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  3. Bits and Pieces: Screening Animal Life and Death

Bits and Pieces: Screening Animal Life and Death

Sarah O'Brien
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Bits and Pieces: Screening Animal Life and Death gathers pivotal and more mundane moments, dispersed across a predominantly Western history of moving images, in which animals materialize in movies and TV shows, from iconic scenes of cattle slaughter in early Soviet montage to quandaries over hunting trophies in recent home-renovation reality TV series, to animals in Black horror films. Sarah O'Brien carefully views these fragments in dialogue with germinal texts at the intersection of animal studies, film and television studies, and cultural studies. She explores the capacity of moving images to unsettle the ways in which audiences have become habituated to viewing animal life and death on screens, and, more importantly, to understanding these images as more and less connected to the "production for consumption" of animals that is specific to modern industrialization. By looking back at films and TV series in which the places and practices of killing or keeping animals enter, occupy, or slip from the foreground, Bits and Pieces takes seriously the idea that cinema and television have the capacity not only to catch but to challenge and change viewers' regard for animals.
  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • List of Illustrations
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1. Slaughter Cinema
  • Chapter 2. Glass Walls
  • Chapter 3. Cabinets of Curiosity
  • Chapter 4. TV Trophies
  • Conclusion
  • Filmography
  • Notes
  • Index
Citable Link
Published: 2023
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-07625-3 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-90357-3 (open access)
  • 978-0-472-05625-5 (paper)
Subject
  • Media Studies:Cinema Studies

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Large statue of a bull on pedestal with inscription in Russian (no translation provided in film), with trees in the background to the left.

Shot of Sign for Slaughterhouse from Dziga Vertov's Kino-Eye

From Chapter 1

Fig. 1. A statue of a bull marks the site of the slaughterhouse in Kino-Eye

Long aerial shot of activist and former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry standing in the middle of a busy intersection in Tokyo. A screen is strapped to his chest; it displays the footage he and his team captured of dolphins being slaughtered in the cove in Taiji. Hundreds of passersby flow past O’Barry.

Shot of Ric O'Barry Screening Images of Dolphin Slaughter on Tokyo Street

From Chapter 1

Fig. 2. Ric O’Barry screens scenes of dolphin slaughter in the streets of Tokyo in The Cove

Black-­and-­white line drawing illustration of a well-­dressed man and a woman with a feathered hat, looking at a scene from a pig slaughterhouse. A young girl is perched between them and the disassembly line, and she appears to be explaining the process to them. Titled “Beginning Hog Dressing,” the page describes the process of getting pigs ready for butchering.

Girl Guide in Swift's Visitors Reference Book

From Chapter 1

Fig. 3. Swift’s Visitors Reference Book deploys a girl guide in slaughterhouse tour

Top left: Hand holding a large piece of meat down on a counter, while other hand holds a knife and slices into the meat. Top right: Hand holding a large piece of meat, while another hand cuts into the meat with a knife. Bottom left: Hands using silverware to slice into a steak dinner. Bottom right: An assortment of cuts of meat, some on top of white dollies, laying on top of a blue surface.

Closeup of Hands Cutting Meat in This Is Hormel (1)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 4. A series of close-ups of hands cutting meat punctuated by a spectacle of an assortment of meats in This Is Hormel’s montage of meat production

Top: Hand holding stunning device over pig. Middle: Hand holding meat up to a meat slicer. Bottom: Hands holding a large meat saw and slicing through a carcass.

Hands Stunning, Slicing, and Cutting flesh in American Dream

From Chapter 2

Fig. 5. A series of handheld shots of hands stunning, slicing, and cutting flesh in American Dream

Top: Animated image of pink pigs traveling down an assembly line. To the left, pigs are housed in a three-­story building with pens. In the foreground, pigs stand one by one on a conveyor belt, heading toward a gray windowless building. In the background, two large towers, one containing colorful pills and one containing green liquid, are connected to the gray building with pipelines. Bottom: Animated image of a man in a gray uniform and hat, standing in a field of grass with a few trees and a hill in the background. He is looking at black-­and-­white cows, which are lined up on a grass-­covered geometric structure with slanting sides.

Pigs on Disassembly Line in Chipotle commercial still

From Chapter 2

Fig. 6. A mechanized tracking shot of industrialized slaughter gives way to an unencumbered mobile camera as Chipotle goes “Back to the Start”

Top: Animated image of cows entering a gray building via an elevated conveyor belt, with white clouds in the blue sky in the background and green grass on the ground. At the bottom of the building, a man and a boy enter the building through a door. Bottom: Animated image of the exterior of a gray building, with windows bricked over and a barbed wire fence in the foreground.

Passing By Slaughter in The Simpsons' Meat and You

From Chapter 2

Fig. 7. An educational tour of meat production bypasses the sight of meat production in The Simpsons’ Meat and You

Man wearing a purple athletic jacket stands in a wood-­paneled room filled with chairs, framed photographs, and taxidermic mounts. His side is turned to the camera, and he faces a large boar’s head mounted on the wall. His hand is reaching out to touch a deer mount next to the boar.

Karamo Brown Caresses Deer Mount in Queer Eye "From Hunter to Huntee" still

From Chapter 3

Fig. 8. Karamo Brown reaches out to pet a deer mount in Queer Eye’s “From Hunter to Huntee”

Top: cluttered, low-­lit room with a black curtain as a backdrop, filled with furniture, boxes, miscellaneous items. In the front left foreground, a taxidermied deer head rests on top of a box. Bottom: A gallery wall inside a house, composed with family photographs with a taxidermied deer head in the center. A plant is visible on the right side of the shot.

Buck Mount in Queer Eye "Dega Don't"

From Chapter 3

Fig. 9. A deer mount is elevated from the detritus of Cory’s basement man cave to prominent living room display in Queer Eye’s “Dega Don’t”

Black-­and-­white printed illustration of a large room, whose walls and ceilings are covered with objects and animals. Four men stand around the room, looking at an alligator suspended from the ceiling, toward which one of the men gestures with a stick.

First published image of a curiosity cabinet

From Chapter 3

Fig. 10. First known published image of a natural history display, Ferrante Imperato’s curiosity cabinet in Naples

Color advertisement for a television set. A dog, sitting by a chair covered with a man’s robe and holding a shoe in its mouth, gazes toward a television set, which shows the black-­and-­white image of two smiling children wearing birthday hats.

Faithful dog aways owner's return in Admiral television dog advertisement

From Chapter 3

Fig. 11. A dog awaits the return of his owner, who has been transported by television, in Admiral advertisement

Black-­and-­white advertisement for a television set. Features several images and text blocks. In the largest image, a man sits next to a television, touching one of the dials and looking at the camera. An image of a woman playing tennis is on the television screen. Behind the television, a taxidermy bird hangs on the wall.

Taxidermy Complements TV Set in Emerson advertisement

From Chapter 3

Fig. 12. A taxidermic mount complements a television set in Emerson advertisement

Color advertisement for a television set. At the top of the image, a television wrapped in a bow shows an image of Santa Claus. In the middle of the ad, large text states, “The Present with a Future . . . 1951 DuMont Television.” Around the sides of the advertisement, three blocks of text are paired with images of horses drawing carriages with televisions on them.

TVs in Horse-drawn Chariots in DuMont television advertisement

From Chapter 3

Fig. 13. Horse-drawn chariots display closed television consoles in DuMont advertisement

Black-­and-­white advertisement for a television set. At the top of the image, the text reads: “Admiral Magic Mirror Television with Big 16 inch Screen.” In the center of the image, a television cabinet with a built-­in record player shows a horse jumping on the screen. At the bottom of the image, a block of text describes the features of the television.

Admiral television horse advertisement

From Chapter 3

Fig. 14. Admiral advertisement evokes horsepower

Top: Static shot of a living room from All That Heaven Allows. In the foreground, a man sleeps under a blanket on a yellow couch. In the background, a woman gazes out a large-­paned window at a deer standing just outside the window, in a winter landscape. Bottom: A museum diorama of four taxidermied deer arranged in a snowy woodland scene.

Top: Cary contemplates a deer in All that Heaven Allows; Bottom: The Winter Scene in Akeley's Four Seasons of the Deer diorama

From Chapter 3

Fig. 15. Three wintry scenes display the aesthetic affinities of television, dioramas, and cinema

Black-­and-­white advertisement for window glass. In the foreground, a woman sits in a chair with a dog lying at her feet on a rug. Both look out at a large picture window at a snowy landscape. Outside the window, a man holding skis walks toward the house. Below the image, a block of text describes the details of Thermopane glass.

Thermopane window advertisement

From Chapter 3

Fig. 16. Three wintry scenes display the aesthetic affinities of television, dioramas, and cinema

A low-­lit basement with dark wood-­paneled walls. Two metal lamps sit on wood columns on the right and left, symmetrically framing a deer mount that is placed above an old-­fashioned television set. The top of a man’s head is visible in the foreground; he appears to be watching the television.

Shot of Chris strapped in front ot TV and taxidermic mount in Get Out

From Chapter 4

Fig. 17. Chris is held captive with television and deer mount in Get Out

A crowd of around forty people sit and stand to form an audience in a low-­lit room. They are sipping champagne and chatting with one another as they watch a man in a suit perform. A white bandage is wrapped around the man’s head, and he stands in front of a taxidermic mount of a rhinoceros that is visibly patched together.

Cash is forced to rap in front of taxidermied rhino in Sorry to Bother You

From Chapter 4

Fig. 18. Cash is compelled to rap in Sorry to Bother You

The remains of the carcass of a small buck lie on a ground strewn with leaves. The animal’s antlers remain, but its legs are missing, and its entrails are falling from its body.

A Dead Deer Appears in Atlanta's "Woods"

From Chapter 4

Fig. 19. Alfred encounters deer guts in Atlanta’s “Woods”

A woman and two men stand in a wood-­paneled office room, looking at an overturned taxidermy deer head on a table in the foreground.

Agent Dale Cooper and Sheriff Harry Truman Contemplate Buck Mount in Twin Peaks

From Chapter 4

Fig. 20. An overturned buck mount inexplicably appears in Twin Peaks

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