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.

The Shrouds

The Shrouds. David Cronenberg, 2024.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray, released 2024. English language. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. Two dog actors have nice supporting roles.


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Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé

Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé. Jean Painlevé, 1925-1982.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #468, released 2009. French language and subtitles with additional English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 315 minutes.


Summary: Several films contain scientific animal abuse. 


Details: Many of these short films document tiny animals, often ones living on the ocean floor. Painlevé narrates coverage shots as the animals move, eat, interact, and sometimes beat on one another with their tiny appendages, or we get a close-up of their mandibles as they devour even smaller life forms. None of this is gruesome, constitutes cruelty, or merits a fuss here. But several of the films cross the line by including human interaction . . . 


1) Disc 1 Popular Films, Part 1, Track 4: The Sea Horse includes a scene in which a sea horse is dissected to show the many embryos carried in the pouch. The dissection must be underwater - and probably while the animal was alive - because of how the embryos float away as they are detached with a metal probe. 6:57-7:40.


2) Disc 1 Popular Films, Part 2, Track 1: The Vampire is a vampire bat, presented sympathetically by Painlevé until a guinea pig is presented as bait, 5:15-8:15. The cavy just sits there as the bat chews a hole in its face and drinks some blood.


3) Disc 2 Silent Research Films, Track 2: Experimental Treatment of a Hemorrhage in a Dog shows veterinarians operating on the throat of sedated dog. The procedure is entirely professional and the dog is shown alert and normal after the procedure, but you might not like watching a dog’s surgery.


The contents of the set, copied from the Criterion website:



Disc One  POPULAR FILMS

  • HYAS AND STENORHYNCHUS (HYAS ET STENORINQUES) 1927 10 minutes Black & White
  • SEA URCHINS (OURSINS) 1954 11 minutes Color
  • HOW SOME JELLYFISH ARE BORN (COMMENT NAISSENT DES MÉDUSES) 1960 14 minutes Black & White
  • LIQUID CRYSTALS (CRISTAUX LIQUIDES) 1978 6 minutes Color
  • THE SEA HORSE (L'HIPPOCAMPE) 1933 14 minutes Black & White
  • THE LOVE LIFE OF THE OCTOPUS (LES AMOURS DE LA PIEUVRE) 1967 14 minutes Color
  • SHRIMP STORIES (HISTOIRES DE CREVETTES) 1964 10 minutes Color
  • ACERA, OR THE WITCHES' DANCE (ACERA OU LE BAL DES SORCIÈRES) 1972 13 minutes Color
  • THE VAMPIRE (LE VAMPIRE) 1945 9 minutes Black & White
  • FRESHWATER ASSASSINS (LES ASSASSINS D'EAU DOUCE) 1947 24 minutes Black & White
  • SEA BALLERINAS (LES DANSEUSES DE LA MER) 1956 13 minutes Color
  • DIATOMS (DIATOMÉES) 1968 17 minutes Color
  • PIGEONS IN THE SQUARE (LES PIGEONS DU SQUARE) 1982 27 minutes Color


THE SOUNDS OF SCIENCE

  • Eight films with original score by Yo La Tengo
  • Interview with Yo La Tengo



Disc Two  EARLY POPULAR SILENT FILMS

  • THE OCTOPUS (LA PIEUVRE) 1927 13 minutes Black & White
  • SEA URCHIINS (LES OURSINS) 1928 10 minutes Black & White
  • DAPHNIA (LA DAPHNIE) 1928 9 minutes Black & White


SILENT RESEARCH FILMS

  • THE STICKLEBACK’S EGG (L’OEUF D’ÉPINOCHE) 1925 26 minutes Black & White
  • EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT OF A HEMORRHAGE IN A DOG (TRAITEMENT ÉXPERIMENTAL D'UNE HÉMORRAGIE CHEZ LE CHIEN) 1930 4 minutes Black & White


FILMS FOR LE PALAIS DE LA DÉCOUVERTE

  • THE FOURTH DIMENSION (LA QUATRIÈME DIMENSION) 1936 10 minutes Black & White
  • THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL (IMAGES MATHÉMATIQUES DE LA LUTTE POUR LA VIE) 1937 14 minutes Black & White
  • VOYAGE TO THE SKY (VOYAGE DANS LE CIEL) 1937 11 minutes Black & White
  • SIMILARITIES BETWEEN LENGTH AND SPEED (SIMILITUDES DES LONGEURS ET DES VITESSES) 1937 10 minutes Black & White


ANIMATION

  • BLUEBEARD (BARBE-BLEU) 1938 13 minutes Gasparcolor


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The Many Saints of Newark

The Many Saints of Newark. Alan Taylor, 2021.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.


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



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