Tag: HAR: Animal Agency
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Planet of the Apes. Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner. 20th Century Fox. 1968.
Planet of the Apes (1968), dir. Franklin J. Schaffner It is from the Planet of the Apes’s first encounter with its ‘more or less human’ characters that we are made aware of their muteness; something that shapes the human/animal relations throughout the film. In his ignorance of the subverted hierarchy the film explores, Taylor, the main character,…
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Fly Away Home . Dir. Carroll Ballard. Columbia Pictures, Sandollar, The Saul Zaentz Film Center. 1996.
Fly Away Home focuses on 13-year-old Amy Alden who has just lost her mother due to a car accident. She has to move to her dad Tom, whom she hadn’t seen for years and whose passion for pottering aircrafts seems weird to her. Being alone, Amy finds a nest with 16 eggs, which have been abandoned…
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Fly Away Home . Dir. Carroll Ballard. Columbia Pictures. 1996.
Fly Away Home focuses on 13-year-old Amy Alden who has just lost her mother due to a car accident. She has to move to her dad Tom, whom she hadn’t seen for years and whose passion for pottering aircrafts seems weird to her. Being alone, Amy finds a nest with 16 eggs, which have been abandoned…
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Wir sind im Zoo. Dir. Bruno Kleberg. Progress Film-Verleih. 1953.
We are at the zoo is an 1953 Film about a class of pioneers visiting the Leipziger Zoo in the German Democratic Republic. On their visit the class is being accompanied by an Off-Speaker, who comments on the action and introduces the animals while the pioneers walk through the park. In most cases this is…
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In the Heart of the Sea. Dir. Ron Howard. Warner Bros. Pictures. 2015.
Ron Howard´s In the Heart of the Sea (2015), based on Nathaniel Philbrick´s book (2000) of the same name, illustrates the sinking of the whaling ship Essex in 1820 and the crew´s struggle for survival. It is framed by a conversation between Herman Melville, who wanted to gather information to write a novel, and Thomas Nickerson, who himself served on the Essex as…
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Fantastic Mr. Fox. Dir. Wes Anderson. 20th Century Fox. 2009.
In his 2009 indie comedy, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson blurs the distinctive boundaries between the real and fictional presence of animals within the film. He creates tension between the real animal he is portraying and the anthropomorphised animal he has created in order to repurpose the way we think about animals. Rather than thinking of…
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Avatar. Dir. James Cameron. 20th Century Fox. 2009.
Set in the year 2154, Avatar (Dir. James Cameron, 2009) follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex-marine who is given the opportunity to take part in a program on the distant moon Pandora. Pandora is inhabited by a wealth of creatures and biodiversity, as well as the desirable mineral ‘unobtanium’ which the humans are attempting to…
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Babe. Dir. Chris Noonan. Universal Pictures. 1995.
Babe’s belief in his capability to function within his new identity role as sheep-pig is shattered when he learns his true purpose as bacon for the farm. Deflated of self-worth and betrayed by ‘The Boss’ he descends into a torrent of psychological self-harm, unable to eat at the prospect of his failed ambitions. [1]
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Hannibal. Dir. Ridley Scott. MGM. 2001.
Hannibal the Animal: An Analysis of Animal Presence in Hannibal Fig. 1. Hannibal Lecter. All pictures are taken directly from film unless otherwise stated. The sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, Ridley Scott’s Hannibal is set a decade after FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling (Julienne Moore) closed a serial-murder case with the help of incarcerated cannibal Dr. Hannibal…
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Hanna. Dir. Joe Wright. Focus Features. 2011.
Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011) combines quick-fire action scenes with intricately beautiful cinematography to create a dark, modern fairytale full of suspense and wicked delight. Raised in the snow-covered forests of Finland, Hanna has traverses the wilderness, speaks a myriad of different languages, hones her encyclopaedic knowledge, and has a number of aliases hidden up her…