Violence to Animals in Film

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.

Merci pour le chocolat

Merci pour le chocolat. Claude Chabrol, 2000.

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Edition screened: First Run DVD, released 2003. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Men in Black

Men in Black. Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997.

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Edition screened: Columbia Tristar DVD, released 2000. English language. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.

Summary: Computer animated bug squashing for comedic effect

Details:

1) A computer-animated dragonfly splatters on a truck windshield at 2:56.

2) Will Smith smashes computer-animated roaches underfoot to taunt a giant extraterrestrial roach, 1:24:56-1:25:40.

Melancholia

Melancholia. Lars von Trier, 2011.Edition screened: Magnolia Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 135 minutes.

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Summary: Depiction of a horse being beaten.

Details: Kirsten Dunst’s horse refuses to go any further, at which point she whips him with a crop until he lies down and Charlotte Gainsbourg makes her stop, 1:22:18-1:22:50.

From the opening scene in which a limousine ride demonstrates man’s unwillingness – not inability, but unwillingness – to function on the earth; through the technological value of a wire loop on a stick surpassing a Meade 127 Newtonian telescope; to the closing moments that show how we all die in Magic Caves of our own design, few films provide the wealth of discussion points proposed by Melancholia. Not content with continual symbolic content, von Trier also loads dialogue and tableaux with cultural meaning, often referencing obscure and delicious marginalia that make Melancholia quite different from a Tarantino-style pop culture trivia contest … All those Bettys at the wedding reception … and the spoons … and the ease with which Kirsten Dunst slips between her roles as Steelbreaker and Dealbreaker.

Since you get what you pay for, membership in the I Want That Two Hours of My Life Back! club is free, as always, at Amazon reviews. Alternately, quite a few people have something interesting to offer, including the tantalizing observations here.

I will truncate my thoughts to a brief admiration of von Trier’s expansion of a private golf course. We get several glimpses of a clearly-marked 19th hole throughout the film, presumably a costly bit of merriment planned by the wealthy host (Keifer Sutherland) for the amusement of guests at the lavish multi-day wedding reception. Perhaps he planned also to set up a bar at the end of the course in keeping with the traditional joke. Perhaps there were special 19-column score cards printed for the event. We never will know, as nothing comes of his endeavor. How, he must have thought, could anyone not notice? How could anyone just drive past in a golf cart and not see my work, not appreciate my effort? We see his wife doing just that. We even see him beg her to put two and two together, to notice – anything – when he asks slyly, “Hey, How many holes on our golf course?” But no nothing.

It is common for von Trier, in his outrageous and intentionally unreal films, to give us a thread just this hyper-realistic in both its portrayal and content. Here, a disappointment known to all good partners: To mistakenly think that your effort might be enjoyed or even noticed, and then to pour salt in the self-inflicted wound by hinting and prodding for acknowledgement. Von Trier presents this thread ingeniously, perfectly, by providing mere glimpses of the golf course contrivance, thus placing the viewer in the role of inattentive family member. He has packed Melancholia with two hours of such juicy berries. But how could we be expected to notice them when that time is so better spent wishing that we had it back?

See also, comments for Silent Running.

Meek’s Cutoff

Meek’s Cutoff. Kelly Reichardt, 2010.

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Edition screened: Oscilloscope Blu-ray #31, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Medium Cool

Medium Cool. Haskell Wexler, 1969.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #658, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The Criterion Blu-ray of Medium Cool includes numerous bonus features (all animal violence free) that greatly enhance one’s understanding of this important film, including:

Look Out Haskell, It’s Real: The Making of ‘Medium Cool’ (Paul Cronin, 2001) - Cronin’s excellent film explains the content, methodology, and social context of Medium Cool, and is a crash course in documentary film making, in film theory, and in late 1960s American history. It manages to both magnify and expand Wexler’s original film, and in the process becomes a more enjoyable viewing experience than Medium Cool itself. Unfortunately, Criterion gives us only 53 minutes of the original 60 minutes, probably reflecting a contractual impasse over using a particular image or piece of music.

‘Medium Cool’ Revisited (Haskell Wexler, 2013) - Wexler’s 33-minute film about the Occupy Movement’s protest of the 2013 NATO conference in Chicago provides a saddening edification about the topics that Occupy tried to address, the occasional eloquence with which those concerns were expressed, and the media blackout of that reality. It is such a short time after the event, and already, all we know is Glenn Beck’s revisionist account of “those filthy America-hating scum”. As usual, there is, there was, no “liberal media” that might have, or could have, shown us the truth. We missed a lot through our Walmart-serving media’s enforced misunderstanding of this event. We missed the opportunity to align with people who actually wished to help us and instead cashed in that chip to hear advertisements for Food Insurance and gold bullion hucksters.

Sooner or Later (Paul Cronin, 2007) - There is much to be learned in the combined viewing of Wexler’s original film and Cronin’s 2001 Look Out Haskell … making-of documentary. One wake-up is Chicago’s late 60s’ ghetto of recently emigrated Appalachian mountain folk … Tenement blocks identical to those housing impoverished blacks, instead filled with illiterate white families from coal mining country. Sooner or Later locates Harold Blankenship, “hillbilly slum” resident and child participant in the original 1969 film, as he lives in 2007 having returned to impoverished rural life in West Virginia.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller

McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Robert Altman, 1971.
😸 Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray # 827, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 121 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

@ BL

Match Point

Match Point. Woody Allen, 2005.
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Edition screened: DreamWorks DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 124 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

@ BL

The Master

The Master. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012.

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Edition screened: Starz/Anchor Bay Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 137 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Master of the House

Master of the House (Du skal aere din hustru). Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1925.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray # 706, released 2014. English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

A caged bird is handled roughly during an argument, but comes to no harm.

MAS*H

M*A*S*H. Robert Altman, 1970.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 116 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Mary Last Seen

Mary Last Seen. Sean Durkin, 2009.

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Edition screened: Included on 20th Century Fox Blu-ray Martha Marcy May Marlene, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 14 minutes.

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

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene. Sean Durkin, 2011.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: Narrative of cats being shot.

Details: At 1:02:15 cult leader Patrick enters a wooded area carrying a burlap sack and we hear a cat growling slightly. He puts the sack down and we do not see it again, but hear discussion of shooting the two cats in the sack and we witness the gun fire. Over at 1:03:50.

This developmental sequence is handled as intelligently as it could be. There is no wriggling in the sack, no real indication that it contains anything at all, no bullet impacts on the sack, and no cries when the animals are shot. The averagely inattentive viewer would realize neither what was happening nor being discussed.

Marketa Lazarová

Marketa Lazarová. František Vláčil, 1967.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #661, released 2013. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 165 minutes.

Summary: Butchering and animal sacrifice.

Details:

1) A panoramic overview of the clan’s compound includes in the background a large hanging animal carcass being split 15:19-15:21. This carcass is seen again during dialogue 16:16-18:05.

2) A white chicken is carried by her feet to sacrifice, 22:10, and we see blood coming from her neck area 22:44-23:14.

3) A poisonous snake is stabbed with a knife, 23:50-23:54.

4) A man grabs a mouse, apparently squeezes her to death in his hand, and suspends her by the tail, 1:33:50-1:34:00

5) Typical campfire scene with an unidentified but somewhat gruesome animal turning on a spit, 1:46:52-1:47:40.

Despite the killing of these animals, Marketa Lazarová is one of the very finest films I have seen. Like the best works by Bergman or Ophüls, it expands and helps to define concepts of quality and artistry in film making.

Despite the rather long list of animal offenses and their bloody content, the visual content is not too gruesome due largely to the black-&-white film stock and artful filmography. The carcass is shocking primarily because it is so huge. There is no blood involved, and the image foreshadows another scene later in the film. The chicken sacrifice does have some blood and fluttering, but artful closeup technique softens the imagery. The snake stabbing is quick, but clearly a killing. We see a dead mouse, but not a mouse being killed.

Watch this movie. Skip 22:00 through 24:00 (chicken and snake killing) if you want, but watch this movie.

Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette. Sofia Coppola, 2006.

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Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 123 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Manon 70

Manon 70. Jean Aurel, 1968.

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Edition screened: Included in Catherine Deneuve 5-Film Collection DVD set, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

A good looking and entertaining film, with a nice soundtrack of Serge Sainsbourg and 68’ed baroque.

Manhattan

Manhattan. Woody Allen, 1979.

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Edition screened: MGM Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The Man Who Wasn’t There

The Man Who Wasn’t There. Joel Coen, 2001.

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Edition screened: USA DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 116 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

The Man Who Knew Too Much. Alfred Hitchcock, 1956.

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Edition screened: Included in Universal Blu-ray box set Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The Man Who Fell to Earth

The Man Who Fell to Earth. Nicloas Roeg, 1976.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #304, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 139 minutes.

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

A Man Vanishes

A Man Vanishes (Ningen jôhatsu). Shôhei Imamura, 1967.

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Edition screened: Included in the Icarus 4-DVD set A Man Vanishes, released 2012. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 129 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The 4-DVD box set from Icarus contains five documentary films by Imamura in addition to A Man Vanishes:

In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers of Thailand (1971)

In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers of Malaysia (1971)

The Pirates of Bubuan (1972)

Outlaw-Matsu Comes Home (1973)

Karayuki-San, The Making of a Prostitute (1975)

Mahler

Mahler. Ken Russell, 1974.

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Edition screened: Image DVD, released 1998. English language. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.

Summary: Depiction of a severed pig’s head

Details: At 1:26:45 Mahler emerges from a cave holding a pig’s head by one ear. At 1:27:25 he sits at a table and takes a large bite from the pig’s snout. At 1:27:37 we see a rather silly old bleached skull on the table, suggesting that has eaten the entire thing. The prop head throughout is not especially gory and the entire scene is lightly comedic.

This brief scene is part of a larger comedic set piece depicting Mahler’s conversion from Judaism to Catholicism. In Grand Opera style, he goes to Valhalla to see Cosima Wagner depicted as Hilda cum Nazi dominatrix. Cosima/Hilda dresses Mahler as Sigurd and sends him to “Destroy the Dragon of the Old Gods.” Mahler returns victorious, not with Fafnir’s head but with that of a pig, which he eats with a glass of milk in nonkosher fashion.

Magnolia

Magnolia. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999.

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Edition screened: New Line DVD, released 2000. English language. Runtime approximately 188 minutes.

Summary: Graphic death of many frogs.

The famous “raining frogs” scene starts at 2:45:44 and lasts about five minutes, almost through the end of the film. Seemingly thousands of large frogs are depicted falling from the sky. They splatter on hard surfaces, are run over by cars, and die in other bloody ways. Images of postlapsarian carnage are scattered through the remainder of the film.

Magnificent Obsession

Magnificent Obsession. Douglas Sirk, 1954.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #457, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.

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

The Magician

The Magician (Ansiktet). Ingmar Bergman, 1958.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #537, included in Criterion Blu-ray set Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema, released 2018. Swedish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

The Magician is disc #19 in Criterion’s 30-Blu-ray Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema (part of ‘Centerpiece 2’), and is accompanied by a 4-minute introduction by Bergman (1967), an enjoyable 15-minute video essay about the film’s themes by Peter Cowie (2010), and a 21-minute audio interview with Bergman conducted by Olivier Assayas and Stig Björkman (1990).

Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour. The Beatles and Bernard Knowles, 1967.

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Edition screened: Capitol Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 53 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Magic

Magic. Richard Attenborough, 1978.

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Edition screened: Dark Sky Blu-ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary. Claude Chabrol, 1991.
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Edition screened: MGM “World Films” DVD, released 2002. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 143 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Macon County Line

Macon County Line. Richard Compton, 1974.

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Edition screened: Anchor Bay DVD, released 2000. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

Summary: Brief pheasant hunting.

Details: At 1:04:08 a pheasant takes wing and is shot by Max Baer, Jr. The bird falls to earth with no detail shots or buffoonery.

The Machinist

The Machinist (El maquinista). Brad Anderson, 2004.

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Edition screened: Paramount Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Ma mère

Ma mère. Christophe Honoré, 2004.

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Edition screened: TLA DVD, released 2005. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

M. Hulot's Holiday

M. Hulot's Holiday (Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot). Jacques Tati, 1953.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #110, included in Criterion’s 7-Blu-ray set The Complete Jacques Tati (#729), released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.

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

The Housemaid (Kim)

The Housemaid (Hanyo). Kim Ki-Young, 1960.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #690 in box set #684 Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 1, released 2013. Korean language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.

Summary: A rat is shown dying.

Details:

1) We hear the housemaid beating a rat to death, then see her hold a dead rat by the tail, 24:25-24:34.

2) We see a rat convulsing and dying of poisoning, 26:38-26:46.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Rob Zombie, 2009.

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Edition screened: Anchor Bay Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.

Summary: Comparatively minor animal blood.

This feature-length cartoon includes a ridiculous amount of blood and killing. Intentionally ridiculous. Uncountable humans and monsters get hacked to pieces, but I noticed only a single 1-second scene of remotely realistic animals, when Dr. Satan in his giant form steps on a cardboard box of homeless puppies and kittens. The nearly complete absence of animals in a non-stop animated bloodbath must be an intentional decision on the part of Rob Zombie, who traditionally avoids animal cruelty in his otherwise violent films. I applaud Zombie’s humane perspective and choose to overlook this one quick joke meant to humiliate an ineffectual cartoon villain.

The Gang’s All Here

The Gang’s All Here. Busby Berkeley, 1943.

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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #94, released 2014. English language. Featuring and with original music by the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

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

Women in Cages

Women in Cages. Gerry De Leon, 1971.

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Edition screened: Included on Shout! Factory The Women in Cages Collection DVD set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.

Summary: Murder of a snake and general disrespect for animals’ lives.

Details:

1) Two short clips of real cock fighting, each about two seconds long and not containing and blood, 3:12 and 4:29.

2) A dead rat is found on the prison floor and pushed into the floor drain, 13:36-13:43.

3) A snake is (really) beaten to death with a steel bucket against a cement floor, 35:45-35:55. The snake is picked up and tossed at someone, 36:04-36:08.

Big Doll House

Big Doll House. Jack Hill, 1971.

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Edition screened: Included on Shout! Factory The Women in Cages Collection DVD set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: Pam Grier ends the cockroach race by stomping on one of them (off screen) at 14:57.

The Big Bird Cage

The Big Bird Cage. Jack Hill, 1972.

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Edition screened: Included on Shout! Factory The Women in Cages Collection DVD set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

Summary: Staged physical abuse to dogs.

Details:
1) A puppy is eating at 9:30, then we see an angry man kick violently below screen at 9:38 accompanied by a puppy’s cry.
2) An ether-soaked rag is placed over a dog’s muzzle at 1:21:22. We see the dog lying on his side at 1:21:40.

@ BL

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