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.

Moana: With Sound

Moana: With Sound (Moana of the South Seas). Robert J. Flaherty, Frances H. Flaherty, 1926.

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Edition screened: Kino Blu-ray, released 2015. Originally silent with English intertitles; presented here with later 1975 audio sound effects track. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.


Summary: Capturing and associated rough handling of wild animals in preparation for their slaughter.


Details:

1) A wild boar is caught in a snare, beaten into submission with poles, then hogtied and carried off, 15:46-18:34.

2) A large fish is speared and shown around, 22:12-22:40.

3) A fabulous sea turtle is caught, tumbled into a canoe, brought ashore, then a whole is drilled into his shell so he can be dragged away, 53:40-58:32.


Elsewhere in the film we also see a boy smoke a large crab out of its hiding place with the intertitle comment that it will make good eatin’. By the end of the film we understand that these may not just be “day in the life” incidents, but that the capturing of the animals and everything else in Moana is in preparation for a big wedding celebration. We do not see any of these animals after their capture.


This presentation of Flaherty’s 1926 film is augmented by post-production audio captured by the filmmaker’s daughter who returned to the original South Seas island location in 1975. 


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