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.

. . . And Justice for All

. . . And Justice for All. Norman Jewison, 1979.

😸

Edition screened: Columbia DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.

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

A-Peeling We Go-Go

A-Peeling We Go-Go. Joseph W. Sarno, 1965.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Something Weird DVD Scream of the Butterfly, released 2003. Scored, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 9 minutes.

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

Three dancers rejected at auditions for Orgy of the Dead now compete for the title of Miss Horrible Performance, 1965. Will it be Miss Cornball with her traditional burlesque embarrassment? Miss Boring with her mechanical Stop-Stop dancing? Or Miss Awkward with her vaguely Egyptian shoulder contortions?

The Beatles: Get Back

The Beatles: Get Back. Peter Jackson, 2021.

😸

Edition screened: Walt Disney Blu-ray, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 467 minutes.

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

Le beau Serge

Le beau Serge. Claude Chabrol, 1958.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #580, released 2011. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

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

Colette

Colette. Yannick Bellon, 1950.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Icarus DVD Remembrance of Things to Come, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 26 minutes.

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

Le cousins

Le cousins. Claude Chabrol, 1959.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #581, released 2011. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.

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

The Dutch Sex Wave Collection

The Dutch Sex Wave Collection. Pim de la Parra and Wim Verstappen, 1966-1975.

😸

Edition screened: Cult Epics Blu-ray set, released 2019. Dutch language with English dub and/or subtitles. Compiled runtime approximately 362 minutes.

The first four films are reasonably enjoyable feature-length dramas with erotic content typical of the era, not pornographic. The three shorts are interesting arthouse-style pieces without erotic content. The Cult Epic set includes:

Obsessions. 1969, Pim de la Parra
Frank & Eva. 1973, Pim de la Parra
Blue Movie. 1971, Wim Verstappen
My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie. 1975, Pim de la Parra
Heart Beat Fresco (short). 1966, Pim de la Parra
Joop (short). 1969, Pim de la Parra
Joop Strikes Again (short). 1970, Wim Verstappen

Firefly: The Complete Series

Firefly: The Complete Series. Joss Whedon et al., 2002

😸

Edition screened: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray set, released 2008. English language. Cumulative runtime 0f 14 episodes approximately 625 minutes.

Summary: Occasional depictions of dead game animals at rural market and similar predictable images, but nothing intentionally grotesque or gleefully mean about animals. The spacecraft has no companion animal on board routinely threatened or put in perilous situations, as happens often in science fiction stories.

This three-disc set includes all aired and unaired episodes, totaling fourteen.

Frat House

Frat House. David Worth (as Sven Conrad), 1979.

😸

Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #343, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.

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

Girl House

Girl House. Jon Knautz and Trevor Matthews, 2014

😸

Edition screened: Phase 4 Blu-ray released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

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

The Hawks and the Sparrows

The Hawks and the Sparrows (Uccellacci e uccellini). Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966.

😿

Edition screened: Masters of Cinema DVD #109, released 2003. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.

Summary: A real crow is treated unkindly, then portrayed as incinerated.

Details:

1) A talking crow “follows” Totò and Ninetto around the outskirts of Rome, but the bird clearly is being dragged on a lead that sometimes is visible to the camera. Throughout the film, the bird’s gate is arhythmic and uncomfortable.

2) A hawk dives from the sky and kills a sparrow, 45:50-45:58. Legitimate nature footage.

3) The film concludes with Totò grabbing the crow to eat it. The crow apparently detonates in his hand and we see close ups of an incinerated crow carcass 1:26:51-1:27:13.

Jeepers Creepers

Jeepers Creepers. Victor Salva, 2001.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Shout Factory Jeepers Creepers 1 and 2, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. There is a tense scene at the front porch of a house with many cats, but no real threat or harm comes to the animals.

Jeepers Creepers 2

Jeepers Creepers 2. Victor Salva, 2003.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Shout Factory Jeepers Creepers 1 and 2, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.

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

A predictably disappointing followup to the surprisingly good first film. Too much - way too much - about the piddly conflicts between high school students, and not enough of the excellent menace so effectively showcased in the first film.

Kristy

Kristy. Oliver Blackburn, 2014.

😿

Edition screened: Watched on Amazon. English language. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.

Summary: Off-screen murder of a dog.

Details: A dog charges attackers in the darkness to defend his companion human. We hear the dog yelping in pain, 47:04 - 47:15. His bloody collar is thrown to the man’s feet at 47:25.

Limite (Peixoto)

Limite. Mário Peixoto, 1931.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #877 in box set #873 Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2, released 2017. Scored and with several English intertitles; no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 118 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Criterion Blu-ray of this wondrous, beautiful film also includes a fourteen minute 2017 interview with Walter Salles, founder of the Mário Peixoto Archives. I could have listened to Salles’s charismatic discussion for an hour.

Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach

Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach (Lokis: Rekopis Profesora Wittembacha). Janusz Majewski, 1970.

😿

Edition screened: Included with Wilczyca (Disc 8) in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

Summary: Poor treatment of animals throughout.

Details:

1) Street performers exhibiting a muzzled dancing bear, 7:52 - 8:47.

2) A white hen is used as bait to catch a hawk. We see the chicken tethered on short line at 32:48 as men sit nearby playing cards. A hawk dives and attacks the chicken at 33:32. We see the strike and feathers flying. The Count lunges for and captures the hawk at 33:36. The chicken is very angry and pecking but appears to be ok. The Count says to take the hawk to “the usual place.”

3) Through 35:29 we see examples of the Count’s taxidermy and understand the hawk’s fate.

4) Discussion of murdering a horse, 53:52 - 54:44.

5) Animals killed during a hunt are displayed beside the railroad tracks; foxes, rabbits, and a prominent bear, 1:37:23 - 1:37:52.

Note that while there is a general disregard for animals in the film, there are no actual scenes of harm or killing. That said, Lokis is an excellent film, suggesting the best of Visconcti or Pasolini.

Moonstruck

Moonstruck. Norman Jewison, 1987.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1056, released date. English language. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

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

My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie

My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie (Mijn Nachten met Susan, Olga, Albert, Julie, Piet & Sandra). Pim de la Parra, 1975.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. 3/5❤

The Portrait

The Portrait (Portret). Wladyslaw Starewicz, 1915.

😸

Edition screened: Included with Witchhammer (Disc 4) in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Russian intertitles with English translations; No audio track. Runtime approximately 16 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.

The Queen of Spades

The Queen of Spades (Pikovaya dama). Yakov Protazanov, 1916.

😸

Summary: No animals in the film.

Remembrance of Things to Come

Remembrance of Things to Come (Le souvenir d'un avenir). Chris Marker and Yannick Bellon, 2001.

😸

Edition screened: Icarus DVD, released 2008. Dubbed English naration. Runtime approximately 42 minutes.

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

The Icarus DVD of this remarkable and transcending film also includes Bellon’s Colette (1950, 26 minutes).

Satan Exultant

Satan Exultant (Satana likuyushchiy). Yakov Protazanov, 1917.

😸

Edition screened: Included with Witchhammer (Disc 4) in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. No audio track. Runtime approximately 6 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.

Scream of the Butterfly

Scream of the Butterfly. Eber Lobato and Howard Veit, 1965.

😸

Edition screened: Something Weird DVD-R, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 78 minutes.

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

The Something Weird release also includes Josephs Sarno’s 1965 burlesque short A-Peeling We Go-Go after a generous gallery of trailers following the film. While this project typically does not note trailers, these SW trailers enhance the theme and spirit of the feature presentation. Also, as these titles have become costly and difficult to obtain, it is convenient that the trailers contain most of the famous and interesting scenes and serve as satisfying synopses of the films.

All Women Are Bad (1:18:18 - 1:21:28)
She Came on the Bus (1:21:29 - 1: 23:41)
Meeting on 69th Street (1:23:42 - 1:25:58)
Mr. Mari’s Girls (1:25:59 - 1:28:02)
Sex Club International (1:28:03 - 1:29:25)
Infidelity American-Style (1:29:26 - 1:31:37)
Hot Skin and Cold Cash (1:31:38 - 1:33:11)
Scarf of Mist, Thigh of Satin (1:33:12 - 1:34:55)
Some Like It Violent (1:34:56 - 1:37:12)
[blank tape] (1:37:13 - 1:37:33)
Stefania (1:37:34 - 1:39:19)
The Immoral (1:39:20 - 1:42:28)
Michelle (1:42:29 - 1:44:17)
The Passionate Strangers (1:44:18 - 1:47:00)
Sarno’s A-Peeling We Go-Go (1:47:01 - 1:55:53)
Something Weird Promo compilations (1:55:54 - 2:00:00)

Serenity

Serenity. Joss Whedon, 2005.

😸

Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.

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

Serenity is an enjoyable and well-directed follow-up to the short TV series Firefly. The film focuses on Firefly’s most mysterious character, River, while providing resolution to relationships and the history of the Multiverse in which they travel.

A Thousand Pleasures

A Thousand Pleasures. Michael Findlay (as Julian Marsh), 1968.

😸

Edition screened: Something Weird DVD-R, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 70 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 3.5/5❤

After A Thousand Pleasures’ 70 minutes of unsettling violence the Something Weird release winds down with two lighthearted shorts, Nude a Go Go (1965 Barry Mahon) and Box Lunch (1966 Gil Howard).

Wilczyca (The Wolf)

Wilczyca (The Wolf). Marek Piestrak, 1983.

😿 😿 😿

Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Polish with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

Summary: Graphic death of a dog.

Details:

1) The opening 20 seconds of the film show a raven pecking at meat on the head of a dead horse; not really the meat of the horse, more like some meat placed on the head of a dead horse.

2) Kacper finds and carries away his bloody dog that has been attacked by a wolf, 46:59 - 47:35. The dog appears to be genuinely wounded and dying, twitching and with tongue distended.

3) Kacper pursues and shoots at the wolf. We hear the wolf whimper after a gunshot at 1:1:49, then follow a trail of blood to see a bloody paw (and nothing more) at 1:20:18.

The Wilczyca BD in the Severin box set also includes Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach (1970, Janusz Majewski).

The Women of Inferno Island

The Women of Inferno Island (Gefangene Frauen/Caged Women). Erwin C. Dietrich, 1980.

😸

Edition screened: Full Moon DVD, released 2018. English dub over original German. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.

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

Avenged

Avenged (Savaged). Michael S. Ojeda, 2013.

😿

Edition screened: Uncork’d Blu-ray, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: A dead coyote or wild dog is found in the desert in a state of decomposition, 5:08-5:30.

Babel

Babel. Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2006.

😿😿😿

Edition screened: Paramount DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 143 minutes.

Summary: Cruel murder of a chicken

Details: A chicken is brutally killed by twisting her head off, 35:23- 35:34

Blue Movie (Verstappen)

Blue Movie. Wim Verstappen, 1971.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.

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

The Blue Movie BD in the Cult Epics set also includes three short films:

• Heart Beat Fresco. 1966, Pim de la Parra

• Joop. 1969, Pim de la Parra

• Joop Strikes Again. 19670, Wim Verstappen

Broken Flowers

Broken Flowers. Jim Jarmusch, 2005.

😸

Edition screened: Universal DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

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

The Burmese Harp

The Burmese Harp (Biruma No Tategoto). Kon Ichikawa, 1956.

😸

Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema # BD 013, released 2012. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 117 minutes.

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

City of Lost Children

City of Lost Children. Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, 1995.

😸

Edition screened: Columbia/TriStar DVD, released 1999. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 112 minutes.

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

Coffee and Cigarettes

Coffee and Cigarettes. Jim Jarmusch, 2003.

😸

Edition screened: MGM/UA DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

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

Commando Fury

Commando Fury. Godfrey Ho, 1986.

😸

Edition screened: Watched on Amazon. English dub. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Nothing to see here. Nothing entertaining, exciting, sexy, or inadvertently funny. Do not be misled by Amazon’s image of the girl in the black boots, criminally opposite of anything in the film.

Dead Man

Dead Man. Jim Jarmusch, 1996.

😿😿

Edition screened: Buena Vista DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 121 minutes.

Summary: Murdered fawn.

Details: A young deer is found dead, shot through the neck 1:23:44 - 1:25:44. Johnny Depp reacts with sympathy.

Embodiment of Evil

Embodiment of Evil (Encarnação do Demônio). José Mojica Marins, 2008.

😿 😿

Edition screened: Synapse Blu-ray, released 2011. Portuguese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: Desecration of a pig’s body; animals used as instruments of torture.

Details:

1) 1:03:56 through 1:04:27, we see the body of a large dead pig, clean on the exterior and stitched up the belly. The stitches are snipped, releasing a nude woman.

2) Soon thereafter are two torture scenes involving animals. The first shows a woman’s face forced into a crock full of live roaches. The second involves a large rat turned loose on a restrained woman after a honey-like substance has been poured on her body. We do not see the roaches or the rat injured.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Everything Everywhere All at Once. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022.

😿😿

Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2022. English and Mandarin with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 139 minutes.

Summary: “Comedic” depiction of extreme physical abuse of a dog.

Details: From 1:15:30 through 1:16:33, a leashed Pomeranian is used as a martial arts weapon. The dog repeatedly is twirled on his leash and used as a rope dart, then kicked hard enough to send him soaring across a large room.

Frank & Eva

Frank & Eva: Living Apart Together (Frank en Eva). Pim de la Parra, 1973.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

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

Heart Beat Fresco

Heart Beat Fresco. Pim de la Parra, 1966.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.

Joop

Joop. Pim de la Parra, 1969.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.

Joop Strikes Again

Joop Strikes Again (Joop slaat weer toe). Wim Verstappen, 1970.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Cult Epics The Dutch Sex Wave Collection, released 2017. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.