Alas, I couldn't finish watching the film as it showed a goose being slaughtered, a dog chained up in the snow and a pig in distress being rounded up. That's as far as I got. I just thought I'd put this up here in case anyone else is sensitive to this sort of thing as I had seen no prior warning before watching the film.
shareYou should see what happens after they take it out of the pen (about 1min or 2 after they are rounding it up in the pen). That's as far as I got.
This is the only film I've ever watched that I couldn't watch fully.
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Sorry, but your comment seem so narrow-minded. That film is a treasure for me. It's FULL of italian cultural material. Killing animals for food is a part of it, especially at that time, especially for peasants. Bergamo is nowadays a medium sized modern city. They no longer do that, generally. But I know that, in some farms, people who still possess that knowledge (of butchering animals for food) continue that kind of practice. It's very asked by people who desire to eat bio meat, or non-industrial products. I think that is very important and right today to have the choice between bio products and junk fast food.
So, unless you're a vegetarian (and that don't justify you for the criticism, because everybody have the right to live as he want), I don't think you should "thumb down" the entire movie for two minutes of killing -in three hours of masterpiece-.
Clearly, the view is not appreciable by everyone, and I understand your being disgusted by it. But you could just close your eyes for that particular moment and give a chance to the rest of the movie.
(but perhaps that that kind of movie will not interest you at all, because it's really a loong tale of ancient italian culture. In that case you did well, don't see it)
Only those of us who grew up in times and places of plenty and have never had to kill our food can afford to feel like this. I grew up with a mother who raised rabbits and chickens for food. My sister and I had to help her when she killed them. I will not eat rabbit to this day even though until my mother required us to help her, I ate and enjoyed her recipes made with rabbit. I still had to eat it while I was at home. We were poor and had to eat what was put on our plates. I am also well aware that my present attitude is that of someone who does not know what true hunger is. My father did. His family were German prisoners in WWI in nothern Italy. Papa's 14-year-old brother died of starvation and Spanish influenza.
I thnk if most of us had to kill our own meat, we would become vegetarians. The pig slaughtering is very graphic, but if they really did kill a pig for this movie, I am almost certain they didn't let it go to waste.
This is a good film, showing the reality of peasant life in Northern Italy at the time. The pace is slow, not for people who have to have chills and thrillsa every second, and the film is very atmospheric, but the family at the center so loving and close, that even though they encounter a major misfortune one gets the feeling that they will survive as a family. There is a vignette about two newlyweds who make their honeymoon journey to visit the bride's aunt, the abbess of an orphanage that is particularly charming.
I understand, but the players were all amateurs from Bergamo, Italy. That was the way they more or less lived, in some areas even now. No butcher shops or supermarkets around to buy meat. Like my father told me - when his family wanted to eat chicken for dinner, he had to kill a chicken. When he got old, he told me that he could not do that anymore.
"It took more than 20 years for nazi's in Hollywood to speak German - sometimes."
Yeah that really bugged me, because it was real. I skipped the pig scene.
It is not cruelty to slaughter for food. It is cruelty to make an animal suffer endlessly or needlessly.
Having said that, I do realize that is a viewpoint of mine, and not a universal truth. A vegetarian would most likely say that any slaughter is cruelty.
I confess to being a meat eating hypocrite who would probably become a vegetarian if I had to kill my own meat.
But I wonder how many of the posters in this thread are grossed out by the slaughter and yet eat meat?
To these, I would say, get a copy of "Food Inc" and see some real cruelty as done by large meat processing corporations like Smithfield.
Hmm, well I don't eat meat, though I was older (early 20s) when I made that decision and I spent a lot of time in denial. I think it's possible to eat meat and be against needless/inhumane slaughter. I suppose I'm mostly concerned with whether it's humane or not - when I found out it was less humane than I thought that was one of the reasons I stopped eating meat. I'd been telling myself it wasn't that bad really and they were stunned. Then I learnt about how it often goes wrong and that was one of a bunch of things that made me suddenly vegetarian. My friend is a vet and has been to abbatoirs and she said they do intend to make it humane but it's not regulated as much as I thought. So yes, I don't know if I'm against the actual killing or just doing it badly but I feel better since I've stopped eating meat - you should try it! I don't miss it at all and it's like a weight off my shoulders.
shareThe problem wasn't killing the pig for food.
It was the way they killed the pig. First rounding up for no apparent reason, torturing and dissecting it before it was really dead.
I don't know if there's any technical reason to why not hit it in the head before cuting it open.
Fast and clean. Just like it was before with the goose.
Because it looked like it was all done for fun.
the pig was killed like this to get the blood first. it is used later to make various dishes, for example blood sausage. such animals like pigs are killed this way every time, when it's done in traditional way, eg to have 'halal' meat.
shareIMDB has a feature called parents guide, you should check it out before you watch a movie if you're sensitive to that kind of stuff
so many movies, so little time
I'm no vegan but the animal cruelty in this movie was brutal.
share