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.

Showing posts with label Bengali. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bengali. Show all posts

Komola Rocket (The Orange Ship)

Komola Rocket (The Orange Ship). Noor Imran Mithu, 2018.

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Edition screened: Streamed, 2021. Bengali language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.


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











                                                                                                                  Image by moviebuff.com, Fair use,
                                                                          https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63942353

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The Hero

The Hero (Nayak). Satyajit Ray, 1966.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #911, released 2018. Bengali language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 117 minutes.


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





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The Cloud-Capped Star

The Cloud-Capped Star (Meghe Dhaka Tara). Ritwik Ghatak, 1960.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #993, released 2019. Bengali language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 127 minutes.

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


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A River Called Titas

A River Called Titas (Titash Ekti Nadir Naam). Ritwik Ghatak, 1973.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #687 in box set #684 Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 1, released 2013. Bengali with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 156 minutes.

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


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The Apu Trilogy

The Apu Trilogy. Satyajit Ray, 1955-1959.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray box set #782, released 2015. Bengali language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime of feature films approximately 341 minutes.

The Criterion package includes interesting supplemental materials along with Ray’s important trilogy: 

Aparajito (1956)
Apur Sansar (1959)


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Pather Panchali

Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road). Satyajit Ray, 1955.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #783, included in box set #782 The Apu Triology, released 2015. Bengali language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.

Summary: Physical abuse to kittens.

Details:
1) The aging old “Auntie” intentionally throws her big filthy fabric bag full of crap on top of a kitten, completely covering it, 11:28. The camera stays on the bag through 11:33 and we do not see the kitten emerge. 
2) Immediately afterwards and through 11:38, she steps from the front door of the house and pointlessly picks up another kitten and hurls him down into the dirt. 

Auntie is a complex and confusing character in this first film of the The Apu Trilogy. Despite the reverence shown for her advanced age, she feels overly entitled and makes no effort to contribute to the family that supports her. She is genuinely kind to young Apu and his sister, to the point that the mother accuses Auntie of corrupting the girl by indoctrinating her to petty theft and lethargy. There is evidence of these character flaws taught by one generation to another, and Auntie’s pointless cruelty to the kittens indicates an underlying malicious and destructive personality, just as the mother accuses.

 @ BL
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Aparajito

Aparajito (The Unvanquished). Satyajit Ray, 1955.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #784, included in box set #782 The Apu Triology, released 2015. Bengali language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of actual violence or harm to animals, but we do see a man who is later proven to be untrustworthy shove at a kitten with his lecherous looking shoes.
















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Apur Sansar

Apur Sansar (The World of Apu). Satyajit Ray, 1959.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #785, included in box set #782 The Apu Triology, released 2015. Bengali language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: Pig injury; Killing of a bird.

Details:
1) We hear a pig squeal at 1:15:29 as a train is passing, with a cut to an injured, probably dying, pig lying beside the tracks. People rush to carry him away through 1:15:37.
2) Apu’s son kills a songbird with a slingshot. We see the bird lying dead at 1:22:10, and the boy messes with the body through 1:22:58.

Apu’s son, appearing at the end of this third film in “The Apu Trilogy,” shares qualities we saw in young Apu in the first film (Pather Panchali). During the bird-killing scene the boy wears a mask with a prominent mustache, then uses the dead bird as a ruse to steal food. This recalls young Apu’s targeting of a dog with an arrow (not actualized), wearing a fancy foil mustache, and the ongoing dramas of stealing food from neighbors.

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