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.

I Spit on Your Grave (Zarchi)

I Spit on Your Grave (Day of the Woman). Meir Zarchi, 1978.

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Edition screened: Included in Anchor Bay ‘Legendary Vengeance Double Feature 2 Pack’ Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

This 2-pack also includes a separate Blu-ray of the 2010 remake by Steven R. Monroe, commentary here.

I Married a Witch

I Married a Witch. René Clair, 1941.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #676, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

I Love You, Man

I Love You, Man. John Hamburg, 2009.

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Edition screened: Paramount DVD, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

I Love You, Man isn’t a one-note song, as it actually hammers away at two jokes. The structural joke – that Paul Rudd has no friends – passes the viewer’s time in a familiar tedious way. The laugh-bag joke, Rudd’s endless failure to improvise nicknames and catchphrases, is abysmally unfunny and just doesn’t stop. Each gag begins when, for example, Rudd calls a hamburger a burger-ino, realizes it isn’t funny, and allows the quip to fizzle out. The other characters keep stone faces and the silent humiliation is the punchline. I kept imaging that Ben Stiller’s delivery might offer just the right embarrassed stammer, but I doubt that anyone could make this bit funny a fourth time, not to mention every 30 seconds in a movie.

I offer this observation because a joke-to-joke assessment of the gag, its failure on both levels, and the associated sympathy I felt for the generally likable actors, formed a lifeline that got me through much, but not all, of the film. There is no salve palliating enough nor drink strong enough to mediate between suicidal thoughts and the Rush singalong in Jason Segel’s basement.

I Am Love

I Am Love (Io sono l'amore). Luca Guadagnino, 2009.

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Edition screened: Magnolia Blu-ray, released 2010. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Howard’s End

Howard’s End. James Ivory, 1992.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #488, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 136 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

How Much Do You Love Me?

How Much Do You Love Me? (Combien tu m'aimes?/Per sesso o per amore). Bertrand Blier, 2005.

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Edition screened: Strand DVD, released 2007. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

@ BL

House of Pleasures

House of Pleasures (L'Apollonide / Souvenirs de la Maison Close). Bertrand Bonello, 2010.

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Edition screened: MPI DVD, released 2012. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Hour of the Wolf

Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen). Ingmar Bergman, 1968.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema, released 2018. Swedish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Hour of the Wolf is on disc #9 of 30 in Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema (part of ‘Centerpiece 1’), along with From the Life of the Marionettes.

Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams. Steve James, Frederick Marx, and Peter Gilbert, 1994.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #289, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 171 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The Homecoming

The Homecoming. Peter Hall, 1973.

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Edition screened: Included in The American Film Theatre Complete 14 Film Collection DVD set, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

Ian Holm stars in this presentation of Harold Pinter’s play.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Garth Jennings, 2005.
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Edition screened: Buena Vista/Touchstone DVD, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.

Summary: Fantasy animal death scenarios.

Details:

1) A recitation presumes what a sperm whale would be thinking as it falls several miles to its death, 1:14:00-1:15:12. The accompanying computer-generated effect of a whale falling through the air contains no conclusion of the scene.

2) Two white mice are intentionally smashed under a sugar bowl at 1:35:15. We return to the scene at 1:35:28 to see that upon lifting the bowl, the white mice have resolved as human, possibly angel, forms.

History Is Made at Night

History Is Made at Night. Frank Borzage, 1937.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1027, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

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

High Tension

High Tension (Haute tension / Switchblade Romance). Alexandre Aja, 2003.
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Edition screened: Lions Gate Blu-ray, released 2010. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.

Summary: Murder of a dog.

Details: The dog is killed in the family’s house by an intruder, 23:58-24:03. We don’t see the act, but do see the nice large dog collapse with blood on his coat.

High Art

High Art. Lisa Cholodenko, 1998.

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Edition screened: Universal DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The Hidden Fortress

The Hidden Fortress (Kakushi-toride no san-akunin). Akira Kurosawa, 1958.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #116, released 2014. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 139 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Hidden (Caché)

Hidden (Caché). Michael Haneke, 2005.

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Edition screened: Artificial Eye Blu-ray, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.

Summary: Slaughtering of a rooster.

Details: We see a rooster being decapitated and thrashing headlessly on the ground from 37:54-38:42. The actual decapitation is shown in close-up, and the whole scene is bloody and very real.

The slaughter is significant to the plot of the film, but that significance is explained adequately by dialogue elsewhere and the scene itself can be skipped without ruining this smart movie. The decapitation scene comes abruptly and with no warning. It is cued by Juliette Binoche at a cocktail part, wearing a white dress and talking on the phone, “Yes, I’ll tell him. I love you too.” . . . Wham!!

Heavy Traffic

Heavy Traffic. Ralph Bakshi, 1973.

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Edition screened: MGM DVD, released 2000. English language. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

1961 Gottlieb Foto-Finish in the arcade near the end of the film.

Heaven

Heaven. Tom Tykwer, 2002.

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Edition screened: Miramax Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

Witchcraft Through the Ages

Witchcraft Through the Ages. Benjamin Christensen, 1968 edit of original 1922 Häxan.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Häxan DVD #134, released 2001. English language and Danish intertitles with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.

Summary: Theatrical use of animal body parts. See Häxan.

Narration by William S. Burroughs; score by Jean-Luc Ponty.

Häxan

Häxan. Benjamin Christensen, 1922.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #134, released 2001. Danish intertitles with English subtitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.

Summary: Theatrical use of animal body parts.

Details:

1) Intertitle cards tell us we are in the “Underground home of a sorceress” (13:40-18:10), interpreted as a modest Halloween vignette with boiling cauldrons, eerie drinking vessels, and other objet d’Spencer’s. Prominent in the decor is a suspended dog skeleton and a large skull, possibly from a horse. Nothing depicted is alarming. We leave the witch’s house with our purchase (‘Here, young maiden, take a potion of cat feces and dove hearts boiled in the moonlight’), but return for something stronger 20:48-21:40, and a third time to see the witch encounter The Devil, 28:09-29:44.

2) We see ten seconds of a medieval banquet spread, beginning at 32:13, with detail shots of a boar’s head on a platter and whole roasted birds, all decorated by knives that impale the animals.

Häxan is an early manifestation of the questionable historical examinations so popular on Cable TV. The film ‘documents’ witchcraft first through expressionistic art, then through a long fictional drama, stops to examine antique implements of torture (loot from a Christian’s yard sale, not a witch’s!) and “brings it into the present” with a look at seances in the 1910s. All said, an entertaining mixture of theatrics, information and bigotry, made more interesting by color-tinting and other early filmic techniques.

The Criterion DVD also includes the 76-minute 1968 edition of Häxan usually titled Witchcraft Through the Ages, with narration by William S. Burroughs and music by Jean-Luc Ponty.

The Haunting in Connecticut

The Haunting in Connecticut. Peter Cornwell, 2009.

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Edition screened: Lions Gate DVD released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone). Chris Columbus, 2001.

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Edition screened: Included in Warner Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 152 minutes.

Summary: Depiction of a murdered unicorn.

Details: A forest scene beginning at 1:46:28 and ending at 1:49:05 includes recurring images of a dead unicorn lying on its side. The first instance includes the wraith-like presence of Voldemort, who presumably has just killed the animal, crouched down and apparently drinking blood from its neck. None of the images in the scene lingers or is particularly explicit.

The Harry Potter films contain magical creatures and anthropomorphic objects in perilous circumstances. The unicorn sequence is noted because it is especially poignant and saddening.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Alfonso Cuarón, 2004.

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Edition screened: Included in Warner Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 142 minutes.

Summary: Feigned execution of a hippogriff.

Details: The noble hippogriff has been sentenced to death, and beginning at 1:27:37 is a 30-second scene where the three main characters think they witness the execution, complete with the sound of the falling axe. It later is revealed that the killing did not happen.

The Harry Potter films contain magical creatures and anthropomorphic objects in perilous circumstances. The sequence noted above is particularly emotional and would be horribly unjust if it were not resolved in a satisfactory way.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. David Yates, 2007.

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Edition screened: Included in Warner Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 138 minutes.

Summary: A centaur is brutalized.

Details: From 1:43:11 through 1:43:38, Dolores Umbridge binds and strangles a centaur with an enchanted rope. He escapes, she doesn’t.

The Harry Potter films contain magical creatures and anthropomorphic objects in perilous circumstances, such as the sequence noted above.

@ BL

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. David Yates, 2009.

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Edition screened: Included in Warner Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 138 minutes.

Summary: Depicted deaths of birds and a friendly giant spider.

Details:

1) Hermione causes a small group of fantasy birds she has conjured to splatter against a door at 1:05:37.

2) Malfoy Draco finds a (meaningful, symbolic) dead white dove at 1:35:15.

3) Hagrid finds his “oldest friend” dead, an acromantula (giant flesh-eating spider) at 1:46:12, and various funereal proceedings occur through 1:48:20.

The Harry Potter films contain magical creatures and anthropomorphic objects in perilous circumstances, in addition to the sequences noted above.

1968 Williams Ding Dong machine in the Weasley’s garage.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Mike Newell, 2005.

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Edition screened: Included in Warner Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 157 minutes.

Summary: Torture and killing of a classroom animal.

Details: A creature is subjected to The Torture Curse as an example of forbidden spell casting, 26:35-27:00. It then is destroyed with The Killing Curse at 27:22.

The Harry Potter films contain magical creatures and anthropomorphic objects in perilous circumstances. The Torture Curse/Killing Curse scene noted above is comparatively shocking because an instructor is cruel to a conjured animal.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. David Yates, 2011.

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Edition screened: Included in Warner Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 130 minutes.

Summary: Shackling and physical abuse of a dragon; killing of a snake

Details:

1) An elderly debilitated dragon is chained in the vaults under Gringotts Bank, 16:25-16:57. He has bloody chain marks around his neck and sores on his joints. He appears again briefly, 19:57-20:02.

2) Hermione leads Harry and Ron in a plan to free the dragon along with themselves, and they all escape in a triumphant flight 20:30-22:45.

3) Hermione chucks a rock at the head of Voldemort’s snake, 1:45:15. Neville Longbottom decapitates the snake, 1:48:44, causing Voldemort’s immediate death as the snake was the last Horcrux to be destroyed.

The Harry Potter films contain magical creatures and anthropomorphic objects in perilous circumstances. Although the dragon shows sad signs of physical abuse, the sequence demonstrates his joyous liberation through the compassion of the three main characters. Voldemort’s snake is an evil presence throughout the films, and the snake's killing is a sort of liberation since the poor reptile was eternally corrupted by Voldemort.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. David Yates, 2010.

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Edition screened: Included in Warner Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 146 minutes.

Summary: Murder of a snowy owl.

Details: Harry Potter’s beloved companion Hedwig is shot out of the sky and killed during battle, 17:26-17:30

The Harry Potter films contain magical creatures and anthropomorphic objects in perilous circumstances. The death of Hedwig is noted because it is especially poignant and saddening.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Chris Columbus, 2002.

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Edition screened: Included in Warner Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection Blu-ray set, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 161 minutes.

Summary: Depicted disrespect for animals and their safety.

Details:

1) A classroom is infested with Cornish Pixies from about 36:40-37:15. Harry is atypically callous in swatting them harshly with a book.

2) Caretaker Argus Filch’s cat Mrs. Norris is depicted as hanged dead. It soon is revealed that she is only paralyzed, but realistic images of the presumed dead cat are scattered from 44:32 through 47:30.

3) Harry and Ron plow through giant spiders in Ron’s car, 1:48:50 through 1:50:12.

The Harry Potter films contain magical creatures and anthropomorphic objects in perilous circumstances. The sequences noted above show human characters behaving in a callous and unwitchlike way toward other living things.

Happily Ever After

Happily Ever After (Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants). Yvan Attal, 2004.

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Edition screened: Kino DVD, released 2005. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

This is a nicely made light domestic comedy.

Hannibal

Hannibal. Ridley Scott, 2001.

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Edition screened: MGM/Fox Blu-ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 131 minutes.

Summary: A dead pigeon is found.

Details: A dead pigeon - just dead, not mangled - is picked up compassionately from a city street, 24:28-24:38. Similar scene, 27:37-27:40.

Hannibal Lecter, at least as portrayed in the films, is a total bore. Yak yak yak, my clothes, my wine, your issues, I am a real doctor you know … . The one thing that makes him slightly interesting isn’t appropriate party chat, and he remains pedestrian and shallow despite the caviar and eurogallivanting. But he does come up with new Gucci shoes and enjoys a boxed lunch from Dean & DeLuca, so I guess he’s made it to the mall.

And now Dr. Humdrum is a Lecterer in Art History in Rome, addressing a select group of sophisticated middle-aged Italians: Today, class, I will rehash the famous plot to kill Lorenzo the Magnificent and that failed attempt’s well-known consequences at the Palazzo Vecchio in which we are gathered today, a topic fueled by my recent discovery of a Renaissance image that all of you have seen a thousand times previously. Even the humiliated descendent of the hanged conspirator nods off despite eminent threat to his life.

Let us review this project’s mission to warn of scenes that depict hurt or violence to animals. In Hannibal, the dead pigeon removed from a city street is barely, tenuously, worth mentioning. The pack of vicious wild boars that is trained to attack and eat people? No, those piggies were as happy as could be, but the scene does deliver a little joke: The blood-frenzied killer pigs immediately identify Lecter as their sovereign, and allow him to stand unharmed in a Christ pose amid their rampage, King of the Bores.

Haiku Tunnel

Haiku Tunnel. Jacob & Josh Kornbluth, 2001.

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Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

Swept Away (Wertmüller)

Swept Away (Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto). Lina Wertmüller, 1974.
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Edition screened: Koch Lorber DVD, released 2006. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 114 minutes.

Summary: Hunting violence in a reasonable context.

Details:

1) A sardine is caught, cleaned and eaten, at 33:20.

2) A lobster is brought up from the ocean at 47:30 and we see cooking preparation, but no actual killing or boiling.

3) At 1:01:30 several real fish are shown impaled on sticks during a brief fishing scene.

4) At 1:14:00 a rabbit is caught in a snare, and 30 seconds later comes a brief but explicit scene of it being skinned. At 1:15:00 we see the skinned body impaled on a spit.

5) At 1:33:30 eggs are taken from a nesting mother bird.

6) At 1:36:38 in the final scene, a character pulls a horse too high up on its reigns and the horse falls backwards onto its back.

Respectful hunting in a genuine survival context might be one of the least offensive types of animal violence. The obstacles in getting through this film are the shouting vacationers of the opening scene and the embarrassing “Me Tarzan, you Jane” dialogue that fills the middle section, more than the brief hunting depictions.

Green for Danger

Green for Danger. Sidney Gilliat, 1946.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #375, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

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