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.

Anchoress

Anchoress. Chris Newby, 1993.

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Edition screened: Included with A Field in England (Disc 11) in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.


Summary: A woman cleans a chicken carcass during dialogue 1:14:07 - 1:14:19, and again 1:15:12 - 1:15:30. The camera’s focus is not on this action but we do see her reach inside the chicken and remove entrails.


Despite that, Anchoress is a visually rewarding and philosophically affirming viewing experience, reminiscent of November and Marketa Lazarová. 


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The Bad Sleep Well

The Bad Sleep Well (Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru). Akira Kurosawa, 1960.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #319, released 2006. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 150 minutes.


Summary: Near the end of the film, one brief image of a man in hunting clothes with a pair of game birds; not graphic.


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Big

Big. Penny Marshall, 1988.

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Edition screened: Watched online. English language. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.


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



A 1986 Williams Pin•Bot is shown several times.


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The Hot Month of August

The Hot Month of August (O zestos minas Avgoustos). Sokrates Kapsaskis and Doris Wishman (as Louis Silverman), 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in AGFA Blu-ray set The Films of Doris Wishman: The Moonlight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Inherit the Wind

Inherit the Wind. Stanley Kramer, 1960.

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Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 128 minutes.


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

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The Invisible Fight

The Invisible Fight (Nähtamatu Võitlus). Rainer Sarnet, 2023.

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Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2024. Estonian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.


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


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The Leopard Man

The Leopard Man. Jacques Tourneur, 1943.

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Edition screened: Included on Warner “Val Lewton Horror Double Feature” The Leopard Man/The Ghost Ship DVD, released 2005, also packaged in “The Val Lewton Horror Collection” 6-DVD box set, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 66 minutes.


Summary: Five minutes into the film, a showgirl terrifies a young leopard by banging her castanets at the cat, causing him to break away and triggering a series of assumptions that lead to the animal’s murder. We do not see the dead leopard or the murder.


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Meet John Doe

Meet John Doe. Frank Capra, 1941.

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Edition screened: ClassicFlix Blu-ray, released 2024. English language. Runtime approximately 124 minutes.


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


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One from the Heart

One from the Heart. Francis Ford Coppola, 1982.

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Edition screened: Studio Canal Blu-ray, released 2024. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.


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

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The People vs. Larry Flynt

The People vs. Larry Flynt. Miloš Forman, 1996.

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Edition screened: Sony Blu-ray, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 129 minutes.


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


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Scrooged

Scrooged. Richard Donner, 1988.

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Edition screened: Paramount DVD, released 1999. English language. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.


Summary: Jokes about mistreatment of animals.


Details:

1) Robert Mitchum kicks in anger during a phone conversation with Bobcat Goldthwait. We hear one of Mitchum’s beloved house cats screech, but no actual kicking of a cat is seen.

2) Repeated joke about stapling antlers to mice’s heads and a depiction of a mouse with antlers on TV.


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Stolen Desire

Stolen Desire (Nusumareta yokujô). Shohei Imamura, 1958.

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Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray/DVD combo #21 Pigs & Battleships, released 2011. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.


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


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