OK, where to begin? The Animals Film must be one of the most harrowing cinematic experiences ever. Sure, this stuff goes on every day, sure there are valid arguments for vivisection, medical experiments and all sorts of abuse. Nevertheless, the fact remains that when you review the way in which humans treat the world around them, its a pretty depressing sight. Of course, this movie was made twenty five years ago, surely things must have improved since then? Take a look outside and think about what you see. Go on. Stick your head out the door and see whats going on down the street. Not much? Now switch on the TV, or the radio, listen to the news? The Animals Films tells us there are people out there who give a damn, who care enough to show us these terrible things. Just think what your view of the world would be if the BBC or CNN didn't send back reports from Iraq, Afghanistan, New Orleans? Film is an important media which can add to the way in which we see the world, in which we can begin to understand one another. The makers of this movie may have a bias toward their subject matter. The ALF members who appear at the end of the movie, talking about their cause, their belief certainly are biased - you may even call them terrorists. This is an important work, made on no budget, with a donated soundtrack(I might be wrong on that one) but it deserves attention. Animals are still treated in this appalling manner, people too. Maybe this movie will change you a little if you watch it. I have absolutely no idea if its still possible to find this movie. It was shown on British television about ten years ago, with some editing to the ALF interview at the end. I found a copy in my local college but have never seen it anywhere else as a standard release. See it if you can.
11 Reviews
See this if you can
richteed17 February 2007
This film changed my life when i saw it on channel 4 25 years ago - don't be scared..watch it and decide if we really need to make millions of animals go through this every day just so we can consume stuff. It doesn't pull its punches - farming, science, hunting, the lot. Its probably a bit ruff n ready compared to todays production techniques, but every bit as relevant now sadly. Needless consumption of factory farmed meat, replica drugs, cosmetics etc create the demand for this abuse and its still growing. I thought at the time that this film would make the difference, but it was ignored - suppose everyone prefers blissful ignorance whilst the animals scream. Well I can hear them and its all because I saw this film when I was a teenager. Please watch this - you should know what's happening in all those big sheds you drive past on days out in the country - its not nice..
~ awesome expose. everyone must see this film. ~
rrrina24 November 2004
This is the most powerful and all-encompassing expose on the animal exploiting industries (including the meat, dairy, fur, and vivisection industries) I have seen to date. It (unfortunately) remains as valid today as it was over twenty years ago when it was made. This is the film that definitively turned me into a vegetarian. Most people choose to remain selectively ignorant about these issues because they are too painful and upsetting to look at. Doesn't that suggest that maybe there is something inherently WRONG with the way in which we treat animals in our society? A must-see.
Rina http://www.rrrina.com/
Rina http://www.rrrina.com/
Uncompromising document of animal abuse
emotion-228 May 2001
"The Animals Film" takes us inside the world of factory farming and meat production, looking as well at the behind-the-scene world of animal experimentation research. Much of the footage was shot guerilla-style, with small crews sneaking inside slaughterhouses and compounds. If the purpose of film as art is to change the way a viewer sees the world, then "The Animals Film" is cinema at its best. I saw this film in 1986 and have never eaten meat again. Some of the footage is shocking, but the power of the image to educate and inform is undeniable. In the current age of the 'Mad Cow', it is plain to see that this documentary was ahead of its time.
this film is life changing
dianavaneyk4 November 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I watched this film almost thirty years ago and have been vegan ever since.
It's the most powerful film I've ever watched and it was life and perspective changing for me, and for some friends of mine who are also still vegan since having watched it.
Truly, this isn't about them, it's about us. How many other things are we blind to?
The choices we make are how we express freedom. We're free to participate in meaningless torture of animals or not. This film has exposed not only what happens to animals in our society, but the attitudes that allow meaningless cruelty to exist.
I urge everyone who watches this film to examine their attitudes towards everyone and everything. How are we reducing life to objects of exploitation and what attitudes allow us to do this?
This was my ultimate take away from this film.
It's the most powerful film I've ever watched and it was life and perspective changing for me, and for some friends of mine who are also still vegan since having watched it.
Truly, this isn't about them, it's about us. How many other things are we blind to?
The choices we make are how we express freedom. We're free to participate in meaningless torture of animals or not. This film has exposed not only what happens to animals in our society, but the attitudes that allow meaningless cruelty to exist.
I urge everyone who watches this film to examine their attitudes towards everyone and everything. How are we reducing life to objects of exploitation and what attitudes allow us to do this?
This was my ultimate take away from this film.
this film will change your life
slack6895 February 2008
On a cold afternoon in January 1982, after a protest against the sale of live animals in street markets, I attended a screening of this film in a London hotel. The screening had been arranged by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, one of the sponsors of this film. I could not have been prepared for what I would experience during the two hour + film. It was an experience I would never forget and one that would change my life The film deals with the abuse of animals by humankind, in laboratories, for sport, as pets and for food production, it is a mixture of modern and historical footage from around the world, horrifying, haunting scenes that assault the senses. It is impossible not to be moved to tears, to feel shame at the abuse of the non human species in the name of science, greed and vanity. It is monstrously horrific from beginning to end, but it is also a must see movie. Having watched the film make just one change in your life and make the world a little better for our animal friends. The film has been released on a 25th anniversary DVD. Buy it, watch it and pass it on to someone else!
Incredible footage
lwolfe2622 August 2010
I saw this movie after watching "Earthlings" and was impressed with how much footage this film had.
It's a bit eerie to watch this movie some 29 years later, the numbers are only compounded by time. I can only wonder how many millions, or billions, of tax dollars spent annually go towards testing random experiments in the name of science. We claim we can relate our findings from animals to humans, however we've found that some drugs that work well on humans don't have the same results on certain animals, The canned sea turtle was something I've never seen in my life, thanks to over-harvesting by those before me. How much better would life be if the generation before us was focused on sustainable harvesting over profit?
It's a bit eerie to watch this movie some 29 years later, the numbers are only compounded by time. I can only wonder how many millions, or billions, of tax dollars spent annually go towards testing random experiments in the name of science. We claim we can relate our findings from animals to humans, however we've found that some drugs that work well on humans don't have the same results on certain animals, The canned sea turtle was something I've never seen in my life, thanks to over-harvesting by those before me. How much better would life be if the generation before us was focused on sustainable harvesting over profit?
See the future of "humanity"
dimitriskats12 January 2004
Just 4 (four) comments, so far! The truth hurts. No button for buying this 'monsterpiece'. So, would you kill your cat to make a small rug and use the eyes along with your stereo lightshow? Of course you must eat but is this civilization? No, no and no. We are talking about the famous quote from The Matrix. Humans are a disease. I have not stopped having tears every time I remember this film. We are living in the biggest slaughterhouse in a billion solar systems. How in the future can you land on a planet and start baking the residents while at the same time have the idea that you are a civilized and a moral species? Only by burning this and similar films and executing the viewers. We have a long way to go before we fully appreciate the miracle of life. Until then "Flow my tears"
Well Done but Ultimately Unconvincing Documentary
TheExpatriate70021 November 2011
The Animals Film is one of the seminal documents of the animal rights movement. Along with Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, it helped bring the plight of animals under industrial agriculture and research to light. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has both the strengths and the weaknesses of the animal rights movement.
The film's strongest point is its use of undercover footage at labs, slaughter houses, and other venues to uncover animal abuse. The footage and commentary obtained is graphic and genuinely disturbing. Although much of what is shown is easily available on the Internet today, for the time it was made it was a genuinely disturbing revelation.
However, the film also suffers from being overly radical, with some of its commentary pieces even inducing laughter. The film posits an extremist utilitarian argument that places animals on basically the same footing as humans in terms of happiness. One can oppose the mistreatment of animals and still eat meat. In probably the most laugh inducing scene, we see a pair of animal rights activists handing out pamphlets in New York. When one woman refers to her pets, the female animal rights activist tells her to "liberate her language." We can only presume they edited out the parts where passersby laughed at them.
The most disturbing bit, however, is the positive depiction of the Animal Liberation Front. The film follows a group of ALF "activists" as they prepare to do a raid on a lab. Given that the ALF has evolved into an at least borderline terrorist organization, it is hard to take the film's praise of them at all seriously, and it seriously undermines the film's overall message.
The film's strongest point is its use of undercover footage at labs, slaughter houses, and other venues to uncover animal abuse. The footage and commentary obtained is graphic and genuinely disturbing. Although much of what is shown is easily available on the Internet today, for the time it was made it was a genuinely disturbing revelation.
However, the film also suffers from being overly radical, with some of its commentary pieces even inducing laughter. The film posits an extremist utilitarian argument that places animals on basically the same footing as humans in terms of happiness. One can oppose the mistreatment of animals and still eat meat. In probably the most laugh inducing scene, we see a pair of animal rights activists handing out pamphlets in New York. When one woman refers to her pets, the female animal rights activist tells her to "liberate her language." We can only presume they edited out the parts where passersby laughed at them.
The most disturbing bit, however, is the positive depiction of the Animal Liberation Front. The film follows a group of ALF "activists" as they prepare to do a raid on a lab. Given that the ALF has evolved into an at least borderline terrorist organization, it is hard to take the film's praise of them at all seriously, and it seriously undermines the film's overall message.
well worth a look
BlackBalloon10 April 2003
This movie is so goofy. The music is by Robert Wyatt, aka Soft Machine. It's a bunch of synth-y noodling and ambient, wannabe Brian Eno-type stuff. Still pretty effective, but says more about the filmmakers intentions than the actual footage being shown. Like the creepy music they play when they want to make someone with a mullet seem sinister.
Julie Christie narrates it, and she sounds really prissy. Other prissy people include the gay pro-animal rights man-on-the-street interviewer, the gay guy he interviews, the mixed Ziggy Stardust, foolish-looking woman, and several Brits. Ray Krock is also featured.
Highlights include the de-beaking of chicks, floors that drain poo, a wasp pestering a weakling chick ("a mother could have helped it"), on-set footage of a McDonald's commercial ("Ronald harvests the hamburgers from the hamburger patch"), guts spilling out of a cow (complete with exploding bladder), radiation experiments on donkeys ("anal ulcers", says Christie), post-nuke pigs, hog-sow "rape", Long Island-y/jewish lady, LSD test on a monkey, and the dramatic last gasp of a white lab rat.
The most unbelievable part to me was the footage of a Japanese experiment sponsored by the Harbin clinic. They attach the head and forelegs of one dog onto the back of another. It's freaky.
This film actually does provide food for thought about the purposes of animal experiments, suggesting that they may pave the way for how humans are teated in the future. The footage with monkeys is by far the most thought-provoking in this light. Frightening and sad at times, but also entertaining.
Julie Christie narrates it, and she sounds really prissy. Other prissy people include the gay pro-animal rights man-on-the-street interviewer, the gay guy he interviews, the mixed Ziggy Stardust, foolish-looking woman, and several Brits. Ray Krock is also featured.
Highlights include the de-beaking of chicks, floors that drain poo, a wasp pestering a weakling chick ("a mother could have helped it"), on-set footage of a McDonald's commercial ("Ronald harvests the hamburgers from the hamburger patch"), guts spilling out of a cow (complete with exploding bladder), radiation experiments on donkeys ("anal ulcers", says Christie), post-nuke pigs, hog-sow "rape", Long Island-y/jewish lady, LSD test on a monkey, and the dramatic last gasp of a white lab rat.
The most unbelievable part to me was the footage of a Japanese experiment sponsored by the Harbin clinic. They attach the head and forelegs of one dog onto the back of another. It's freaky.
This film actually does provide food for thought about the purposes of animal experiments, suggesting that they may pave the way for how humans are teated in the future. The footage with monkeys is by far the most thought-provoking in this light. Frightening and sad at times, but also entertaining.
Just as bad as PeTA's attempt on compairing Lab and Farm Animals to Holocaust victims!
Akiosan15 June 2003
One day, back at High School, on an excange trip, some vegan Animal Rights hippies were showing us some films in class, trying to brainwash us, the students, and the teachers in to becoming vegans and animal rights activist.
Sure, I love animals and I support Animal Well Fare, but Animal Rights is not a glamorous nor good thing. The people whom did this documentary portray scientists whom research and test on rodents to find cures for diseases or try new medicines (To help BOTH people and animals) as being psychotic and taking pleasure out of killing, which is NOT true most times! In fact, I think the Animal Rights organizations are more cruel than the scientists and farmers.
Besides, most people in the world do not take pleasure out of killing animals and letting them rot. Most who do, are either poachers or psycho/sociopaths.
Sure, I love animals and I support Animal Well Fare, but Animal Rights is not a glamorous nor good thing. The people whom did this documentary portray scientists whom research and test on rodents to find cures for diseases or try new medicines (To help BOTH people and animals) as being psychotic and taking pleasure out of killing, which is NOT true most times! In fact, I think the Animal Rights organizations are more cruel than the scientists and farmers.
Besides, most people in the world do not take pleasure out of killing animals and letting them rot. Most who do, are either poachers or psycho/sociopaths.
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