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.

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click Title for details Animal Violence Immaculate Corpse




Zéro de conduite Clean The expansive middle
1 (The Beatles: 1) Clean The expansive middle
One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich Clean The expansive middle
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest SubstantialThe 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 Naked Night Clean The expansive middle
One Pair of Eyes: Alan Garner Clean The elusive top
One Sings, the Other Doesn't Clean The expansive middle
Two: Creeley/McClure Clean The expansive middle
Two Days, One Night Clean The expansive middle
2 Fast 2 Furious  Substantial The expansive middle
Two for the Road Clean The smeary bottom
Two-Lane Blacktop Clean The expansive middle
Two Lovers Clean The expansive middle
Two Men and a Wardrobe Heavy The expansive middle
Two Much Clean The expansive middle
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her Clean The elusive top
Two Street Artists: Jérôme Mesnager & Miss.Tic Clean The expansive middle
Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight  Clean The elusive top
Two Witches Substantial The expansive middle
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Clean The expansive middle
The 3 Buttons Clean The expansive middle
Three Cheers for the Whale Extreme The expansive middle
Three Classic Films by Claude Chabrol Minimal The expansive middle
Three Coins in the Fountain Clean The expansive middle
Three Colors: Blue Clean The expansive middle
Three Colors: Red  Minimal The elusive top
Three Colors: White Clean The expansive middle
The 3-D Nudie-Cuties Collection Substantial The expansive middle
3 Documentaries by Alex de Renzy  Clean The expansive middle
Three Films by Carl Theodor Dreyer  Clean The expansive middle
Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara Substantial The expansive middle
Three Films by Luis Buñuel Minimal The expansive middle
Three Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman Heavy The expansive middle
3 in a Towel   Clean The smeary bottom
Three Installations CleanThe expansive middle
Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin (Eclipse 31)  Clean The expansive middle
Three Ripening Cherries  Clean The expansive middle
3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg Clean The expansive middle
Three Sisters Clean The expansive middle
Three Songs About Motherland CleanThe expansive middle
Three Video Haikus Clean The expansive middle
Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures (Eclipse 36) CleanThe expansive middle
3 Women Clean The elusive top
3:10 to Yuma (Daves) Clean The expansive middle
4 by Agnès Varda Minimal The elusive top
Four Christmases Clean The expansive middle
The Four Elements Clean The expansive middle
The Four Feathers Clean The expansive middle
4 for Texas Clean The expansive middle
Four Letter Heaven Clean The expansive middle
Four People: A Ballad Film Clean The expansive middle
Four Times That Night Clean The expansive middle
Five Deadly Venoms Clean The expansive middle
Five Dolls for an August Moon Clean The expansive middle
5 Films About Christo & Jeanne-Claude Clean The expansive middle
Five-Minute Films (Leigh)  Clean The expansive middle
The Five Obstructions Clean The expansive middle
Five Shaolin Masters Minimal The expansive middle
Five Superfighters Clean The expansive middle
5 Years • 5 FilmsVol. 1: Golden Age Erotica Clean The expansive middle
5 Years • 5 FilmsVol. 2: Horror and Exploitation Clean The expansive middle
5 Years • 5 FilmsVol. 3: Golden Age Erotica Clean The expansive middle
5 Years • 5 FilmsVol. 4: Horror and Exploitation Substantial The expansive middle
Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) Clean The elusive top
Six Moral Tales Clean The expansive middle
6 Souls (Shelter) Clean The expansive middle
Seven Clean The expansive middle
7 Faces of Dr. Lao  Clean The expansive middle
Seven Green Bottles Clean The expansive middle
The Seven Minutes Clean The expansive middle
Seven More Stations Clean The expansive middle
7rm., kitch., bath., ... for sale Clean The elusive top
Seven Samurai Minimal The expansive middle
Seven Women for Satan  Minimal The smeary bottom
Seven Women of Different Ages  Clean The expansive middle
The Seven Year Itch  Clean The expansive middle
The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter Clean The expansive middle
Eight Hours of Terror Clean The expansive middle
8 Women Clean The expansive middle
8 1/2 Clean The expansive middle
8 1/2 Women Clean The expansive middle
9 Dalmuir West Clean The expansive middle
Nine Queens Clean The expansive middle
9 Songs Clean The expansive middle
9 1/2 Weeks Minimal The expansive middle
"10" Clean The expansive middle
Ten Tigers of Kwangtung Clean The expansive middle
10 Violent Women Clean The smeary bottom
12 Angry Men (Lumet) Clean The expansive middle
12 Angry Men (Schaffner) Clean The expansive middle
12 Monkeys Clean The expansive middle
13 Assassins Substantial The expansive middle
16 Days of Glory Clean The expansive middle
Twenty Questions Clean The expansive middle
21 Grams Clean The expansive middle
The Twenty-Four Dollar Island Clean The expansive middle
24 Films Clean The expansive middle
24 Hours in the Life of a Clown Clean The expansive middle
28 Days Later Substantial The expansive middle
31 Means Trouble Clean The expansive middle
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould Clean The expansive middle
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin Minimal The expansive middle
The 39 Steps Clean The expansive middle
The 40-Year-Old Virgin Clean The expansive middle
42nd Street Clean The expansive middle
47 Ronin Minimal The expansive middle
52 Pick-Up Clean The expansive middle
54 Clean The expansive middle
65 Clean The smeary bottom
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance Clean The elusive top
88 Clean The expansive middle
99 Women Substantial The expansive middle
100 Monsters Clean The expansive middle
100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012 Clean The expansive middle
101 Acts of Love Clean The smeary bottom
One Hundred and One Nights Clean The expansive middle
The 400 Blows Clean The elusive top
#701's Grudge Song Clean The expansive middle
964 Pinocchio Clean The expansive middle
A Thousand Pleasures Clean The expansive middle
A Thousand and One Erotic Nights Clean The expansive middle
A Thousand and One Erotic Nights Part II: The Forbidden Tales Clean The expansive middle
1408 Clean The expansive middle
1900  Extreme The expansive middle steaming
1911 Clean The expansive middle
1984 Clean The expansive middle
1992 Clean The expansive middle
Two Thousand Maniacs! Minimal The expansive middle
2001: A Space Odyssey Minimal The elusive top
2012 Minimal The expansive middle
2046 Clean The expansive middle
2081 Clean The expansive middle
7362  Clean The expansive middle
10,000 BC Substantial The smeary bottom
Le Million  Clean The expansive middle
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