime approximately 305 minutes.


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


This 36th volume in Criterion’s Eclipse Series includes the following films. See individual titles for details.


Sanshiro Sugata (1943)

The Most Beautiful (1944)

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (1945)

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945)


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Hot Blooded Woman

Hot Blooded Woman. Dale Berry, 1965.

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Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 68 minutes.


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


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Madonna of the Seven Moons

Madonna of the Seven Moons. Arthur Crabtree, 1945.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 36: Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures 3-DVD set, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.


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


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The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (Tora no o wo fumu otokotachi). Akira Kurosawa, 1945.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa 4-DVD set, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 59 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 


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The Most Beautiful

The Most Beautiful (Ichiban utsukushiku). Akira Kurosawa, 1944.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa 4-DVD set, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 


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New World (Park)

New World (Sinsegye). Park Hoon-jung, 2013.

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Edition screened: Well Go Blu-ray, released 2013. Korean language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 135 minutes.


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


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Police Story

Police Story (Ging chaat goo si). Jackie Chan and Chen Chi-Hwa, 1985.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #971, released 2019 and included in the Police Story/Police Story 2 set. Cantonese with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. A small flock of LeRoy Neiman prints is placed in a hazardous situation several times, but they appear to survive unharmed. 


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Police Story 2

Police Story 2 (Ging chaat goo si juk jaap). Jackie Chan, 1988.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #972, released 2019 and included in the Police Story/Police Story 2 set. Cantonese with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 122 minutes.


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


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The Rabbit in Australia

The Rabbit in Australia. CSIRO Film Unit, 1979.

😿😿😿😿

Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 24 minutes.


Summary: Extermination of wild rabbits.


Details: This short documentary illustrates several Australian campaigns to eradicate wild rabbits, specifically the government-sponsored Rabbit Cull of the 1950s which steers the plot in Celia. The documentary is included in the Severin box set as supplemental context for the feature Celia, with adequate warning that it shows real and brutal killing of rabbits.


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Sanshiro Sugata

Sanshiro Sugata (Sugata Sanshirô). Akira Kurosawa, 1943.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa 4-DVD set, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.


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



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Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (Zoku Sugata Sanshirô). Akira Kurosawa, 1945.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa 4-DVD set, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.


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



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Three Ripening Cherries / Sensual Fire

Three Ripening Cherries/Sensual Fire. Carlos Tobalina, 1979.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #065 Peekarama: Three Ripening Cherries/Sensual Fire, released 2015. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 171 minutes.


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


• Three Ripening Cherries. Carlos Tobalina as Troy Benny, 1979, approximately 81 minutes. 2.5/5❤

• Sensual Fire. Carlos Tobalina, 1979, approximately 90 minutes. 2.5/5❤


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