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 Better than Expected. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Better than Expected. Show all posts

A Good Time with a Bad Girl

A Good Time with a Bad Girl. Barry Mahon, 1967.

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Edition screened: Included on Something Weird DVD Teen Turmoil Triple Feature, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 59 minutes.


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


The last twenty minutes of this film is a master class in terrible editing but the first forty minutes is surprisingly enjoyable. An up-tight businessman and a down-loose 19-year-old girl hit Las Vegas for the first time, find each other, and share two days of fun. The settings are mostly exterior shots of 1967 Las Vegas, but along with the predictable pans across casino facades we also spend a lot of time on secondary streets filled with drug stores and 5 & 10s for normal Vegas residents. Fun!


The SW disc also includes Girl in Trouble and Bad Girls Do Cry. 


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Towers of Silence

Towers of Silence. Jamil Dehlavi, 1975.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Volume 2, released 2024. Urdu language. Runtime approximately 54 minutes.


Summary: Shooting of a dog.


Details:

1) We watch a sea turtle crawl to the beach and lay her eggs. A boy digs up her eggs and crushes one in his hand at 29:30.

2) The boy has various containers of small insects including a large fly in a cage with cork top and bottom. He puts the cage in a sink of water at 29:30; the cage floats as the fly scrambles. No resolution.

3) A small white dog (allegedly rabid) is shot. We see the dog roll and squeal 32:00-32:15, and return for a close up of its panting face while dying, 32:35-32:41.

4) The boy carries the dead dog to an area filled with animal carcasses and vultures, 34:27-36:23.

5) Quick shot of a large black dog dead on the beach, 39:04.



Towers of Silence accompanies Dehlavi’s Born of Fire in the Sevrin set.


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The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? Ray Dennis Steckler, 1963.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 82 minutes.


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


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Wild Guitar

Wild Guitar. Ray Dennis Steckler, 1962.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


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


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The Immoral Three (Hotter Than Hell)

The Immoral Three (Hotter Than Hell). Doris Wishman, 1975.

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Edition screened: Included in AGFA Blu-ray set The Films of Doris Wishman: The Twilight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 74 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


If you are compelled to watch a Wishman film, The Immoral Three would be a good choice.


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Black Emanuelle

Black Emanuelle (Emanuelle nera). Bitto Albertini, 1975.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle, released 2023. English language, with original Italian as an option. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.


Summary: Long sequence of peaceful photography of African wild animals. No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. 3/5❤


Included on this BD is Kier-La Janisse’s 20-minute documentary The Reluctant Icon - A Tribute to Laura Gemser, along with several commentaries and interviews.


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Fly Me

Fly Me. Cirio H. Santiago and Jonathan Demme, 1973.

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Edition screened: Included in Shout! Factory Lethal Ladies Collection Vol. 2 DVD set, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.


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


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


Cover Girl Models (1975 Cirio H. Santiago)

The Arena (1974 Steve Carver)


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The Pick-Up (Frost)

The Pick-Up. Lee Frost, 1968.

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Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. 02.5/5❤


A surprise bonus in The Pick-Up is psycho-folk singer Jim Sullivan singing and playing a complete song while seated on the sofa in a mobster’s pad.  Crazy, man, crazy.


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The Hot Month of August

The Hot Month of August (O zestos minas Avgoustos). Sokrates Kapsaskis and Doris Wishman (as Louis Silverman), 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in AGFA Blu-ray set The Films of Doris Wishman: The Moonlight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Curse of the Blair Witch

Curse of the Blair Witch. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, 1999.

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Edition screened: Included on Lionsgate Blu-ray The Blair Witch Project, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 44 minutes.


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


This mockumentary originally was made for TV as an introduction and promo for the feature film The Blair Witch Project. It’s amusing, well made, and holds up much better than expected. If you like the feature film you probably will like this shorter teaser at least as much.



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Moonlighting Wives

Moonlighting Wives. Joseph Sarno, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in Film Movement’s Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect Series Vol. 5 Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in this gently erotic film.



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Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Tom McLoughlin, 1986.

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Edition screened: Included in Paramount Friday the 13th: 8-Movie Collection DVD set, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.


Summary: A desk cop smashes an insect for no reason, 59:16.


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Too Hot to Handle

Too Hot to Handle. Don Schain, 1977.

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Edition screened: Included in Shout! Factory Lethal Ladies Collection DVD set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.


Details: A real cock fight intercut with a romantic scene, 55:17-57:08.


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


Firecracker (1981 Cirio H. Santiago)

TNT Jackson (1974 Cirio H. Santiago)


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Under Capricorn

Under Capricorn. Alfred Hitchcock, 1949.

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Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 117 minutes.


Summary: Several brief discussions of shooting horses that have broken legs, and we hear a gun as a horse is shot. There are no depictions or graphic descriptions of harm to horses.


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On Her Bed of Roses

On Her Bed of Roses (Psychedelic Sexualis/Psychopathia Sexualis). Albert Zugsmith, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included with The Incredible Sex Revolution in Vinegar Syndrome ‘Drive-In Collection’ DVD #093, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.

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Blonde Ambition

Blonde Ambition. Francis Locke, 2019.

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Edition screened: Full Moon DVD, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 3.5/5❤

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The Boss of It All

The Boss of It All (Direktøren for det hele). Lars von Trier, 2006.

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Edition screened: IFC DVD, released 2007. Danish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


Supplemental material on the IFC disc is very good, including a featurette about “Automavision”, the computer-assisted filming technique von Trier created as a new creative obstruction in his process, and a mockumentary about cast members which is much better than expected.

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Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror

Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror. Various directors, 1963-1966.

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Edition screened: Arrow 4-Blu-ray set, released 2022. Italian language with English subtitles. Combined runtime approximately 384 minutes.


Summary: The Third Eye and The Witch include scenes of animal violence. Click titles for details.


The Arrow set includes:


Lady Morgan’s Vengeance (Massimo Pupillo, 1965)

The Blancheville Monster (Alberto De Martino, 1963)

The Third Eye (Mino Guerrini, 1966)

The Witch in Love (Damiano Damiani, 1966)


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Don’t Worry Darling

Don’t Worry Darling. Olivia Wilde, 2022.

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Edition screened: New Line Blu-ray, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 123 minutes.


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


Trippy populuxe fun!


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