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.

Track Projections

Track Projections. Raya Martin, 2007.

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Edition screened: Included on Second Run DVD #088 Independencia, released 2014. No dialogue track. Runtime approximately 6 minutes.


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


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Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da). Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011.

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Edition screened: Cinema Guild Blu-ray, released 2012. Turkish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 157 minutes.


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


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Killers

Killers. Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto (The Mo Brothers), 2014.

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Edition screened: Well Go Blu-ray, released 2015. English, Indonesian, and Japanese with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 137 minutes.


No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.



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The International

The International. Tom Tykwer, 2009.

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Edition screened: Sony Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 118 minutes.


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


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Independencia

Independencia. Raya Martin, 2009.

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Edition screened: Second Run DVD #088, released 2014. Filipino language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.


Summary: A child playing among baby chickens creates a potential threat to the chicks, but all is well.


The Second Run DVD also includes Martin’s 2007 short film Track Projections.


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Double Agent 73

Double Agent 73. Doris Wishman, 1973.

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Edition screened: Included in AGFA Blu-ray set The Films of Doris Wishman: The Twilight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 73 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

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The Arena

The Arena. Steve Carver, 1974.

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Edition screened: Included in Shout! Factory Lethal Ladies Collection Vol. 2 DVD set, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.


Details: A scene of prisoners being scrubbed cuts repeatedly to two women plucking chickens. This starts at 7:00 and concludes at 10:50 with the worst image being a chicken’s body rinsed in a bucket of bloody water.


The Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature ‘Lethal Ladies’ Collection Vol. 2 also includes:


Cover Girl Models (1975 Cirio H. Santiago)

Fly Me (1973 Cirio H. Santiago)


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