Like a couple other reviewers, I am surprised this movie is rated so high. People seem to rate the cause against animal cruelty, not a movie. The cause is noble and of primary importance, but the movie is very bad and, as noted by another reviewer, it is nothing but propaganda. Is propaganda about a good cause okay? I believe it is not.
Propaganda is manipulating the mind of people without giving them a chance to think. Propaganda always shows one side of reality. The far-right in the US will show only the footage of immigrants that do bad stuff. After two hours of such images, you'll be convinced that immigrants are bad people. They won't show you the kind immigrant with love-filled eyes and smile, who is leading a humble and fulfilling life. In the same way, what about all the small farmers worldwide that love their animals and treat them ethically? We are given statistics about animal in this documentary but how many of them are treated as badly as what we see? 99%? 50%? 1%? This would make a huge difference, like with immigrations. You can't show all the bad cases and make it look as if you are showing all there is. That's dishonest.
I am very happy if this movie made some people realize how bad animals are treated in the industry today, but I didn't need to watch it to know. This is like watching a two hour movie showing the awful torture sessions that took place in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. If you are a judge in a tribunal and need evidence, watching torture is indispensable to rest your case and punish those who committed atrocities but what good can it do for the general public to watch such awful images? You've got to be masochistic.
This documentary is worse than watching the archive footage from Nazi death camps because you "only" saw dead bodies in Auschwitz. Now imagine the crazy nazies had filmed thousand of hours of their killings and torture, would you watch it? I personally would watch ten minutes, cry my eyes out and turn it off. Viewing such cruelty is an act of cruelty by itself. When ISIS put videos of hostage beheading online, these videos were not shown on TV because they are too awful to show. Watching this documentary is like watching two hours of ISIS beheading and be horrified. Again, a few minutes is enough to understand. Watching more is sick.
A last and even more relevant example would be to film a woman being raped and show it to people while calmly explaining all the phases of the rape. Only sick people would watch it. My first action would be to call to the police and complain. If the police didn't do anything because the rapist is a wealthy man and they dare not intervene, I'd step up the action and go and knock off the man myself to make it stop. Filming the rape without intervention to get evidence of the crime would sound very strange. What did the people who collect these images do about it?
The people obviously guilty of animal cruelty in this movie should be charged the same day the footage was shot. Were they? If not, isn't that movie hypocritical? Isn't it like saying: "We didn't do anything but we'll show it to you and hope you'll do something about it. Please act."
I am not completely stupid and I understand that there is not much you can do while remaining lawful (unlawful action would be to physically confront the people and the owners and force them to stop), but I can't believe watching through two hours of purely barbaric images will do any good to anybody. As I said, watch ten minutes of it, puke, turn it off and go to the authorities to complain. These people are criminals and should be charged as such.
In France these images would automatically trigger an arrest and an investigation. There are still many cruelty cases against animal in the EU, with the blessing of governments for supposedly economic reasons, but things are changing and I believe there won't be any such place in a couple decades. I hope I am right. This documentary does not tell anything about what is going on in the courts and legislation.
Animal cruelty must stop. Watching this movie won't make it stop. It will make you sick, that's all. Now next time you go and buy meat, ask where it comes from. If they don't know, it comes from these places; don't buy it. But how many people will stop buying meat of unknown origin just because they watched this movie and rated it 10? Not many, I believe. Which makes it even more hypocritical.
Propaganda is manipulating the mind of people without giving them a chance to think. Propaganda always shows one side of reality. The far-right in the US will show only the footage of immigrants that do bad stuff. After two hours of such images, you'll be convinced that immigrants are bad people. They won't show you the kind immigrant with love-filled eyes and smile, who is leading a humble and fulfilling life. In the same way, what about all the small farmers worldwide that love their animals and treat them ethically? We are given statistics about animal in this documentary but how many of them are treated as badly as what we see? 99%? 50%? 1%? This would make a huge difference, like with immigrations. You can't show all the bad cases and make it look as if you are showing all there is. That's dishonest.
I am very happy if this movie made some people realize how bad animals are treated in the industry today, but I didn't need to watch it to know. This is like watching a two hour movie showing the awful torture sessions that took place in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. If you are a judge in a tribunal and need evidence, watching torture is indispensable to rest your case and punish those who committed atrocities but what good can it do for the general public to watch such awful images? You've got to be masochistic.
This documentary is worse than watching the archive footage from Nazi death camps because you "only" saw dead bodies in Auschwitz. Now imagine the crazy nazies had filmed thousand of hours of their killings and torture, would you watch it? I personally would watch ten minutes, cry my eyes out and turn it off. Viewing such cruelty is an act of cruelty by itself. When ISIS put videos of hostage beheading online, these videos were not shown on TV because they are too awful to show. Watching this documentary is like watching two hours of ISIS beheading and be horrified. Again, a few minutes is enough to understand. Watching more is sick.
A last and even more relevant example would be to film a woman being raped and show it to people while calmly explaining all the phases of the rape. Only sick people would watch it. My first action would be to call to the police and complain. If the police didn't do anything because the rapist is a wealthy man and they dare not intervene, I'd step up the action and go and knock off the man myself to make it stop. Filming the rape without intervention to get evidence of the crime would sound very strange. What did the people who collect these images do about it?
The people obviously guilty of animal cruelty in this movie should be charged the same day the footage was shot. Were they? If not, isn't that movie hypocritical? Isn't it like saying: "We didn't do anything but we'll show it to you and hope you'll do something about it. Please act."
I am not completely stupid and I understand that there is not much you can do while remaining lawful (unlawful action would be to physically confront the people and the owners and force them to stop), but I can't believe watching through two hours of purely barbaric images will do any good to anybody. As I said, watch ten minutes of it, puke, turn it off and go to the authorities to complain. These people are criminals and should be charged as such.
In France these images would automatically trigger an arrest and an investigation. There are still many cruelty cases against animal in the EU, with the blessing of governments for supposedly economic reasons, but things are changing and I believe there won't be any such place in a couple decades. I hope I am right. This documentary does not tell anything about what is going on in the courts and legislation.
Animal cruelty must stop. Watching this movie won't make it stop. It will make you sick, that's all. Now next time you go and buy meat, ask where it comes from. If they don't know, it comes from these places; don't buy it. But how many people will stop buying meat of unknown origin just because they watched this movie and rated it 10? Not many, I believe. Which makes it even more hypocritical.