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.

Around the World with Orson Welles

Around the World with Orson Welles. Orson Welles, 1955.

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Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 164 minutes.

Summary: Sport killing of animals.

Details:

1) The first episode of this short-lived travel series is a visit to Basque. An opening segment explains a traditional pigeon hunting technique that uses nets stretched across a valley. The pigeons are brought down in the net 2:55-3:05, recapped 3:40-3:42.

2) The second episode is another trip to Basque, recycling the exact same footage including the pigeon netting at the same clock time.

3) The 6^th and final episode is a trip to Spain, focusing exclusively on the Bullfighting tradition. The actual arena contest begins at 18:45 and the bull receives the death stabbing by sword at 25:28.

What a disappointment, but a disappointment that helps me understand one reason that The Boy Genius’s projects fell from favor. Welles takes us interesting places in pre-McDonald’s Europe but is a camera hog who deprives us of seeing the sites. He tells us about the glorious architecture across the street or the stunning countryside surrounding us but the camera rarely strays from his face, smilingly bemusedly at the spectacles.

When we do get Orson-view instead of view-Orson, too often is it an excruciatingly long interview with a local person who has nothing to say, sounding like an egotistical Great Uncle pointlessly quizzing a stupefied 8-year-old: What were you doing just before we started talking? Oh, and do you sit at the table at about this time everyday? A-ha, sometimes a little earlier. Do you like dogs? What kind of dog might you like to have, if you did like dogs? Ah yes, a friendly one, I thought as much. Can you tell me why you grasp your drinking glass like that? It’s the same way we hold a glass in America, at least in some parts of America, perhaps parts you may have heard of, but possibly not. I’ve heard of them and have been to some of them as well, and am reminded of a short story about a man traveling through Boise with his wife and small child …

The Spanish Bullfight episode is a bit different, more like standard travel documentaries from the 1950s. We see matadors in training and visit a bullfighting museum, hear the local lore and justifications, and conclude in the arena where that poor, poor, heroic gladiator was nearly injured. The episode begins with a lengthy introduction to bullfighting culture by Mr. and Mrs. Twit o’ the Year-on-Trent, who seem a hilarious and appropriately unflattering commentary on the whole affair, and perhaps suggest that the precocious Welles was more erudite in his control of content than the episodes routinely disclosed.

The BFI release also includes Christopher Cognet’s 2000 documentary about a legendary abandoned episode from the series, The Dominici Affair by Orson Welles.