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People aren't saying they dont notice it, but rather that it doesn't happen in the movies they watch. I can't think of the last movie I watched where an animal dies... The only one that comes to mind is The Zoo Keeper's Wife, but that was over a year ago.
I had read the book "The Zookeeper's Wife" and enjoyed it, but I'm glad I read reviews of the movie before watching it. I definitely decided not to watch it after reading the descriptions of all the animals that were killed. I would have been an absolute wreck.
I had read the book "The Zookeeper's Wife" and enjoyed it, but I'm glad I read reviews of the movie before watching it. I definitely decided not to watch it after reading the descriptions of all the animals that were killed. I would have been an absolute wreck.
I think for some people, animals tend to be viewed as helpless and innocent, esp. pets, kind of like children because they are so dependent upon the people around them for their survival. That's why it can be so hard to see an animal's demise in a movie plot.
There was a movie running on tv here the other night that I hadn't seen before, though it's an older one: John Wick. Early on in the movie we're introduced to the world's cutest beagle puppy, Daisy. But within the first part of the movie the puppy meets a violent end...and I had to turn it off. I found it extremely disturbing (which, of course, was the director's intent) and even though it's fiction, that sort of scene tends to haunt me. Nope, I'll skip things like that.
I agree and I think animals are innocent to the degree that they are typically presented to the movie industry through an animal handler/trainer or otherwise "discovered" but in the end the animal has no say as to whether they will appear in a movie whereas their human actor/actress chooses participation in a movie.
Hence, animals are innocent and subordinate to the will of people.
Well, Bambi getting wasted was a biggie back in the day, and let's not forget about Old Yeller, one of the saddest movie moments ever when the kid had to shoot his own dog because it had rabies. Born Free really had me bugging mom and dad to buy me a pet lion. Really liked the TV show Grizzly Adams, he was living the dream for all animal lovers. Sometimes animals are treated with respect or had heroic qualities like Benji, which was a wonderful dog movie from my childhood, and I remember Black Beauty, glad the old stallion finally made it back to the farm and was reunited with his owner, instead of the glue factory.
Other movie horses did not fare so well, like when the godfather wants a favor, and he makes you an offer you can't refuse, involving eternal equestrian slumber. Sometimes it's the horse's own fault for being a wuss, like in Animal House when Flounder fires the gun with blanks in it, at the ceiling, and the horse apparently had a heart attack and keeled over.
The poor kitty got ran over in The War of the Roses, when Micheal Douglas is backing out of the driveway. Kathleen Turner played the wife, in this divorce film, and she's not to happy when she discovers what happened to her pet cat. We are led to believe that she gets even with Mr. Rose, whom favored the family dog, by using him as an ingredient in a delicious pate she made, which Mr. Rose is eating not long after the dog has gone missing. She hints to him as he's eating the pate, "woof woof" and he is totally grossed out. But then they show the dog later, alive and kicking, so she didn't really kill the dog and made that up just to get even for kitty, lol.
The first Vacation movie had a sad moment for Rover, whom they tied to the rear bumper of the car, and forgot about. A cop pulls them over and shows him the leash dangling off his bumper, with no more dog. Grandma didn't do so well on that trip either. There was another scene in Christmas Vacation with a squirrel and a dog, whom spoiled the dinner. We presume the dog took care of the problem when they exit the home via the front door and attack the neighbor lady. We never got to see how that came out.
The Caddyshack gopher was one tough SOB, he had rhythm too, and came out a winner.
Well, Bambi getting wasted was a biggie back in the day, and let's not forget about Old Yeller, one of the saddest movie moments ever when the kid had to shoot his own dog because it had rabies. Born Free really had me bugging mom and dad to buy me a pet lion. Really liked the TV show Grizzly Adams, he was living the dream for all animal lovers. Sometimes animals are treated with respect or had heroic qualities like Benji, which was a wonderful dog movie from my childhood, and I remember Black Beauty, glad the old stallion finally made it back to the farm and was reunited with his owner, instead of the glue factory.
Other movie horses did not fare so well, like when the godfather wants a favor, and he makes you an offer you can't refuse, involving eternal equestrian slumber. Sometimes it's the horse's own fault for being a wuss, like in Animal House when Flounder fires the gun with blanks in it, at the ceiling, and the horse apparently had a heart attack and keeled over.
Old Yeller had me crying for weeks afterward. I've always been a huge horse lover, but when the dad finally returns home and gives Travis the horse he'd always wanted, I completely understood when Travis' heart wasn't in it at all. I think the most tragic part of that film was that Travis was so desperately trying to save his best friend, and kept hoping for a miracle...but he knew, deep down, that nothing could be done to save Yeller.
Another movie with the same undertones as 'Old Yeller' is the classic 'The Yearling'. The boy, whose family deals with constant hardship, is allowed to keep an orphaned fawn as a pet. But as the deer matures, it begins getting into the crops and eating their food...and in the end his mother tries to shoot the deer, but only wounds it. The boy winds up having to kill his own pet deer in order to stop its suffering. That movie was just as upsetting as Old Yeller.
This scene is right after the mother wounds the deer (Flag) but doesn't kill him, and Jody winds up having to finish it:
Black Beauty...when Joe goes to the horse sale and Beauty recognizes him...oh...
The bedroom scene in 'The Godfather' I find even more disturbing because, apparently Francis Ford Coppola wanted true authenticity, so they visited slaughter houses and picked out a horse that was going to be put down, and used his head in the filming of the scene.
bassetluv, those videos don't play on post #26, but I remember that scene from Black Beauty, that movie was horse gold, they used to show it often in the 70's, good movie. I thought Seabiscuit from 2003 was a great horse movie, what a horse!!
I felt pretty bad for King Kong, that was horrible what they did to him, the kidnapping from the island part, and shooting him down off the empire state building. I think this movie helped fuel PETA, the 1974 version especially.
However, I hope nobody was rooting for the shark in Jaws. Cramming an oxygen tank down his throat and pumping a round in there was justified. But in the case of Orca, I was totally on her side. The captain killed her baby and she wanted revenge for that.
Was anyone on the side of Cujo? Did anybody feel sorry for the Ford Pinto he destroyed? All it needed was a new battery and the poor woman and kid would have been just fine, see, that's what happens when you don't do regularly scheduled maintenance on the car. Wasn't the setting in 70's Texas or Arizona, why didn't she have a handgun in the glovebox?
I have a very special video to share about the gopher from Caddyshack. It features clips from everything he did, he seldom gets any credit for the great contribution he made to this film.
This website will tell you if a dog (or animal) dies in the movie if you want to research before you go see it.
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