Through the Olive Trees (Zire darakhatan zeyton). Abbas Kiarostami, 1994.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray#992, included in the box set The Koker Trilogy, released 2019. Persian language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
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)
A Tom, Tom Chaser. Ken Jacobs, 2002.
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Edition screened: Included on Keno Lorber Blu-ray Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1, released 2021. No audio track. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.
Summary: This short film revisits the 1905 Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son for further manipulation. As such, we know a small pig is handled inappropriately per the Bitzer original and Jacobs' 1966 manipulation, but this time Jacobs alters the source film to such a degree that content is not legible.
Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son. Ken Jacobs, 1966.
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Edition screened: Included on Keno Lorber Blu-ray Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1, released 2021. No audio track. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.
Summary: A small pig is handled roughly throughout the film. A teenager picks the pig up then drops it numerous times, drags it on a rope by the neck a short distance, rolls around with it on the floor roughly, and similar.
The Jacobs film begins with a straight showing of G.W. Bitzer’s 1905 Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son, then Jacobs manipulates sections of the original for over 108 minutes. Hence, we see the same rough handling of the pig repeatedly.
Tough Guys Don’t Dance. Norman Mailer, 1987.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.
Summary: Murder of a dog.
Details:
1:01:18-20 The dog is knifed in the neck.
1:01:34-36 The attacker pulls themself off the dog, now dead. 1:01:43-1:02:12 We see the dead dog alongside the attacker on the ground who is pleading the owner for forgiveness.
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.
The Ultimate Degenerate. Michael Findlay (as Julian Marsh), 1969.
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Edition screened: Something Weird DVD-R, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.
Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 3/5❤
Afternoon Delights/Slave of Pleasure. Shaun Costello, 1978-1981.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #178 Peekarama: Afternoon Delights/Slave of Pleasure, released 2017. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 166 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals in either feature.
• Afternoon Delights. Shaun Costello as Warren Evans, 1981, approximately 83 minutes. 4/5❤
• Slave of Pleasure. Shaun Costello as Russ Carlson, 1978, approximately 83 minutes. 5/5❤
Schoolgirl’s Reunion (School Girl Reunion)/The Sensuous Flygirls. Shaun Costello, 1976-1977.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #246 Peekarama: Schoolgirl’s Reunion/The Sensuous Flygirls, released 2018. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 142 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals in either feature.
• Schoolgirl’s Reunion. Shaun Costello (as Amanda Barton), 1977, approximately 71 minutes. 3.5/5❤
• The Sensuous Flygirls. Shaun Costello as (Nicholas Berland) & Constantine Zuba, 1976, approximately 71 minutes. 2/5❤
Sunny/More Than Sisters. Shaun Costello, 1979.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #184 Peekarama: Sunny/More That Sisters, released 2017. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 164 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals in either feature.
• Sunny. Shaun Costello as Warren Evans, 1979, approximately 72 minutes. 3.5/5❤
• More Than Sisters. Shaun Costello as Russ Carlson, 1979, approximately 92 minutes. 2/5❤
Wacky Taxi. Alexander Grasshoff, 1972.
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Edition screened: Included on Darkforce Blu-ray Drive-in Double Feature #11: Secrets of Sweet Sixteen / Wacky Taxi, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Where Is the Friend’s House? (Khane-ye doust kodjast?). Abbas Kiarostami, 1987.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray#990, included in the box set The Koker Trilogy, released 2019. Persian language. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin). Wim Wenders, 1987.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #490, released 2009. German language. Runtime approximately 127 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
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.
Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge. Richard Friedman, 1989.
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Edition screened: Arrow Limited Edition Blu-ray set, released 2021. English language. Runtime of Integral Cut approximately 96 minutes.
Summary: The film includes several inserts of a threatening cobra, foreshadowing a snake-whoppin’ . . . But no harm or threat comes to the animal.
Many scenes in Phantom of the Mall are hallucinogenic in their simultaneous delightfulness and abject stupidity. The first scene with the cobra exhibits this duality and also the film’s pervasive indifference to any concept of time passing. At 43:40 we see Eric dump a mysterious cobra-sized wiggly something from a burlap bag into a drain clean-out beneath an enormous shopping mall because a man he intends to kill has just seated himself on a toilet in one of many bathrooms. Before that man can even begin the task at hand, the cobra has traveled god only knows how far in the sprawling five-floor mall and emerges from exactly the correct toilet bowl to bite the seated man right on the mongoose. Our view is from the stall door-cam, and what rises from the toilet actually looks like a badly burned baguette . . . Cut to insert of cobra . . . Cut to man on toilet screaming and holding his crotch. From that point forward the cobra apparently lives in the catacombs under the mall and uses his amazing Insert Powers to menace passersby.
The deluxe Arrow package contains four cuts of the film:
• The original Theatrical Cut (90 minutes)
• The TV Cut with nudity and gore replaced by some extended scenes (89 minutes)
• The Integral Cut combining those versions (96 minutes)
• The Subterranean Cut with extra gore (91 minutes, unrestored)
Three-quarters of the film is set in a gigantic California mall at the height of that shopping phenomenon. I was delighted to watch big-haired girls in pink and turquoise outfits trot past Orange Julius, Kinny Shoes, and Sam Goody. Made in the late 80s, Phantom of the Mall gets the courtly pageantry of Mall Aesthetic just right. There is a tuxedoed musician playing a white lacquered grand piano in the food court and Pauly Shore commandeers a hideous Honda Goldwing displayed like a trophy within a ring of flimsy stanchions. Teenagers are dressed like low-budget fashion models rather than wearing shapeless sweatpants and hunting jackets, and the storefronts are seductive rather than looking like yard sales. I remember all of that with sadness.
Of course the mall has an arcade. Mixed in among the video games are a 1988 Williams Cyclone, and a 1987 Gottlieb Arena. (all 31:28-31:35 in the Integral cut)
Stray Dog (Nora inu). Akira Kurosawa, 1949.
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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #233, released 2004. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 122 minutes.
Summary: From 1:01:20 through 1:01:45, a narrated journal entry tells of killing a forlorn stray cat. Although considered a mercy killing by the diarist and not graphically described, it is distressing and unnecessary.
A post-production sound effect of a cat meowing plays during the narration. Kurosawa used this same sound recording during a long and otherwise quiet outdoor scene in Sanshiro Sugata or Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two. In that film, there is no mention of a cat or reason to include the sound effect. The meowing in Stray Dog also seems odd as no other such sound effects stand out in the film.
The opening titles are superimposed over a close-up of a dog panting in summer’s extreme heat. It seems like foreshadowing the death or abuse of the dog, but we see nothing more.
An arcade shooting gallery includes two small pinball machines of unknown type or name (0:26:00-0:27:00). They are seen only from the side and have no back boxes or distinguishing graphics.
Game of Death. Robert Clouse and Bruce Lee, 1972-1978.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set #1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits, released 2020. Original English dub. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.
Summary: An exotic fish in an aquarium quickly snaps up two small fish put in as feeders, 9:25-9:32.
The distraction of filming Enter the Dragon followed by Lee’s shocking death left the 1972 Game of Death abandoned until 1978, when a new director and leading man were hired to replace Lee. Scant footage of Bruce Lee constitutes only about ten minutes of the completed film. The replacement actor is a perfectly acceptable kickboxer, but the resuscitated film falls flat, lacking Lee’s charm, charisma, and much of the original storyline.
The final scene of the 1978 Game of Death finds Faux Bruce Lee fighting his way up three floors of a pagoda, much like a video game with each Boss tougher than the last. But back in 1972, Lee was so excited about this exciting 34-minute action sequence that he completed it early in production with himself in the starring role of course. That footage was not in the 1978 release and instead was re-shot with the new actor.
* Game of Death Redux *
In 2019 producer Alan Canvan cleaned up Lee’s original Triple Boss Pagoda Battle finale and released it as the 34-minute Game of Death Redux, both a wonderfully good-humored viewing experience and a poignant reminder of what the original film might have been had Lee not left us. Highlights include the elusive Shave-and-a-Haircut nunchuck technique, Lee’s charming reaction shots while fighting, and an awesome surprise for the third Boss. The Game of Death Redux short is recommended to everyone including those with no interest in martial arts films.
The Criterion set includes the 34-minute Game of Death Redux, starring and directed by Lee himself and salvaged by Canvan. This must not be confused with the unrelated posthumous Game of Death II, also in the Criterion set.
Game of Death II (Tower of Death / Si wang ta). Ng See-Yuen, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, and Corey Yuen, 1981.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set #1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits, released 2020. Original English dub. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Game of Death II was conceived and created after Bruce Lee’s untimely death. It includes some unused footage from real Bruce Lee movies, primarily Enter the Dragon, but most of the film dawdles around a skeletal plot featuring the same actor who carried most of Game of Death.
It’s a silly film. The final showdown takes place in the titular “Tower of Death”, which when first mentioned in a veil of mystery is paired visually with a gift shop pagoda held upside-down. Oh my!
Indeed, our Not Bruce Lee must descend to the top of the tower, challenged along the way by a sequence of silly enemies including an inept fighter in Versace pajamas and a nicely choreographed dance troupe in silver Star Trek leotards. Upon finally digging down to the top, he must successfully traverse a short hallway of colorful lights similar to a walkway I remember connecting two terminals in Chicago O’Hare Airport in the 1980s. That challenge vanquished, he finds the ultimate enemy in a James Bond-style underground lair complete with cryptotechnical instruments and a gigantic international map with lights that flash pointlessly. I presume the source literature explained why an aging kung-fu master held the codes to prevent unilateral atomic extermination or something to that effect.
Alison’s Birthday. Ian Coughlan, 1981.
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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.
Summary: No animals in the film.
Alison’s Birthday is a surprisingly watchable film, something of an ABC Afterschool Special companion piece to Rosemary’s Baby. It is supplemented by an 18-minute video essay “The Devil Down Under: Satanic Panic in Australia from Rosaleen Norton to Alison’s Birthday”, which traces the hysteria about alleged Satanism in popular culture from its moronic roots in the U.S to Australia’s film industry. Entertaining, nostalgic, and informative.
The Alison’s Birthday BD in the box set also features Ann Turner’s 1989 Celia and The CSIRO Film Unit’s 1979 The Rabbit in Australia.
Baxter, Vera Baxter. Marguerite Duras, 1977.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #1172 Two Films by Marguerite Duras, released 2021. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Films by Duras often include something structural that is fresh and interesting to me. In Baxter, Vera Baxter, Duras allows a simple up-tempo musical repeat to be heard through the entire film; just a two-beat rhythmic strumming between two chords with percussion and improvised meandering flute. This diegetic music is acknowledged by the characters as local revelers. The volume rises and falls to match the action and sometimes fades away almost completely.
The Criterion BD also includes Duras’ India Song (1975).
The Blancheville Monster (Horror). Alberto De Martino, 1963.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray set Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror, released 2022. English dub or Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The original title of this film is simply Horror, flashed dramatically in the opening scene. I am reminded of the Word Art popular a decade ago, motivating people to put a gigantic sticker in the kitchen reminding you to “EAT” or in the living room permitting you to “Live, Laugh, Mario Kart”. There may come a day that I need these reminders of what to do in specific rooms of my house, and please don’t overlook the water closet. Until then, I can watch The Blancheville Monster, confident that I will not accidentally Laugh or Love because “Horror”.
Celia. Ann Turner, 1989.
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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.
Summary: Torturing and killing of domestic and wild rabbits.
Details:
1) The second scene in the film after the credits (3:30 - 5:30) takes place in a classroom where the teacher reads the English fairy tale The Hobyas to her class, a story which involves incremental dismemberment of the family dog. See the wonderful Storytelling + Research = LoiS blog for a good telling and interpretation of the story
2) Newsreel footage from the 1950s’ rabbit purge, showing huge numbers of wild European rabbits killed and intentionally inflicted with disease, 20:14 - 20:41.
3) A second clip of newsreels footage, this time showing mounds of dead rabbits set on fire, 57:12-57:35.
4) An extremely gentle and affectionate domestic rabbit is tortured with a red hot iron bar, 1:01:45-2:02:45. The reaction of the rabbit and subsequent bloody wound certainly look genuine.
5) Two dead pet rabbits are retrieved from a water trough, 1:23:22-1:24:17, by their little girl companion humans. Again, very genuine in appearance and almost certainly in fact.
Celia is an unsettling struggle between good (moderate adults who understand that non-capitalist ideas are not inherently evil, their comparatively pleasant children and gentle pet rabbits) and evil (adulterous commie hunters and their hideous violent kids, rabbit exterminators and the corporate church).
The Celia BD in the box set also features Ian Coughlan’s 1981 Alison’s Birthday and the CSIRO Film Unit’s 1979 The Rabbit in Australia.
Dark Waters. Mariano Baino, 1993.
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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.
Summary: A mutilated animal and distasteful encounters with dead fish.
Details:
1) A deranged man picks up dead fish from the floor of a small boat, tears at them and eats the raw flesh, 22:23-22:45.
2) A rocky beach covered in stranded dead fish, 59:36-1:00:31.
3) At 1:20:05, a one-second shot of a mutilated small animal (cat?) on a table with 6-year-old Elizabeth standing by, all guilty smiles. We saw Elizabeth in her bloody nightgown holding - this - earlier but it looked like a stuffed animal.
4) Another shot of the of the mutilated animal on the table, 1:26:37-1:26:39.
5) Elizabeth walks down the rocky beach again. This time it is littered with both dead fish and dead nuns, 1:27:42-1:28:24.
The Dark Waters BD in the Severin box set also includes Il demonio (1963 Brunello Rondi).
Il demonio. Brunello Rondi, 1963.
😿 😿
Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.
Summary: Dead cat used as a prop.
Details: Purif produces a stiff dead cat while cursing a newlywed couple, then throws the cat at men guarding the house, 30:05-30:47.
A superbly crafted horror drama and clear source material for The Exorcist.
The Il demonio BD in the Severin box set also includes Dark Waters (1993, Mariano Baino).
Dynamic:01: The Best of davidlynch.com. David Lynch, 2002-2007.
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Edition screened: Subversive Cinema DVD, released 2007. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 133 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Count me among the seeming majority who do not have much to say about this compilation of short films originally available on Lynch’s website. DVD Talk offers some typically dispassionate comments; Eye For Film is a little more interested.
I personally liked “Industrial Soundscape” quite a lot. Dig the delicate changes in pitch and interesting deviations in seemingly monotonous mechanical motions.
Dynamic:01 includes:
The Darkened Room (2002, approx. 11 minutes)
Boat (2007, approx. 7 minutes)
Lamp (2003, approx. 31 minutes)
Out Yonder: The Neighbor Boy (2001, approx. 10 minutes)
Industrial Soundscape (2002, approx. 11 minutes
Bug Crawls (2004, approx. 4 minutes)
Intervalometer Experiments: View with Nitro (2004, approx. 14 minutes)
Intervalometer Experiments: Sunset #1 (2004, approx. 6 minutes)
Intervalometer Experiments: Steps (2004, approx. 4 minutes)
Intervalometer Experiments: Interior Dining Room (2004, approx. 3 minutes)
Member Questions (2007, approx. 32 minutes)
The First Films of Akira Kurosawa. Akira Kurosawa, 1943-1945.
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Edition screened: Criterion Eclipse Series #23 4-DVD set, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Collective runtime approximately 305 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
This 36th volume in Criterion’s Eclipse Series includes the following films. See individual titles for details.
Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
The Most Beautiful (1944)
Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (1945)
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945)
Hot Blooded Woman. Dale Berry, 1965.
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Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 68 minutes.
Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.
Madonna of the Seven Moons. Arthur Crabtree, 1945.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 36: Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures 3-DVD set, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (Tora no o wo fumu otokotachi). Akira Kurosawa, 1945.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa 4-DVD set, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 59 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Most Beautiful (Ichiban utsukushiku). Akira Kurosawa, 1944.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa 4-DVD set, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
New World (Sinsegye). Park Hoon-jung, 2013.
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Edition screened: Well Go Blu-ray, released 2013. Korean language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 135 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Police Story (Ging chaat goo si). Jackie Chan and Chen Chi-Hwa, 1985.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #971, released 2019 and included in the Police Story/Police Story 2 set. Cantonese with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. A small flock of LeRoy Neiman prints is placed in a hazardous situation several times, but they appear to survive unharmed.
Police Story 2 (Ging chaat goo si juk jaap). Jackie Chan, 1988.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #972, released 2019 and included in the Police Story/Police Story 2 set. Cantonese with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 122 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Rabbit in Australia. CSIRO Film Unit, 1979.
😿😿😿😿
Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 24 minutes.
Summary: Extermination of wild rabbits.
Details: This short documentary illustrates several Australian campaigns to eradicate wild rabbits, specifically the government-sponsored Rabbit Cull of the 1950s which steers the plot in Celia. The documentary is included in the Severin box set as supplemental context for the feature Celia, with adequate warning that it shows real and brutal killing of rabbits.
Sanshiro Sugata (Sugata Sanshirô). Akira Kurosawa, 1943.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa 4-DVD set, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (Zoku Sugata Sanshirô). Akira Kurosawa, 1945.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 23: The First Films of Akira Kurosawa 4-DVD set, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Three Ripening Cherries/Sensual Fire. Carlos Tobalina, 1979.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #065 Peekarama: Three Ripening Cherries/Sensual Fire, released 2015. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 171 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals in either feature.
• Three Ripening Cherries. Carlos Tobalina as Troy Benny, 1979, approximately 81 minutes. 2.5/5❤
• Sensual Fire. Carlos Tobalina, 1979, approximately 90 minutes. 2.5/5❤