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 Carnival/Fair/Circus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carnival/Fair/Circus. Show all posts

Emanuelle and the Porno Nights of the World

Emanuelle and the Porno Nights of the World (Emanuelle e le porno notti nel mondo n. 2). Bruno Mattei (as Jimmy Matheus), 1977.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle, released 2023. English dub by/of Laura Gemser. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.


Summary: As part of an alleged New Guinea wedding ceremony, numerous baby and mature domestic pigs are viciously clubbed to death followed by their evisceration and the assailants playing with internal organs, 40:12-41:52. Nightmarishly brutal evidence of why humans are the only unworthy life forms on the planet. Les Blank allegedly commented “Four stars, could have been five with some Schlitz beer cans on the set.” 


Unfortunate hostess Gemser is visibly awkward with her introduction that this film is “the best” of her world tour, as Emanuelle and the Porno Night of the World is made of leftovers from the slightly less abysmal [nothing here and the] Porno Nights of the World. The most entertaining scene in Emanuelle and the PN o/t W is the nightclub skit of Snow White and the Seven Four Horny Dwarves, filmed in Holland, we are told, an assertion Gemser supports by holding an Italian-language copy of Snow White. I also was slightly curious - not entertained because it was horrible and boring - but slightly curious about the futuristic Space Erotica show because it featured a dramatically lit IV drip stand in the center of the stage for no reason. Perhaps Euro-70s’ vision of something robotmorphic from the prop closet of the future.


Similar to [nothing here a/t] Porno Nights of the World, short transitions of Gemser’s beautiful face introducing the next tedium are the stingy smears of enticing wheat paste binding jumbles of crudely hacked construction paper. This time she is behind the wheel of a car endlessly bluescreen cruising the same two blocks of The Vegas Strip, arbitrarily identified as Atlanta, Austria, Copenhagen, whatever. 


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.


A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey. Tony Richardson, 1961.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #829, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.


Summary: A dead sparrow is spotted on a sidewalk near the end of the film; no gratuitous content.


The Criterion BD also includes Richardson’s 1955 nightclub short Momma Don’t Allow


The Unknown

The Unknown. Tod Browning, 1927.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #1194 Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, released 2023. Scored, with English intertitles. Runtime approximately 67 minutes.


Summary: A performing horse in distress but not physically harmed.


Details: Starting at 1:03:55, two horses run on treadmills at a moderate pace as part of a stage performance. No discomfort or harm to them there, but we get a long scene of one of the horses in distress when the treadmill stops and he remains attached to the harnessing contraption while rearing (1:05:51-1:06:46). The horse is quieted after that ordeal and the movie ends a minute later.


Freaks

Freaks. Tod Browning, 1932.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #1194 Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 62 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. The circus strong man, ‘Hercules’, grapples with a bull for a few seconds at the beginning of the film but we don’t see the animal mistreated.


The Mystic

The Mystic. Tod Browning, 1925.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #1194 Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, released 2023. Scored, with English intertitles and sound effects track, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 74 minutes.


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


Peyton Place

Peyton Place. Mark Robson, 1957.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 156 minutes.


Summary: A live lobster is pulled from a glass holding tank and dropped into a kettle of boiling water, 1:35:00-1:35:10. Although the reality of this torturous practice is horrendous, the depiction is not graphic and is presented as part of a romantic dinner at an outdoor restaurant in Malibu Beach.


Lobster aside, Peyton Place is an unexpectedly decent film from just about any perspective. The script, acting, set design, moralizing themes, and costuming are excellent. Peyton Place also is really ‘seedy’- a word I’ve used less than half a dozen times in my life - in the way the film draws our interest to rape, abortion, and adultery (although none of those words is used in the 1957 production), and the type of small-town gossip that ruins innocent people’s lives.

Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers

Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers. Tod Browning, 1925-1932.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray set #1194, released 2023. English language. Cumulative runtime of feature films approximately 203 minutes.


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


In addition to a large quantity of supplemental material about Freaks, the Criterion set includes the feature films:


Freaks (1971)

The Unknown (1927)

The Mystic (1925)


Zatoichi’s Vengeance

Zatoichi's Vengeance (Zatoichi no uta ga kikoeru). Tokuzo Tanake, 1966.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set #679 Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman, released 2013. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 82 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.


The thirteenth film in the Zatoichi series.



Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Shane Black, 2005.

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Edition screened: Warner DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.


Summary: Implication of a killed spider.


Details: A gag involves an innocuous house spider crawling into a sleeping woman’s bra, 37:00 through 37:40. The spider is not seen again but one leg is found on the woman’s chest.


Coal Miner’s Daughter

Coal Miner’s Daughter. Michael Apted, 1980.

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Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.


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


Satan in High Heels

Satan in High Heels. Jerald Intrator, 1962.

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Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


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


This Something Weird release includes a generous loop of long trailers for films presently difficult to obtain, along with:


The Wild and the Naked (1962, Stan Roberts)

Satan and the Virgin (1948, unknown director)

Latex She-Devils (c. 1970, unknown director)


Satan in High Heels’ opening scene is a montage of early-60’s carnival fun, including a 4-second shot in a pinball room at 0:42.  A 1959 Gottlieb Atlas is featured prominently, with a 1955 Williams King of Swat partially visible to the right.


Inland Empire: A Woman in Trouble

Inland Empire: A Woman in Trouble. David Lynch, 2006.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1175, released 2023. English language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 180 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


Inland Empire lovingly salves the itch caused by Mulholland Drive, a little too much fun, a little too easily accessible. In addition to some commentaries and similar, the Criterion 2-BD release also includes:


More Things That Happened (2006, Lynch)

Ballerina (2007, Lynch)

LYNCH(One) (2007, Jason S.)

LYNCH2 (2007, Jason S.)


LYNCH(One)

LYNCH(One). Jason S. (as blackANDwhite), 2007.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #1175 Inland Empire, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.


Summary: Lynch tells a few tales of callous or brutal treatment to animals. No visual components.


Details:

1) Lynch comedically mentions the effort needed to load a dead cow into a pickup truck, then proceeds to an anecdote about attacking a dead cow found in a river 3:53-5:15.

2) Lynch begins telling about Franju’s Blood of the Beasts at 23:14, specifically the horse slaughter scene, 24:37-25:51.

3) Lynch begins a story around 1:11:00 about walking with guns through sagebrush filled with small birds and rabbits, but nothing comes of the tale except a description of an unbelievably large rabbit.


More Things That Happened

More Things That Happened. David Lynch, 2006.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #1175 Inland Empire, released 2023. English language; no subtitle option. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


More Things That Happened is composed of several long scenes shot during the filming of Inland Empire but not used in that film. “Deleted scenes” seems an inappropriate tag due in part to Lynch’s style of film composition, but also to the cohesiveness of the content and performances. More Things is a wonderful viewing experience, entirely a companion piece to Inland Empire rather than scraps and edits.


Hôtel du Nord

Hôtel du Nord. Marcel Carné, 1938.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1139, released 2022. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.


Summary: Discussion of killing animals.


Details: A chicken shrieks as she is killed off-screen, while two people on the street provide other examples of the butcherer’s proclivity for killing animals 35:22- 36:00.



A small unidentified pinball machine is in the background of a dining scene, 18:30. We get a closer partial view of one side at 23:45.


Under the Volcano

Under the Volcano. John Huston, 1984.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #410, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 112 minutes.


Summary: Día de los Muertos festivities include amateur Capeas, a bullfighting style in which the bulls are provoked with pink capes but not injured.



The Criterion DVD also includes Donald Brittain’s 1976 documentary Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry


Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry

Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry. Donald Brittain, 1976.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #410 Under the Volcano, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.


Summary: Physical abuse of bulls


Details:

1) A man hacks at a skinned bull skull with a hatchet, 47:07-47:45. The intact eyeballs and general violence make this unpleasant.

2) Bulls are downed, tied, hit, dragged, etc. as part of rodeo “fun”, 58:02 - 59:37.


Zou Zou (Zou-Zou)

Zou Zou (Zou-zou). Marc Allégret, 1934.

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Edition screened: Included with Princesse Tam-Tam on Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2022. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.


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


Princesse Tam-Tam

Princesse Tam-Tam. Edmond T. Gréville, 1935.

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Edition screened: Included with Zou-Zou on Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2022. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.


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


This double feature of early Josephine Baker films made in France also includes the 1928 short Fireman of the Folies-Bergère (8 minutes, director unknown); a decent multipart documentary about Baker’s career and accomplishments; and two 1-minute excerpts spotlighting the famous dancer.