Earthlings (2005)

Using hidden cameras and never-before-seen footage, Earthlings chronicles the day-to-day practices of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit.

Director:

Shaun Monson

Writer:

Shaun Monson

Star:

Joaquin Phoenix

Cast

Credited cast:
Joaquin Phoenix	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

Using hidden cameras and never-before-seen footage, Earthlings chronicles the day-to-day practices of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit.

---

Plot Keywords:

animals in distress | pain | animal cruelty | violence | animal abuse | 

---

Taglines:

Make The Connection

---

Genres:

Documentary

---

Details

Official Sites:

Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 September 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Zemljani

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nation Earth

Technical Specs

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

4 x 1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Phoenix is widely known for his animal rights advocacy. He became a vegan when he, at the age of 3, joined his siblings on a boat to catch fish. He saw how a fish was caught and tossed aside, writhing. Phoenix is a member of In Defense of Animals and PETA and has actively campaigned for both.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
title card: earth-ling n. - One who inhabits the earth.
Narrator: Since we all inhabit the earth, we are all considered earthlings. There is no sexism, racism, or speciesism in the term 'earthling'. It encompasses each and every one of us: warm- or cold-blooded, mammal, vertebrate or invertebrate, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish and human alike.

---

Connections

Referenced in El fin de la comedia: Episode #2.1 (2017)

User Reviews

An Electroshock to the Head

I can totally understand how someone can have a lack of compassion for animals. By the end of this documentary I felt somewhat numb myself, from the ceaseless onslaught of horror contained within. So if you're brought up, for instance, in a hunting culture, or a biblical culture, or an "animal manufacturing" culture, or the outskirts of a bull-fighting ring, you're probably numb to the suffering of living things, too. What this movie sets out to do is climb into the minds of those who have lost perspective for whatever reason and remind them that if they're still mistreating animals, or participating in the mistreatment of animals, then they're not fulfilling a major responsibility of being human, and are therefore part human, semi-human, sub-human.

Call me a softy, but I've felt for a long, long time that there's really no fundamental difference between humans and other animals. Therefore, animals experience things like pain, despair, horror and fear the same way we do. To me this just makes logical, common sense. But again, I can totally understand how someone can disagree. I, and the creators of this film, just ask those naysayers to remember, to look deep within ourselves, beyond their conditioning, that it is possible for humans to err when it comes to such belief systems. The Nazis are a good example - they treated Jews like animals. But honestly, the stuff in this documentary are the same - and far worse, in many cases - than what the Nazis did to the Jews. Nazis still had a relative modicum of respect and restraint for other humans compared to the way animals are treated by humans. If you disagree then you need to get a grip, and look at the images in this movie, and compare the number of Jews (in the millions) to the number of animals (in the billions). Let's be frank.

The truth is this documentary is not going to change those who are like the people depicted in the movie who are completely blind to what they're really doing. Many humans are beyond hope in that respect. But it will change those who are straddling the fence. It will give them the knowledge they prayed would never interrupt their meals. It's not a message. It's a reality. A grim, horrific, and terribly sad reality.