MovieChat Forums > Day of the Outlaw (1959) Discussion > Animal killing

Animal killing

posted 15 years ago by ezhours
15 replies | jump to latest

This film has a realistic shooting of a horse towards the end of the movie. Was it real? Could a blank have caused the horse to jerk like it did? I enjoyed this movie up to that point.

Was wondering if in 1959 they allow animals to be harmed in films. When did the harming of animals stop? Some current movies at the end say no harm was done but I did not see that in this film. I assume even if no statement the practice of harming animals no longer occurs?

Thanks in advance if someone answers this

[–] turtletommy 15 years ago

I doubt very much that a horse was actually shot in that scene. By that time in Hollywood cruelty or harm to animals had long been banned and looked down upon. Not to say that it didn't still happen here and there but something as overt as really shooting a horse onscreen would be ridiculously stupid. It would get out eventually if it had truly occurred. The infamous heavy use of tripwires on galloping horses in the mid-1930s Errol Flynn "The Charge of the Light Brigade" caused many injuries and deaths and resulted in a public outcry for better treatment of animals used in films when it became known. Horses like other animals can be trained of course, to fall down on cue such as the bang of a blank gun for example. There are plenty of movies where animal's deaths or injuries are implied or faked now - and in movies like Dances with Wolves where buffalo are apparently shot with arrows and guns in closeup they just used mechanical props. If just the thought of indirectly actually harming an animal came to be in today's filmmaking the threat alone of criminal charges, lawsuits from animals rights groups and bad publicity would be enough to quell such thoughts!

I had more trouble in this picture with the poor horses trying to get around in those snow drifts up to their bellies!

[–] Texian04 14 years ago

Protecting the lives of animals in the movies all began after the horses and stuntmen were seen falling of the mountain top in 1939's "Jesse James" with Tyrone Power & Henry Fonda. Probably didn't help the studios cause either when stuntmen jumped the James boys horses thru the phony glass windows during their escape from Northfield MN.

[–] turtletommy 14 years ago

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) is frequently cited as a turning point in the fight against animal cruelty in films. The ASPCA was notified allegedly by star Errol Flynn of abuses on the set (supposedly motivated by his antagonism towards director Michael Curtiz) and Congress got involved, passing legislation banning cruelty in the making of films. Of course the practice of using trip wires and other abuses and accidents (both to animal and human) kept on happening for decades but not to the same extent as in earlier years. Once on-location filming started occurring outside the United States with more frequency after WW2 filmmakers didn't always have to follow the same safety guidelines as they would have to in the U.S. Supposedly quite a few USA films made overseas during the 1960s made use of trip wires and other practices.

[–] chomsky8 15 years ago

Watch it again, blank startled horse, his head looks back up. Ended up being a good movie i've never heard of.

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 15 years ago

Contrary to popular belief Melvin Durslag had little to do with this.

What is the sound an imploding pimp makes?

[–] Xcalat3 15 years ago

i believe that was fake

When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

[–] mightygeo 14 years ago

Don't forget they used blanks in "Animal House" (one of the funniest scenes ever)!

Didn't they really kill a mule in "Patton" in the 70's? I seem to remeber their being a big stink over it.

[–] turtletommy 14 years ago

That scene in Animal House is hilarious but the way it is edited you never see Flounder actually shooting the gun- you hear it from outside the room. Of course a real horse and him were filmed together at one point. Basically they didn't have to have a gun shooting blanks and a real horse near it to do that scene- it could have been easily faked.

Yeah that mule or donkey in PATTON being shot and thrown over the side of a bridge into the water because it was blocking the military convoy has long been a controversial subject. The part when they shoot it and toss it over has been removed from most airings of the movie on TV but I seem to recall seeing it at least once in the past few years on some channel (TCM?). I think it's in the DVD but I could be wrong. I definitely saw it when the movie first came out in 1970. I'm not sure if it's ever been actually proven that an animal was killed for that scene- it sure looked real- but the production was in part filmed in Spain which could have had much less strict animal welfare laws than in the USA. I mean they kill (and run) bulls all the time to this day so I wouldn't doubt it!

[–] jmix66 13 years ago

An Internet search uncovered nothing in the way of information about the animal bring killed. Given the hysteria of people have about an animal being (who also oddly enjoy dining on the flesh of dead animals and wearing animal skins) it is likely that if it had happened, it would have been reported.

It appears that the horse was drugged and the shot was a blank

Bad films are a crime against humanity.

[–] Local Hero 8 years ago

Jesus -- yet another person who can't conceive of a difference between an animal being humanely slaughtered for food versus an animal being made to suffer and die for art. Please spare us your lack of imagination.

Btw, I'm veggie so I don't eat animals, but like most adults I recognize seriously different ethical lines that everyone draws when it comes to animal suffering and death.

[–] jmix66 8 years ago

I wrote this five years ago, you idiot.
Is your own mewling about the animals all that you could parse from my answer? If so, then perhaps you aren't ready to use a site this sophisticated.
Maybe you should stick to YouTube comments?

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 13 years ago

Very doubtful it was real; the noise alone close to its ear would have frightened it. You'll notice the camera does not linger, but pulls away.

Let it be unsaid: insignificance is the locus of true increpation.

[–] Jason_Radley 11 years ago

Come on, guys, next you'll be telling me the actors were just playing dead.

[–] amikelhenry 9 years ago

I know very little about horses or riding..but while I don't believe a real horse was killed in this movie..the horses and riders all looked to have a rough time of it on the supposed exit trail..I can not imagine doing that..in the bitter cold and and fresh snow that had the horses sink to their withers each stride..Man...that was 1 tough trail..

[–] asgard-5 8 years ago

I just saw it. The horse jerked before he shot it, and when he "did", the camera panned away, because the horse didn't drop dead. That's why I don't think they killed it. But seeing horses in such conditions isn't a pretty sight.