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.

O titles


click Title for details Animal Violence Immaculate Corpse
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Heavy The expansive middle
Ô saisons ô chateaux Clean The expansive middle
Objects in the Mirror Are Further Than They Appear Clean The expansive middle
Obsessions (de la Parra) Clean The expansive middle
Octopussy Minimal The expansive middle
Odds & Ends Clean The expansive middle
Odd Man Out Clean The expansive middle
Ode to the Dawn of Man Clean The expansive middle
Odin's Shield Maiden Clean The expansive middle
Oedipus Rex (Pasolini) Clean The expansive middle
Oedipus Wreck (Allen) Clean The expansive middle
Of Freaks and Men Clean The expansive middle
Of Time and the City Minimal The expansive middle
The Off-Handed Jape … & How to Pull It Off Clean The expansive middle
The Office (Gervais) Clean The elusive top
The Office (Kieslowski) Clean The expansive middle
Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad (Bell) Clean The expansive middle
O'Horten Clean The expansive middle
Old Clean The expansive middle
Old Chums Clean The expansive middle
Old Dracula Clean The expansive middle
The Old Grey Whistle Test Clean The expansive middle
Old Joy Clean The expansive middle
The Old Man's Bride Clean The expansive middle
Old Shatterhand Came to See Us Clean The expansive middle
Oldboy Heavy The expansive middle
Olga Triple Feature Clean The expansive middle
Olga’s Dance Hall Girls Clean The expansive middle
Olga’s House of Shame Clean The expansive middle
Olive Kitteridge Clean The expansive middle
Olivia Clean The expansive middle
The Olympic Games as They Were Practiced in Ancient Greece Clean The expansive middle
The Olympic Games Held at Chamonix in 1924 Clean The expansive middle
The Olympic Games in Paris 1924 Clean The expansive middle
L'ombre de la pomme Clean The expansive middle
The Omen (Donner) Minimal The expansive middle
The Omen (Moore) Clean The expansive middle
The Omen III: The Final Conflict Substantial The expansive middle
Omozap/Omozap 2 Clean The expansive middle
Omozap in Artwar Clean The expansive middle
Omozap Terribelis/Afterblatz 2 Clean The expansive middle
On Any Sunday Clean The expansive middle
On demande une brute Substantial The expansive middle
On Her Bed of Roses Clean The expansive middle
On Her Majesty's Secret Service Clean The expansive middle
On Pascal Clean The expansive middle
On purge bébé Clean The smeary bottom
On Solace Clean The expansive middle
On the Bowery Clean The elusive top
On the Edge Clean The expansive middle
On the Silver Globe Substantial The expansive middle
On the Town Clean The expansive middle
Once Upon a Time (Borowczyk) Clean The expansive middle
Once Upon a Time in . . . Hollywood Minimal The expansive middle
Once Upon a Time There Was a Country Heavy The expansive middle
Once Upon a Time There Was … Contempt Clean The expansive middle
One-Armed Boxer Clean The expansive middle
One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich Clean The expansive middle
One Eyed Girl Clean The expansive middle
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Substantial The expansive middle
One Hundred and One Nights Clean The expansive middle
One Is Business, the Other Crime Clean The expansive middle
One Missed Call Clean The expansive middle
One Missed Call 2 Minimal The expansive middle
One Missed Call 3: Final Clean The expansive middle
One Missed Call Trilogy Minimal The expansive middle
One Naked Night Clean The expansive middle
One of the Missing Clean The expansive middle
One Pair of Eyes: Alan Garner Clean The elusive top
One Sings, the Other Doesn't Clean The expansive middle
One Wonderful Sunday Clean The expansive middle
Onibaba Substantial The expansive middle
Only Dream Things Clean The expansive middle
Only God Forgives Clean The expansive middle
The Only Take Clean The expansive middle
Open Your Eyes Clean The expansive middle
Opening Night Clean The expansive middle
The Opening of Misty Beethoven Clean The expansive middle
Opening of British Instructional Film Studio Clean The expansive middle
L'opéra-mouffe Clean The expansive middle
Operation Titian Substantial The expansive middle
The Oral Generation Clean The expansive middle
Orchard Street Clean The expansive middle
Orchestra Rehearsal Clean The expansive middle
Ordet Clean The elusive top
Organ Molly Clean The expansive middle
Orgies of Edo Minimal The expansive middle
The Orgy at Lil's Place Clean The expansive middle
Orgy of the Dead Clean The expansive middle
Oriental Baby Sitter Clean The expansive middle
Oriental Hawaii Clean The expansive middle
Orphan Substantial The expansive middle
The Orphanage Clean The expansive middle
Orpheus Clean The expansive middle
The Orphic Trilogy Clean The expansive middle
Ôshima's Outlaw Sixties Clean The expansive middle
The Other (Mulligan) Substantial The expansive middle
The Others (Amenábar) Clean The expansive middle
Our School Clean The expansive middle
Out Clean The expansive middle
Out 1: Noli Me Tangere Clean The expansive middle
Outerborough Clean The expansive middle
Outlaw Gangster VIP: The Complete Collection Clean The expansive middle
Outlaw-Matsu Comes Home Clean The expansive middle
Over the Ice Clean The expansive middle
Overlord Clean The elusive top
Owl Gets in Your Eyes Clean The expansive middle
An Owl Is an Owl Is an Owl  Minimal The expansive middle
The Oyster Princess Clean The elusive top
Oyû-Sama Clean The expansive middle
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