Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite. Jared Hess, 2004.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.

Summary: Indifference to animal cruelty.

Details: At 16:10 Napoleon watches the elderly farmer across the road raise a shotgun to a cow’s head. A passing school bus blocks our view of the killing, and instead we see the reaction of the grade-school children on the bus and hear the gun blast at 16:23 and.

Napoleon repeatedly mistreats his grandmother’s pet llama, seemingly a gentle and kind animal, by flinging the animal’s food into the ground. Napoleon also takes a job at an egg-laying facility where the horrible conditions in which the chickens are kept is a background for some quick physical comedy.

Napoleon Dynamite does not show injury to animals, but the creators clearly think the terrible ways animals are treated in the real world is good material for some quick comedy.

The drawings and music in this film indicate that the creators know about Daniel Johnston. 

Nausicaa

Nausicaa. Agnès Varda, 1970.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 7) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.

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

Pirates of the Caribbean: 5 Movie Collection

Pirates of the Caribbean: 5 Movie Collection. Various directors, 2003-2017.

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Edition screened: Walt Disney Blu-ray box set, released 2017. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 719 minutes.

Summary: Some films include comparatively mild depictions of harm to animals. Click on individual titles for details.

The 2017 box set includes:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 Gore Verbinski)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006 Gore Verbinski)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007 Gore Verbinski)

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011 Rob Marshall)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017 Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Gore Verbinski, 2007.

😸

Edition screened: Included in the Walt Disney Blu-ray box set Pirates of the Caribbean: 5 Movie Collection, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 161 minutes.

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

Jack the Monkey gets some good scenes and does a great job in this third installment. Also, the dog who perpetually carries the ring of keys, last seen running for his life in Po/tC 2, show up here to contribute to the running gag about sea turtles.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Salazar's Revenge). Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, 2017.

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Edition screened: Included in the Walt Disney Blu-ray box set Pirates of the Caribbean: 5 Movie Collection, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 129 minutes.

Summary: Incineration of a rat.

Details: A witch throws a rat into a percolating caldron, 40:09. We don’t actually see the rat hit the surface or die. He vanishes or disintegrates with a magical flourish just above the surface.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Rob Marshall, 2011.

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Edition screened: Included in the Walt Disney Blu-ray box set Pirates of the Caribbean: 5 Movie Collection, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 136 minutes.

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

Place de la République

Place de la République. Louis Malle, 1974.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 32: The Documentaries of Louis Malle DVD set, released 2007. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

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

The Pleasure of Love in Iran

The Pleasure of Love in Iran (Plaisir d'amour en Iran). Agnès Varda, 1977.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 7) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 6 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Primal Fear

Primal Fear. Gregory Hoblit, 1996.

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Edition screened: Paramount DVD, released 1998. English language. Runtime approximately 130 minutes.

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

Rome: Open City

Rome: Open City (Roma, città aperta). Roberto Rossellini, 1945.

😿😿

Edition screened: Criterion DVD #497, included in the box set #500 Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy, released 2009. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

Summary: Offscreen killing of two sheep, with one seen dead. Thank you to our friend Ed for this excellent citation:

Around 59:10- 59:47 German soldiers bring two sheep on ropes into a café telling the innkeeper they have brought meat and noting they will butcher the animals themselves. “Yes, you people specialize in that,” the innkeeper says. At 1:00:59, there is the offscreen sound of a gunshot. Several characters go to investigate. As they look through shutters, one says “Poor creatures” and we see the soldiers in a courtyard standing above the sheep. Both sheep are shorn and one is lying on the ground, presumably dead. A soldier approaches the other sheep and puts a gun against it. We hear a shot as the camera cuts to the characters watching through the windows at 1:01:11.

The Shining

The Shining. Stanley Kubrick, 1980.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 144 minutes.

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

Shogun’s Joy of Torture

Shogun’s Joy of Torture (Tokugawa onna keibatsu-shi). Teruo Ishii, 1968.

😸

Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2021. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

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

Twist Craze

Twist Craze. Allan David, 1961.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray set Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 9 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.

An enjoyable short in which likable young dancers and musicians introduce an up-scale middle-aged crowd to The Twist. The performance takes place in a dinner club that features a small swimming pool in front of the stage.

Two Street Artists: Jérôme Mesnager & Miss.Tic

Two Street Artists: Jérôme Mesnager & Miss.Tic. Agnès Varda, 2012.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 6) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 6 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Viva Varda!

Viva Varda! Agnès Varda, 1970.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 6) released 2020. English and French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 9 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Women Are Naturally Creative: Agnès Varda

Women Are Naturally Creative (Les femmes sont de nature créatives: Agnès Varda). Katja Raganelli, 1977.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 7) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 47 minutes.

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

Women Reply: Our Bodies, Our Sex

Women Reply: Our Bodies, Our Sex (Réponse de femmes: Notre corps, notre sexe). Agnès Varda, 1975.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 7) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 8 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort

Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort. Valeri Milev, 2014.

😿😿😿

Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: Graphic killing of a deer.

Details:

1) Beginning around 31:30, we have parallel action of one bow hunter shooting a deer while a second bow hunter shoots a police officer. The scenes are intercut. The deer is shot and lies bleeding at 31:58, with subsequent scenes of struggling and the look of death in its eyes until the hunter slits its throat at 33:44. The slain deer is left abandoned in the forest.

2) A person is hunched over the deer carcass and eating it, 34:28-34:44.

3) The hunter has a flashback to killing the deer, in which all the graphic scenes are reviewed 43:57-44:2o.

I found this last film in the Wrong Turn franchise to be the worst, having the least attractive actresses, the most unlikable cast of victims, the stupidest plot, and this graphic murder of an animal.

Zatoichi and the Doomed Man

Zatoichi and the Doomed Man (Zatōichi sakate-giri). Kazuo Mori, 1965.

😿

Edition screened: In Criterion Blu-ray box set #679 Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman, released 2013. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.

Summary: Killing of a moth.

Details: Ichi slices a moth in two as a demonstration of his swordsmanship, 23:58

The eleventh film in the Zatoichi series.

Mur murs

Mur murs. Agnès Varda, 1980.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 6) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 82 minutes.

Summary: Prolonged and depressing implications.

While there are no actual depictions of pigs being murdered and butchered, there is a lengthy scene depicting an enormous mural that wraps around the entire exterior of a slaughterhouse/meat processing center, beginning around 1:02:00. The painting depicts the lives of pigs ranging from bucolic normalcy to their being herded into livestock trucks, also interjected with that creepy commercial tendency to depict pigs standing erect like humans and smacking their lips about bacon or leering lustfully into a barbecue pit. The focus is on the mural, intercut with brief interviews with indifferent employees, a scene of workers sharpening their butchering knives, and several quick images of carts of meat. 

I thought this long scene ruined the movie. Prior to viewing I was rather indifferent to Mur murs’ topic but then enjoyed the somewhat tedious film to some degree up until this “Farmer John” sequence, which pushed me back to No.

Mortal Engines

Mortal Engines. Christian Rivers, 2018.

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Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 128 minutes.

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

Help Wanted Female

Help Wanted Female. John Hayes (as Harold Perkins), 1968.

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Edition screened: Included on Something Weird DVD Total Fulfillment Triple Feature, released 2011. Muddy English language. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 2.5/5❤

The Total Fulfillment Triple Feature also includes Rent-A-Girl (1965) and Aroused (1966).

The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael

The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael. Thomas Clay, 2005.

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Edition screened: Metrodome DVD, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

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

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass. Chris Weitz, 2007.

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Edition screened: New Line DVD, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 113 minutes.

Summary: Mild fighting among animals. 

Details: 

1) A key aspect of the story is that the soul of each human takes the form of an animal that travels with the person. These animals sometimes attack each other, but there are no depictions of violent injury, blood, or death. Encounters are more like short cat fights.

2) Near the end of the film an army attacks an ice bear, including tethering him with ropes and intending to shoot him. The ice bear prevails without noticeable injury. He then gets into a fight with another ice bear and sustains a broken front leg, yet still lands a KO power punch. We see him running off in triumph with his little girl friend hero, so the broken leg must have been on autoheal. The end!

The Girl in Room 2A

The Girl in Room 2A (La casa della paura). William Rose and Dick Randall, 1974.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Vinegar Syndrome box set #339 Forgotten Gialli Volume 2, released 2020. Original Italian or English dub. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.

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

Elsa la rose

Elsa la rose. Agnès Varda, 1966.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 5) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 20 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Elevator to the Gallows

Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud). Louis Malle, 1957.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #335, released 2006. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals, although that kitty should not be walking on the balcony railing.

A 1957 Gottlieb Flag-Ship can be seen through a café window at 26:39, plus three more in a lounge later in the film: a 1953 Gottlieb Shindig at 46:oo, a 1950 Williams Rag Mop and a 1947 Keeney Cover Girl around 46:48, and the Rag Mop again later at around 48:00.

Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko. Richard Kelly, 2001.

😸

Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray ‘Director’s Cut’, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 133 minutes.

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

The Arrow release also includes Kelly’s early film The Goodbye Place. 

A 1980 Williams Blackout is in the arcade, 1:05:12.

Documenteur

Documenteur. Agnès Varda, 1981.

😿

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 6) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 66 minutes.

Summary: Unpleasant fishing scene.

Details: A rather brutal scene of removing a hook after it has been swallowed by a fish, followed by a typical scene of a just-caught fish being thrown into a dry bucket to gasp and suffocate, 4:33-5:28.

Partial view of the cabinet of an identified pinball machine in the office of the production company, first seen at 35:04.

The Creatures

The Creatures (Les créatures). Agnès Varda, 1966.

😿 😿

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 5) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: Extended scene with a dead cat.

Details:

1) During the opening credits, two brief scenes of crabs and eels dumped on the floor of a small fishing boat and struggling, 4:48-4:50 ad 4:58-5:02.

2) Extended scene involving a dead black cat that appears to be a genuine stiff corpse. We see the dead cat at the front of the house at 22:25, and Michel Piccoli finally picks it up at 22:44. Piccoli carries the dead cat into town, engages in arguments about who might have killed it, and gets into a fight wherein he beats people with the stiff dead cat. Ultimately we see him roughly dump the cat into a shallow grave. All of this wraps up at 26:28.

 

I suspect the use of a dead cat as a melee weapon sounds weird. In the context of this structurally complex film, it is both weirder and less weird than my brief description suggests. The incident may or may not, in part or completely, have been a fiction Piccoli’s character was penning and/or caused by the meddling of a local evil genius with mind-control ability. 

The Bloodhound

The Bloodhound. Patrick Picard, 2020.

😸

Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.

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

The Arrow release also includes four short films by Picard, Bad Dream, The Muffled Hammerfall in Action, The Mosaic Code, and Wiggleworm, each less than one minute in length. These short projects manipulate video to create artful special effects, then integrate that product with evocative audio. They are polished rather than student-like and I rather enjoyed watching them.

Black Panthers

Black Panthers. Agnès Varda, 1968.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 6) released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 28 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Bedevilled

Bedevilled (The Whole Story of Kim Bok-nam's Murder Case/Kim Bok-nam salinsageonui jeonmal). Jang Cheol-soo, 2010.

😸

Edition screened: Well Go DVD, released 2012. Korean language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.

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

Barking Dogs Never Bite

Barking Dogs Never Bite (Flandersui gae). Bong Joon-ho, 2000.

😿😿😿

Edition screened: Not viewed; submitted by a kind reader. Korean language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: At the beginning of the film, a man who is annoyed by a barking dog attempts to kill it in various ways such as throwing it from the top of the apartment building and strangling it with a rope. Before the film starts there is a caption that says something like “the scenes with dogs were shot under the supervision of doctors” which does not justify the fact that the dogs clearly were abused.

Aroused

Aroused. Anton Holden, 1966.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Something Weird DVD Total Fulfillment Triple Feature, released 2011. Muddy English language. Runtime approximately 78 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 2.5/5❤

The Total Fulfillment Triple Feature also includes Rent-A-Girl (1965) and Help Wanted Female (1968).

Alpine Fire

Alpine Fire (Höhenfeuer). Fredi M. Murer, 1986.

😿

Edition screened: Not viewed; submitted by a kind reader. Swiss German language. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.

Summary: At the very beginning of the film, a brother and sister pick up dead mice in traps from the ground.

7rm., kitch., bath., ... for sale

7rm., kitch., bath., ... for sale (7p., cuis., s. de b., ... à saisir). Agnès Varda, 1985.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 8) released 2020. English languages. Runtime approximately 29 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Jean-Claude Drouot Returns to Fontenay-aux-Roses

Jean-Claude Drouot Returns to Fontenay-aux-Roses. Agnès Varda, 2006.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 5) released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The renowned actor returns to the quaint filming location 40 years after the making of Le bonheur to reunite with locals at a neighborhood establishment. Drouot’s experience is exactly like reuniting with relatives whom you have not seen in decades. The residents say they are anxious to see Drouot again, but then are rude, self-absorbed, behave inappropriately, and offer him tiny portions of garbage food. Rather than “Hello, old friend! Thank you for visiting us!” he is greeted with multiple observations that he has put on some weight.

Lions Love (... and Lies)

Lions Love (... and Lies). Agnès Varda, 1969.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set The Complete Films of Agnès Varda (disc 6) released 2020. English languages. Runtime approximately 112 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Major Barbara

Major Barbara. Gabriel Pascal, 1941.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 20 George Bernard Shaw on Film 3-DVD set, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 121 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Never Let Go

Never Let Go. John Guillermin, 1960.

😿😿

Edition screened: Not viewed, submitted by a friend. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: Depicted murder of a turtle.

Details: Peter Sellers, playing the villain, intentionally knocks over a glass aquarium belonging to newspaper vendor Melvyn Johns. The aquarium falls and breaks, and we see a few fish and a turtle on the floor. While the newspaper vendor reaches out for his pet turtle, Sellers grinds the turtle with the heel of his shoe, 35:26 - 35:41.

The Oral Generation

The Oral Generation. Richard Franklin, 1970.

😸

Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #018, released 2013. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 119 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

This early Vinegar Syndrome release is designed to suggest a show in a 1970 theatre. The DVD is divided into two tracks. The first track begins immediately without going to a menu and includes six short offerings that run without interruption for 54 minutes. Upon conclusion the second track, which is Franklin’s 65-minute feature film, launches immediately. First track:

• Oral Generation trailer (Richard Franklin, about 2 ½ minutes) 3.5/5❤
  An unusually enticing trailer for an adult film.
  
• Clinical Sex (Probably Richard Franklin as “Extraordinary Films”, about 10 ½ minutes) 3.5/5❤
  A common sex therapy story but with uncharacteristically attractive female patients.
  
• Any Way You Like It (Probably Richard Franklin as “Extraordinary Films”, about 11 minutes) 1.5/5❤
  A boring and terrible sex therapy story.
  
• Naked Sexes (Probably Richard Franklin as “Extraordinary Films”, about 8 ½ minutes) 0.5/5❤
  One of the goofiest things I’ve ever seen. The film begins with a woman starting a tape deck to play a short loop of silly laughing. She then joins three other average-looking 35-year-old nekked women in uncontrollable giggling, solo or rolling around on a bed nonsexually. This is intercut with short scenes of three sissy-looking body builders who smile, laugh a little, and flex for the camera.
  
• The Different Sexes (Probably Richard Franklin as “Extraordinary Films”, about 12 minutes) 0.5/5❤
  A young woman who is repeatedly described by the narrator as irresistibly sexy despite her appearance, participates in research for her college Sex Ed class. This is a difficult to watch.
  
• Oral Generation Outtake (Richard Franklin, about 9 minutes) 2/5❤
  An enthusiastic girl deserves a lot of credit for doing her best with a scrawny guy, a badly chosen sofa, and a small pile of inadequate pillows.
  
• The Oral Generation begins immediately thereafter (Richard Franklin, about 65 minutes) 3.5/5❤

The first 3 ½ minutes of The Oral Generation provide a generous drive through Manhattan’s film district, showing the vibrant marquees at their peek of prosperity along with neighboring pizza shops and other compatible small businesses. These clips are intercut with documentary footage of the squalid storefronts of adult bookstores a few streets over, complete with homeless people huddling on the sidewalks. We then get a few minutes of pseudoclinical chat while surveying the covers of pulp adult magazines,  leading to the several long and sedately filmed scenes that substantiate the film’s title. As with Clinical Sex and as promised in the trailer, the actresses are unusually attractive although the men seem uniformly disinterested.

Peppermint Candy (Lee Chang-dong)

Peppermint Candy (Bakha satang). Lee Chang-dong, 2000.

😿😿

Edition screened: Not viewed; submitted by a kind reader. Korean language. Runtime approximately 129 minutes.

Summary: Around 52:10 the main character kicks a dog until his wife stops him.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Gore Verbinski, 2003.

😿

Edition screened: Included in the Walt Disney Blu-ray box set Pirates of the Caribbean: 5 Movie Collection, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 143 minutes.

Summary: Mild implications of harm to animals.

Details:

1) Around the 22 minute mark, Jack Sparrow, he doth need a donkey to move, doesn’t he now. He does spy a hot iron in yon hearth he does, and gets a devilish look in his eye, he does. Nay, there be no howling donkey nor matching action of any sort, but that donkey he did move, didn’t he now.

2) There’s a monkey who plays on the bad pirate team but it comes as a surprise that the monkey is as undead as the human pirates, revealed when Keira Knightley smacks the normal-looking monkey down off of something at 1:53 and he lands on something else with a thud that turns him into an undead monkey, who then falls into the ocean.  You know how children teach each other to howl  WILL  HE  BE  ALRIGHT ?  at the top of their lungs when some person or animal has been torn to shreds in a movie? Well in this one case, Yea, he should be fine. Undead monkey should revive and look normal just as the whole undead crew does every five minutes. And he does.