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 Second Run Films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Second Run Films. Show all posts

Beauty and the Beast (Herz)

Beauty and the Beast (Panna a netvor). Juraj Herz, 1978.

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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. Czech  language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.


Summary: Livestock slaughter and horses in distress.


Details:

1) At 6:04 — Be alert for this unexpected cut to a chicken being grasped and slaughtered, followed by a goat having its throat slit, a squealing pig dragged away by its ears, and the disgusting disembowelment of a hanging carcass - all through 6:26.  General cutting of meat, plucking of feathers, and similar through 7:23.

2) Horses in distress as they are stranded on a muddy cliff with flames erupting around them, 13:43-14:10.

3) A horse has died and lies on its side, 20:37-20:47.

4) The Beast on horseback runs down a doe, pursuing it through a lake, back onto land, and trampling it several times, 45:00-45:42.


Beauty and the Beast shares Disc #8 in the Severin set with the short Frantisek Hrubín (1964 Tomás Skrdlant) Herz’s The Ninth Heart (1979).


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Track Projections

Track Projections. Raya Martin, 2007.

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Edition screened: Included on Second Run DVD #088 Independencia, released 2014. No dialogue track. Runtime approximately 6 minutes.


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


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Independencia

Independencia. Raya Martin, 2009.

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Edition screened: Second Run DVD #088, released 2014. Filipino language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.


Summary: A child playing among baby chickens creates a potential threat to the chicks, but all is well.


The Second Run DVD also includes Martin’s 2007 short film Track Projections.


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Mysterious Object at Noon

Mysterious Object at Noon (Dokfa nai meuman). Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2000.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #875 in box set #873 Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2, released 2017. Thai language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.


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


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Interrogation (Bugajski)

Interrogation (Przesluchanie). Ryszard Bugajski, 1982.

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Edition screened: Second Run DVD #007, released 2005. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.


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


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The Third Part of the Night

The Third Part of the Night (Trzecia czesc nocy). Andrzej Żuławski, 1971.

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Edition screened: Included in Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray box set Andrzej Żuławski: Three Films, released 2023. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.


Summary: Perverted engagements with lice.


Details:

1) Lice are plucked from a Petri dish and clamped into the teeth of a metallic object to hold them in place. Shortly afterwards they’re fed blood. (1:13:54-1:14:04)

2) Protagonist appears to be dissecting lice, 1:24:30-1:24:54.


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Twilight (Fehér)

Twilight (Szürkület). György Fehér, 1990.

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Edition screened: Second Run Blu-ray, released 2023. Hungarian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.


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


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Szinbád

Szinbád. Zoltán Huszárik, 1971.

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Edition screened: Second Run DVD #058, released 2011. Hungarian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


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



The Second Run DVD also includes Peter Strickland’s Szinbád: An Appreciation (2010, 12 minutes).


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Witchhammer

Witchhammer (Kladivo na carodejnice). Otakar Vavra, 1970.

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Edition screened: Included with Viy (Disc 4) in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.


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


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Something Different

Something Different (O něčem jiném). Věra Chytilová, 1963.
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Edition screened: Included along with A Bagful of Fleas on Second Run DVD #106 Two Films by Věra Chytilová, released 2016. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.


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


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A Bagful of Fleas

A Bagful of Fleas (Pytel Blech). Věra Chytilová, 1962.
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Edition screened: Included along with Something Different on Second Run DVD #106 Two Films by Věra Chytilová, released 2016. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 43 minutes.


Summary: Childish shenanigans with dead mice.

Details: Two screaming giggly girls twirl a few dead mice around to terrorize the other screaming giggly girls, 31:52-32:52.

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Postcard from Sun City, Arizona

Postcard from Sun City, Arizona. Joshua Oppenheimer, 2003.
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Edition screened: Included on Second Run DVD #102 Joshua Oppenheimer: Early Works, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 4 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.















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The Sun in a Net

The Sun in a Net (Slinko v sieti). Štefan Uher, 1962.
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Edition screened: Second Run DVD #81, released 2013. Slovak language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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These Places We’ve Learned to Call Home

These Places We’ve Learned to Call Home. Joshua Oppenheimer, 1996.
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Edition screened: Included on Second Run DVD #102 Joshua Oppenheimer: Early Works, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 30 minutes.

Summary: Animal experimentation.

Details:
1) A dog, fitted with a helmet and air hoses, is shown forced to run on a laboratory treadmill. He collapses in exhaustion when the machine is shut off. 4:54-5:33.
2) A dead bird is on the ground at 12:41 and ignited 12:50-13:10.
















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Black Peter

Black Peter (Černý Petr). Miloš Forman, 1963.
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Edition screened: Second Run Blu-ray #013, released 2018. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


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

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A Boring Afternoon

A Boring Afternoon (Fádní odpoledne). Ivan Passer, 1964.
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Edition screened: Included on Second Run Blu-ray #012 Intimate Lighting, released 2018. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 14 minutes.

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

An excellent, subtle film.

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The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (Zeman)

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (Baron Prášil). Karel Zeman, 1961.
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Edition screened: Second Run Blu-ray #006, released 2017. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

Summary: There are a few animations or special effects of horses and riders falling fantastically great distances, but always with evidence that they landed safely.
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The Globalisation Tapes

The Globalisation Tapes. Indonesian workers and Joshua Oppenheimer, 2002.
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Edition screened: Included on Second Run DVD #102 Joshua Oppenheimer: Early Works, released 2016. Indonesian with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 58 minute.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A resounding demonstration of how western banks destroy the lives of modest Asian people. The film was made entirely by impoverished, exploited Indonesian laborers. 
















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Intimate Lighting

Intimate Lighting (Intimní osvětlení). Ivan Passer, 1965.
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Edition screened: Second Run Blu-ray #012, released 2018. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 74 minutes.

Summary: Cruel murder of a chicken.

Details: A man guns his car into a flock of chickens just to be an ass at 16:48, with explicit footage of one of those chickens dying a painful death, 16:53-16:57.

The Second Run Blu-ray also includes Passer’s excellent film A Boring Afternoon (1964). 

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Joshua Oppenheimer: Early Works

Joshua Oppenheimer: Early Works. Joshua Oppenheimer, 1995-2003.
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Edition screened: Second Run DVD #102, released 2016. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 177 minutes.

Summary: The Challenge of Manufacturing and These Places We’ve Learned to Call Home include disturbing scenes of animal murder and cruelty, respectively. 

Click individual titles for details about films included in this Second Run compilation:

Camera Test (1995)
Hugh (1996)

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