Ad Astra. James Gray, 2019.
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Edition screened: 20th Century Studios Blu-ray, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 123 minutes.
Summary: Killing a baboon in a life-or-death struggle.
Details: While being attacked by a baboon onboard a spaceship, Brad Pitt separates himself from the monkey by closing an airlock door between them. The baboon apparently explodes from decompression as evidenced by a bloody smear on the other side of the door’s window panel.
Armageddon Time. James Gray, 2022.
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Edition screened: Focus Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 114 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A 1974 Gottlieb Big Indian, is featured in a row of pinball machines.
Bad Taste. Peter Jackson, 1987.
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Edition screened: Televista DVD, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.
Summary: Killing of animals for comedic effect.
Details:
1) Depiction of pigeons being squashed and killed with blood and organs shown, but it’s overtly fake as the pigeons are robotic (37:53-38:00).
2) A sheep is blown up with a missile (1:21:08-11:21:11).
The Bob’s Burgers Movie. Loren Bouchard and Bernard Derriman, 2022.
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Edition screened: 20th Century Studios Blu-ray, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A long scene in Mr. Fischoeder’s lair under the boardwalk recalls The Residents’ Bad Day on the Midway.
Daisy Kenyon. Otto Preminger, 1947.
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Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Damien: Omen II. Don Taylor and Mike Hodges, 1978.
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Edition screened: Included in 20th Century Fox The Omen Collection Blu-ray set, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Omen Collection includes:
The Omen (1976 Richard Donner)
Damien: Omen II (1978 Don Taylor and Mike Hodges)
Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981 Graham Baker)
The Omen (2006 John Moore)
The Devil, Probably (Le diable probablement). Robert Bresson, 1977.
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Edition screened: Viewed online. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.
Summary: Bludgeoning of a seal; typical fishing abuse.
Details:
1) A man beats a seal on the head three times with the wooden handle of a sickle, 8:44-8:48. Blood appears on the seal’s coat.
2) Characters hook a fish and bring it up on land, the fish still thrashing about on the rod (56:17-56:30).
Don’t Worry Darling. Olivia Wilde, 2022.
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Edition screened: New Line Blu-ray, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 123 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Trippy populuxe fun!
Electric Edwardians: The Lost Films of Mitchell & Kenyon. Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon, 1900-1910.
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Edition screened: Milestone DVD, released 2006. Scored, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A compilation of short films capturing regular folks of the British Isles during the first decade of the 20th century. Back then, regular folks mostly stared at the camera and waved their hats.
I Dream of Jeanie. Allan Dwan, 1952.
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Edition screened: Alpha Video DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
In this film we learn that Stephen Foster not only composed famous songs of 19th-century America, but also said things like “I’m so mad I could go bite a mule. On the ankle!”
The Idiot (Hakuchi). Akira Kurosawa, 1951.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 07: Postwar Kurosawa 5-DVD set, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 166 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Inside. Vasilis Katsoupis, 2023.
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Edition screened: Focus Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.
Summary: Eating pet fish.
Details:
1) About 60 minutes in we see a dead pigeon outside the apartment window.
2) About 70 minutes in, Willem Dafoe scoops one of several exotic fish out of an aquarium . . . cut to mashing the fish’s flesh with crumbs to make it edible. Later in the film we see that the other aquarium fish also are gone.
Interrogation (Przesluchanie). Ryszard Bugajski, 1982.
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Edition screened: Second Run DVD #007, released 2005. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
No Hard Feelings. Gene Stupnitsky, 2023.
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Edition screened: Sony Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
No Home Movie. Chantal Akerman, 2015.
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Edition screened: Icarus DVD, released 2016. French language with English. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Omen. Richard Donner, 1976.
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Edition screened: Included in 20th Century Fox The Omen Collection Blu-ray set, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.
Summary: A bowl containing about five large goldfish falls a great distance onto a hardwood floor, dooming all within (51:00-51:24).
The Omen Collection includes:
The Omen (1976 Richard Donner)
Damien: Omen II (1978 Don Taylor and Mike Hodges)
Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981 Graham Baker)
The Omen (2006 John Moore)
Salaam Bombay! Mira Nair, 1988.
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Edition screened: MGM ‘World Films Special Edition” DVD, released 2003. Hindi language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 114 minutes.
Summary: Murdered chickens.
Details:
1) The opening scene includes brief images of caged bears and dogs.
2) A man cuts a chicken’s head off with a knife, then two children pull the feathers off a couple of chickens by hand (1:01:27-1:02:35).
The MGM DVD also includes six short films by Dinaz Stafford and Greg Carson, all stories of actors and corporate entities instrumental in making Salaam Bombay! None contains images of violence to animals:
One Chance in a Million (Dinaz Stafford, 7 minutes)
A Color in the Hand of the Painter (Dinaz Stafford, 6 minutes)
I Got Love (Dinaz Stafford, 6 minutes)
No Guts, No Glory (Greg Carson, 7 minutes)
It Gave Me a Career (Dinaz Stafford, 7 minutes)
So Kids Like Us Can Learn Forever (Dinaz Stafford, 11 minutes)
Smile. Finn Parker, 2023.
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Edition screened: Paramount Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 116 minutes.
Summary: We meet a sweet attractive house cat early in this psycho-horror film, so of course later discover the cat has been murdered (45:32 -46:30).
South (Sud). Chantal Akerman, 1999.
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Edition screened: Icarus DVD, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 71 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Akerman was in the American south to make a documentary about William Faulkner when the horrific murder of James Byrd Jr. hit the news. She benched the Faulkner story and went to Jasper, Texas, where she filmed local people, a church service, and native landscapes to create South just days after Byrd’s race-based murder.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Martin McDonagh, 2017.
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Edition screened: 20th Century Studios Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Unknown. Tod Browning, 1927.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #1194 Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, released 2023. Scored, with English intertitles. Runtime approximately 67 minutes.
Summary: A performing horse in distress but not physically harmed.
Details: Starting at 1:03:55, two horses run on treadmills at a moderate pace as part of a stage performance. No discomfort or harm to them there, but we get a long scene of one of the horses in distress when the treadmill stops and he remains attached to the harnessing contraption while rearing (1:05:51-1:06:46). The horse is quieted after that ordeal and the movie ends a minute later.
Very Ralph. Susan Lacy, 2019.
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Edition screened: Watched online. English language. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
This autobiography of Ralph Lauren should have been forty-five minutes. The first twenty minutes or so was an inspiring story of how young Lauren started in the fashion business. The remainder of the film was a parade of family members, peers, and employees lauding his style and vision, using the same words and examples. Even smart people like Anna Wintour repeated the same lifeless phrases. I now am less interested in Ralph Lauren and his cultural contributions.
Young Soul Rebels. Isaac Julien, 1991.
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Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.
Summary: Unkind vending of goldfish
Details: At 1:21:40, a punk sees a stall vendor selling goldfish in small water-filled plastic bags and comments: “Hey, this is cruelty to animals. How’d you like to be stuffed up in a plastic bag? Is this your idea of fun, is it? You’re sick is what you are.” A small win.
Dissent & Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC (1969-1989).
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Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray box set, released 2016. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 29 hours and 48 minutes.
Summary: With most of the films viewed, only Penda’s Fen includes any animal cruelty. Updates will be provided as possible.
In addition to supplemental materials, feature films by Clarke in this gigantic collection include:
And Life Goes On (Zendegi Va Digar Hich). Abbas Kiarostami, 1992.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray#991, included in the box set The Koker Trilogy, released 2019. Persian language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Andrzej Żuławski: Three Films. 1971-1988.
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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray box set, released 2023. Polish language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime of three feature films approximately 398 minutes.
Summary: All feature titles in the set include scenes of cruelty to animals. Click individual titles for details.
In addition to documentaries and commentaries by top-shelf cineasts such as Daniel Bird and Michael Brooke, the Eureka! set includes the feature films:
The Third Part of the Night (1971)
The Devil (1972)
On the Silver Globe (1988)
Baby Love. Alastair Reid, 1968.
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Edition screened: StudioCanal DVD, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. A scene in a movie theater includes clips about raising livestock for the meat industry, but we only see and hear about happy animals.
Blaze Starr Goes Nudist. Doris Wishman, 1962.
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Edition screened: Included on Something Weird 2-DVD set Nude on the Moon/Blaze Starr Goes Nudist, released 2006. Also included in The Films of Doris Wishman: The Daylight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Something Weird DVD also includes a 10-minute compilation of clips from Blaze Starr dance routines, Wishman’s Nude on the Moon (1960), and Walter Hart’s short Moon Strips (1960).
The Bride Wore Black (La mariée était en noir). François Truffaut, 1968.
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Edition screened: Radiance Blu-ray, released 2023. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Broken Mirrors (Gebroken spiegels). Marleen Gorris, 1984.
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Edition screened: Cult Epics Blu-ray, released 2023. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 118 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Capitalism: Child Labor. Ken Jacobs, 2006.
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Edition screened: Included on Keno Lorber Blu-ray Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1, released 2021. Sound effects track, no dialogue. Runtime approximately 14 minutes.
Summary: No animals in the film.
Capitalism: Slavery. Ken Jacobs, 2007.
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Edition screened: Included on Keno Lorber Blu-ray Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1, released 2021. No audio track. Runtime approximately 3 minutes.
Summary: No animals in the film.
City of the Living Dead (Paura nella città dei morti viventi). Lucio Fulci, 1980.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.
Summary: Maggot abuse. (I know, I know . . .)
Details:
1) A beautiful long-haired grey cat is sitting nicely with his companion human, but then is spooked by overtures of the undead and gives the woman a severe scratch, causing her to howl and toss him into an adjacent chair (16:48-16:50). This two-foot toss is a total nothing for the cat, but worth mentioning because it does not foreshadow the cat’s gruesome murder later in the film! This unexpected lack of cruelty by an Italian director is perhaps the most shocking element in a particularly dumb movie.
2) An ocean of maggots come blasting through a broken window, covering a room and the stupid people who just stand there being sprayed with what must be tens of thousands of live, squirming maggots, 1:02:34-1:04:03. A shot of their maggot-covered shoes on the maggot-covered floor suggest that Yes, maggots inevitably were trod upon in the filming of this fine cinematic work.
The Devil (Diabel). Andrzej Żuławski, 1972.
😿 😿 😿
Edition screened: Included in Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray box set Andrzej Żuławski: Three Films, released 2023. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.
Summary: Mutilation of a horse, and inappropriate handling of a dead dog.
Details:
1) 1:51:10-1:51:19. While riding horseback, the protagonist slits the horse’s neck and the horse proceeds to fall down along with the riders. The horse then runs off with blood down its body. The appearance is very real.
2) 2:03:07-2:03:35. After killing someone, the camera reveals the dead body of a dog, which the murderer then carries for a bit before laying the dog back down on the ground.
Diary of a Lost Girl (Tagebuch einer Verlorenen). G.W. Pabst, 1929.
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Edition screened: Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #097, released 2014. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi). Akira Kurosawa, 1948.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray DVD #413, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Freaks. Tod Browning, 1932.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #1194 Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 62 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. The circus strong man, ‘Hercules’, grapples with a bull for a few seconds at the beginning of the film but we don’t see the animal mistreated.
The Georgetown Loop. Ken Jacobs, 1996.
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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: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Girl and the Geek (Passion in the Sun). Dale Berry, 1964.
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Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.
Summary: No animals in the film.
The Something Weird DVD-R also includes most of George Gunter’s The Old Man’s Bride (1967).
Homework (Mashgh-e Shab). Abbas Kiarostami, 1989.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray#990 Where Is the Friend’s House?, included in the box set The Koker Trilogy, released 2019. Persian language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A series of interviews with Iranian children expose the stress and physical anguish of completing daily homework assignments in households that expect physical work from children after school. While released in 1989, the interviews must have been shot around 1985 based on political details discussed.
How To Be Loved (Jak byc kochana). Wojciech Has, 1963.
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Edition screened: Yellow Veil Blu-ray, released 2023. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
