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 Turkish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turkish. Show all posts

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da). Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011.

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Edition screened: Cinema Guild Blu-ray, released 2012. Turkish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 157 minutes.


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


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Yumurta

Yumurta (Egg). Semih KaplanoÄŸlu, 2007.
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Edition screened: Included in Artificial Eye box set The Yusuf Trilogy, released 2011. Turkish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

Summary: Ram slaughter.

Details: A ram is ceremonially slaughtered, barely below screen, 1:16:11-1:16:36, followed by a stagnant shot of women ceremonially butchering the body, 1:17:13-1:17:43.

While these scenes are not especially graphic, the slaughter is a disappointing surprise. Earlier in the film we hear that a ram sacrifice has been promised, but then we are relieved when that event seems to be derailed. It is a disappointing turn-around then to see a beautiful ram with his feet bound lifted from the back of a car at a ceremonial destination.









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The Yusuf Trilogy

The Yusuf Trilogy. Semih KaplanoÄŸlu, 2007-2010.
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Edition screened: Artificial Eye DVD box set, released 2011. Turkish language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 299 minutes.

Summary: Each of these otherwise clean films has some minor, unfortunate, and unnecessary action with the bodies of dead animals.

The Artificial Eye set includes all three films of The Yusuf Trilogy. Click on individual titles for details.

Yumurta (2007)
Süt (2008)
Bal (2010)

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Bal

Bal (Honey). Semih KaplanoÄŸlu, 2010.
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Edition screened: Included in Artificial Eye box set The Yusuf Trilogy, released 2011. Turkish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

Summary: Comparatively minor display of animal carcasses.

Details: Stagnant view of men working the Butchering exhibit at a Turkish heritage festival, 1:21:22-1:21:30.

Although not graphic, this unnecessary inclusion of irrelevant butchering is unfortunate in a film otherwise filled with understated spirituality and magical realism.









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Dry Summer

Dry Summer (Susuz yaz). Metin Erksan and David E. Durston, 1964.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #688 in box set #684 Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 1, released 2013. Turkish with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: Actual murder of a dog and a chicken.

Details:
1) Beginning 29:20, a chicken is held down, her head cut off, and the body thrown at a young woman as misguided flirtation by the jackass protagonist in the film. The body of the chicken flaps around at the woman’s feet until a cut at 29:42.
2) A dog, sitting calmly and watching the other actors, is shot – for real – at 34:03. The camera stays on him as he howls, rolls over on his side, and dies through 34:14. The dog’s body is found and carried home, 34:50-35:53.

If a ever a film needed to be remade, it is Dry Summer. This otherwise exquisite, beautiful film addresses the most important social and interpersonal issues, and is marred horribly by the shockingly brutal murder of the dog and the more common chicken butchering. Please, let some sensitive contemporary director realize the potential in re-making this masterpiece.


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Süt

Süt (Milk). Semih Kaplanoğlu, 2008.
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Edition screened: Included in Artificial Eye box set The Yusuf Trilogy, released 2011. Turkish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: Animal bodies.

Details: The film ends in a symbolic dream of Yuseu with an enormous dead catfish while his mother plucks the feathers from a goose’s body, 1:30:48-1:30:58.


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Winter Sleep

Winter Sleep (Kis uykusu). Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014.
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Edition screened: New Wave Films Blu-ray, released 2015. Turkish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 196 minutes.

Summary: Hunting and other animal abuse.

Details:
1) A horse is “broken” by stranding him in a river with ropes around a neck and forcing his movement against his will, 1:02:57-1:03:55.
2) A dead dog is seen lying on the frozen snow, 2:26:57-2:27:01.
3) A rabbit is shot off-screen at 3:05:32. We see it lying, breathing heavily with gunshot wounds 3:06:05-3:06:30. The dead rabbit is carried by its feet onto the hotel grounds 3:09:04-3:09:30.

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