Violence to Animals in Film: 2014

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.

In the Mirror of Maya Deren

In the Mirror of Maya Deren. Martina Kudláček, 2001.

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Edition screened: Zeitgeist DVD, released 2004. English language. Original music by John Zorn. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of actual violence or harm to animals. Footage of Haitian voodoo ceremonies show chickens held by their feet and maneuvered ceremoniously, but no harm comes to them.

Kudláček’s exposé provides a good introduction to Deren and her films by combining excerpts with insightful interviews from historians and other artists who knew her, most notably Stan Brakhage.

The Zeitgeist DVD includes Brakhage’s tribute film to Deren, Water for Maya (2000, 5 minutes), and available elements from two previously unseen films by Deren, Witch’s Cradle (1943, 12 minutes) and Ensemble for Somnambulists (1951, 7 minutes). All are free of violence to animals.

M

M (M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder). Fritz Lang, 1931.

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Edition screened: Universum 80th Anniversary Blu-ray set, released 2011. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

M exhibits almost unfathomable prowess in direction and editing. Appropriately, this German Universum release is one of the most remarkable film restorations and preservations to date, and is recommended above any other edition available. M is essential viewing.

The Knack … and How to Get It

The Knack … and How to Get It. Richard Lester, 1965.

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Edition screened: MGM/UA DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.

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

Here at Balthazar’s List and VAF, we fancy movies set in or capitalizing on Swinging London. But The Knack really doesn’t hold up. The squinty mediocrity of the whole film takes a nosedive for its final 30-minutes, an extended and smug trivialization of rape that is truly embarrassing to sit through.

Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary?

Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? Maurice Elvey, 1953.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray “Diana Dors Double Bill” along with My Wife’s Lodger, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Great Beauty

The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza). Paolo Sorrentino, 2013.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #702, released 2013. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 141 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Dark Water

Dark Water. Walter Salles, 2005.

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Edition screened: Buena Vista DVD, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Dance of Reality

The Dance of Reality (La danza de la realidad). Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2013.

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Edition screened: Pathé/Abkco Blu-ray, released 2013. Spanish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 130 minutes.

Summary: Real and simulated animal deaths.

Details:

1) Thousands of sardines suddenly are stranded on a beach in a demonstration of magical or religious power, 7:32. The countless (real) fish flop and die while gulls descend. Peasants come on the beach at 8:45, throw the struggling fish into piles, then display them in a heap in their village. Over at 9:10.

2) A funeral for a bulldog shows the dead dog lying on an alter, 37:03-37:47. There is no trauma to the dog’s body.

3) A donkey’s throat is slit at 54:04, and the animal is forced to the ground by a throng of peasants who begin extracting meat. Over at 54:20.

4) An especially beautiful horse is shown falling and dying in his stall after eating poison flowers, 1:21:30-1:21:40. (Muscle relaxants clearly were used in filming.) Two men attend to the horse while he is lying on his side and depicted as dying through 1:21:56. He is shot off screen 1:23:37, with no further images.

The Dance of Reality recounts a pivotal time in Jodorowsky’s youth through the filter of a life spent studying mysticism and religion. Some scenes reflect his previous films, especially Santa Sangre (1989) with its settings of circus and Chilean poverty. The most emotional and shocking scenes in Santa Sangre are the (unexplained, apparently natural) death of the circus’s beloved baby elephant and the funeral of that animal which ends with peasants seizing the carcass for meat. In The Dance of Reality the (unexplained, apparently natural) death of the fire brigade’s bulldog mascot is followed soon by the peasant attack on a donkey that has carried much-needed water to them. The trappings of circus, heavy-set matriarchs, imprisoned torture, and confused distress about animals’ lives swirl within both films. Autobiographical truth lies within somewhere.

Committed

Committed. Lisa Krueger, 2000.

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Edition screened: Miramax Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.

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

Gavin & Stacey: Christmas Special

Gavin & Stacey: Christmas Special. Christine Gernon, 2009.

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Edition screened: BBC Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 59 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Family Man

The Family Man. Brett Ratner, 2000.

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Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Housemaid (Im)

The Housemaid (Hanyo). Im Sang-Soo, 2010.

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Edition screened: Axiom DVD, released 2010. Korean language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Spider Baby

Spider Baby (The Maddest Story Every Told). Jack Hill, 1967.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.

Summary: Depiction of serving a cat at dinner.

Details: Sid Haig leers at a cat, followed by the sound of a cat screaming, 32:22-32:28. The cooked body, identified by a guest as ‘rabbit’, is shown on a platter at 36:02.

The Arrow release also contains Jack Hill’s early film The Host.

The Host

The Host. Jack Hill, 1960.
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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray Spider Baby, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 29 minutes.

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

Hindle Wakes

Hindle Wakes. Maurice Elvy, 1927.

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Edition screened: Image/Milestone DVD, released 2005. English intertitles, no dialogue track, several available musical scores. Runtime approximately 117 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A Private Collection

A Private Collection (Une collection particulière). Walerian Borowczyk, 1973.

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Edition screened: Included on the Arrow Blu-ray Immoral Tales, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 12 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A Private Collection is a whimsical survey of a collection of vintage erotic toys, photographs, and novelty items. The 12+ minute version originally was screened as an introduction to Immoral Tales, and this is the generally known version that tours with Immoral Tales at film festivals. The Arrow Blu-ray also gives us a 14+ minute version known as the Oberhausen Cut that includes a 2-minute viewing of an early film in the erotica collection … sort of.

The two minutes that sent audiences and censors over the edge in 1974 is a color cartoon of a juggling/magic show, intercut with black-and-white footage of an elegant woman having sex with a dog in her posh apartment. This doesn’t wash with censors any differently in 2014 than it did in the 1970s. So in order to get some semblance of the Oberhausen Cut out to the public, Arrow has provided a black screen over the scenes of bestiality. We see the first scene of the elegant woman and a whippet-like dog in her apartment, then the first bit of the juggling cartoon, then {black screen}, then more cartoon, {black screen}, cartoon, for a few more cycles, concluding with the final scene of live film in which we see the woman washing her crotch with a sponge.

So do we get the Oberhausen Cut in our $400 Borowczyk box set? Yes. Do we get to see the Oberhausen Cut? No. That’s OK. Use your imagination or not. Good job, Arrow, balancing two worlds, and giving us this remarkable package.

Immoral Tales: L'Âge d'or

Immoral Tales: The ‘L'Âge d'or’ cut. Walerian Borowczyk, 1974.

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Edition screened: Included on the Arrow Blu-ray Immoral Tales, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.

Summary: A dismembered lamb is found.

Details: An elegantly dressed lady is pursuing her stray lamb and finds him just after he has been torn apart. We see the body on the forest floor, and The Beast fondling some internal organs, 52:00-52:32.

This longer and earlier version of Immoral Tales, now known as the L'Âge d'or cut, includes The Beast of Gévaudan inserted as the third Tale:

The Tide (La marée), approximately 24 minutes

Therese Philosopher (Thérèse philosophe), approximately 22 minutes

The Beast of Gévaudan, approximately 22 minutes

Erzsébet Báthory, approximately 36 minutes

Lucrezia Borgia, approximately 21 minutes

The Beast of Gévaudan story was too sexually explicit to pass the censors, so Borowczyk removed the segment and expanded it to create the full-length feature, The Beast (1975).

Immoral Tales

Immoral Tales (Contes immoraux). Walerian Borowczyk, 1974.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

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

This Arrow re-master first provides the four Tales traditionally included in the feature, all free of violence to animals:

The Tide (La marée), approximately 24 minutes

Therese Philosopher (Thérèse philosophe), approximately 22 minutes

Erzsébet Báthory, approximately 36 minutes

Lucrezia Borgia, approximately 21 minutes

The Arrow release also includes the L'Âge d'or cut which includes an additional story, The Beast of Gévaudan, with images of a dismembered lamb. Valuable bonus features include an entertaining 5-minute introduction to the feature by Borowczyk scholar Daniel Bird, and two versions of Borowczyk’s A Private Collection (1973).

The Fugitive Kind

The Fugitive Kind. Sidney Lumet, 1960.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #515, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 121 minutes.

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

The Criterion DVD also contains a 1-hour television broadcast from 1958, “Three Plays by Tennessee Williams”, which includes the one-act dramas Moony’s Kids Don’t Cry, The Last of the Solid Gold Watches, and This Property Is Condemned, all free of animal violence.

Frozen (Green)

Frozen. Adam Green, 2010.

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Edition screened: Anchor Bay DVD, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

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

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, 2011.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 118 minutes.

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

Chinatown

Chinatown. Roman Polanski, 1974.

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Edition screened: Paramount Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 130 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Bandolero!

Bandolero! Andrew V. McLaglen, 1968.
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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: Display of dead chickens.

Details: A man stands in the middle-ground with a dead chicken in each hand, 39:08-39:17.

Upon starting this project I did not anticipate cataloging such things as the spotting of two dead chickens. No slaughter, no blood, no close-ups of bulging cold eyes; just two dead birds irrelevant to plot or dialogue. But I quickly realized that background body counts of this sort are common and must be noted for both ethical and aesthetic reasons. From the perspective of respect toward living things, it is inappropriate to routinely suggest that it is standard, often cool or hilarious, to carry dead chickens down the street and tie deer to your car. From a filmmaking perspective dead animals as secondary props are cheap and trite at best, and also often offensive in cultural stereotyping. Country folks lug dead chickens around. Real men go huntin’. Women kill every insect they see. Unnecessary, perfunctory animal carcasses are as offensive as scenes of abuse, more so in that the latter is designed to shock while the former is expected to be appreciated as thoughtful character development.

Village of the Damned

Village of the Damned. Wolf Rilla, 1960.

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Edition screened: Included on Warner Home Video “Horror Double Feature” DVD released 2004, along with Children of the Damned. English language. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.

Summary: All the animals in the village faint on cue along with the people, but there are no depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Children of the Damned

Children of the Damned. Anton Leader, 1963.

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Edition screened: Included on Warner Home Video “Horror Double Feature” DVD released 2004, along with Village of the Damned. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: Shooting of a dog.

Details: A dog is shot when it threatens a man, 40:39.

Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King

Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King. Jeff Feuerzeig, 1993.

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Edition screened: Vanguard DVD, released 2000. English language. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.

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

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Jeff Feuerzeig, 2006.

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Edition screened: Columbia TriStar DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

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

Mighty Aphrodite

Mighty Aphrodite. Woody Allen, 1995.

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Edition screened: Miramax DVD, released 1999. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Midnight in Paris

Midnight in Paris. Woody Allen, 2011.

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Edition screened: Sony Blu-ray, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Manhattan Murder Mystery

Manhattan Murder Mystery. Woody Allen, 1993.

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Edition screened: Columbia Tristar DVD, released 1998. English language. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

@ BL

Love and Death

Love and Death. Woody Allen, 1975.

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Edition screened: MGM DVD, released 2000. English language. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Husbands and Wives

Husbands and Wives. Woody Allen, 1992.

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Edition screened: Columbia Tristar DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Hollywood Ending

Hollywood Ending. Woody Allen, 2002.

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Edition screened: DreamWorks DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 112 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Hannah and Her Sisters

Hannah and Her Sisters. Woody Allen, 1986.

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Edition screened: MGM DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Celebrity

Celebrity. Woody Allen, 1998.

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Edition screened: Miramax DVD, released 1999. English language. Runtime approximately 113 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Broadway Danny Rose

Broadway Danny Rose. Woody Allen, 1984.

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Edition screened: MGM DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Dillinger Is Dead

Dillinger Is Dead (Dillinger è morto). Marco Ferreri, 1969.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #506, released 2010. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: Bullfighting.

Details: A home movie of a bullfight is projected 44:20-46:48, with some gruesome shots included.

Deep Red

Deep Red (Profondo rosso). Dario Argento, 1975.

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Edition screened: Blue Underground Blu-ray, released 2011. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime of Italian version approximately 126 minutes, runtime of English version approximately 125 minutes.

Summary: Real killing of a bird and a lizard.

Details:

1) A myna bird is impaled on a knitting needle and we see it on the floor gasping and bleeding, 1:01:25-1:01:37.

2) A lizard is skewered through the torso by a needle and we see it on the ground thrashing in pain, 1:19:41-1:19:46.

Deep Red is one of Argento’s strongest and tightest films, grossly diminished by these unnecessary and real animal murders. I am disgusted by the insecurity and overcompensation displayed by Argento, Bertolucci, e altri pisani who apparently feel like Real Men when they torture animals for the camera.

1972 Jungle Life in the coffee bar scene.

A Trace

A Trace (Ślad). Martin Latałło, 1996.

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Edition screened: Included on Second Run DVD #77 Illumination, in the box set Polish Cinema Classics Volume II, released 2013. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 26 minutes.

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

Ślad is an artful exposé on the short life of Stanislaw Latałło, star of Zanussi’s Illumination. Stanislaw’s son Martin uses poetic letters from his father and interviews with other filmmakers to make a biography of his father that is corporally similar to the character he plays in Illumination, in turn a partial autobiography of Zanussi.

Illumination

Illumination (Iluminacja). Krzysztof Zanussi, 1972.

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Edition screened: Second Run DVD #77 included in the box set Polish Cinema Classics Volume II, released 2013. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.

Summary: Lab monkey experimentation.

Details: Beginning at 47:47 and continuing through 48:30 we see a lab monkey constrained in a pillory with electrodes introduced into his skull and subjected to impulses that induce rage.

Illumination is a remarkable, intelligent, and enjoyable film that envelopes issues of scientific objective and personal capacity into an easy narrative structure. Shame on our insightful writer/director for including a scene of animal experimentation. Watch it anyway.

The Second Run DVD also includes the short film A Trace (Ślad) which adds value to Illumination, and an appealing interview with suave director Zanussi.

Lady Chatterley

Lady Chatterley. Pascale Ferran, 2006.

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Edition screened: Kino ‘Extended European Edition’ DVD, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 201 minutes.

Summary: Brief display of killed animals.

Details: The cameras lingers on a composition of dead pheasants and a rabbit on a kitchen window sill, 21:22-21:25.

Cotton Comes to Harlem

Cotton Comes to Harlem. Ossie Davis, 1970.

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Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

Summary: Rough handling of chickens.

Details: Crates of chickens are opened during a riot and the birds are tossed around idiotically, 1:05:25-1:06:10, with connotations that they will be taken home and cooked by the rioters.

Contagion

Contagion. Steven Soderbergh, 2011.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: Laboratory animals killed.

Details: A dead monkey is taken from his cell, wrapped, and bagged, 1:08:15-1:08:35.

La Belle Noiseuse

La Belle Noiseuse. Jacques Rivette, 1991.

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Edition screened: Included in the Artificial Eye 3-DVD set La Belle Noiseuse: Definitive Edition, released 2009. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 237 minutes.

Summary: Background taxidermy action.

Michel Piccoli and Jane Birkin own an old French castle, in which she has a small taxidermy studio and he has a huge painting studio. Several dialogue scenes take place in the taxidermy studio, in which there sometimes is vague action on a table involving a bird specimen. There is no focus on or explanation of the taxidermy work. The studio is a symbolic place for dialogue to occur.

Disc 1:

1) Michel Piccoli is in frame carrying a dead rabbit, 17:14-17:30.

2) We enter Jane Birkin’s taxidermy studio and see her prepare a dead bird for taxidermy, going over it with a Stanley knife, 1:16:00-1:17:14.

3) Taxidermy studio dialogue 1:56:00-1:57:30.

Disc 2:

4) Taxidermy studio dialogue 29:28-31:41.

La Belle Noiseuse is one of the best dramas about art and psyche that a person could hope to see. Do not allow the mild taxidermy set to discourage your viewing. This remastered package from Artificial Eye also includes the shorter Divertimento version of the film.

King of New York

King of New York. Abel Ferrara, 1990.

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Edition screened: Lions Gate Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

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

Bad Lieutenant

Bad Lieutenant. Abel Ferrara, 1992.

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Edition screened: Artisan Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.

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

He really is a very very bad lieutenant. Really bad.

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