These days, everything seems essential on Turner, not the least of which is a new feature titled Pets on Sets, which examines the role of animals in film and how their participation is manipulated and achieved. The segment works largely because of Mankiewicz who brings it off effortlessly with a concern for the animals being exploited that seems genuine and heartfelt.
Is Ben an animal advocate? I have a hunch that he is. Me? Count me in. But my love of animals is equaled by my dislike of movies about them. I don't want to see any movie that's about a dog, cat, horse or lion. Have you noticed that movies about animals are always - always - sad and disturbing? Awful things traditionally happen to the animal star.
Movies about animals have become my dreaded genre.
The MGM/Lassie films are the worst. "Old Yeller" is the pits.
(Blasphemy, I know!) I do like Asta in the "Thin Man" series and Pyewacket in
"Bell, Book and Candle," but those films really aren't about them, are
they? 
David Frankel's “Marley and Me” is the one rare exception - for me. And it remains a great film in general because it is about a life - in this case, the life of a dog from puppyhood to death - and also because of its complete, unapologetic empathy for the animal. All of this occurred to me belatedly after I wrote a previous essay on a potential remake of ”Born Free.”
Sorry, Elsa.
Throughout this December, Mankiewicz has been hosting Pets on Sets in tandem with Carol Tresan, who with her husband Greg, is owner and operator of Animal Casting Atlanta, which trains animal actors. And while their Wednesday evening get togethers are dominated largely by discussions of animal performances in finished films, Ben, Carol and Greg do not hesitate to consider what it took to achieve those performances. Was it done with ease? Or - and I hate to ask - was cruelty a factor in the process?
Ben asks all the right questions. No surprise here. And Carol and Greg provide invaluable insight, as well as an inside look into the system. Neither pulls any punches. They educate us. We learn a lot about a movie subject that has never been addressed openly - or, if so, only rarely.
This subject came up back in 1995 when I interviewed the late
Pat Derby and her husband and partner Ed Stewart at their PAWS
facility (Performing Animal Welfare Society) in Galt, Ca.
Pat had worked for almost her entire adult life as an animal trainer (specializing in elephants, bears and tigers). but had a change of heart - as well as a carer change - becaming an outspoken crusader for animal rights on movie sets. Pat had a lot to say. Her story about the orangutan that worked in the 1978 Clint Eastwood film, "Every Which Way but Loose" was particularly disturbing. It precipitated her about-face enlighetnment.
A personal case in point: My wife adores George Stevens' "Giant." Yes, it's a great movie in every way. But for me, I can't get past the sequence in which Mercedes McCambridge abuses Elizabeth Taylor's beloved horse by driving her spurs into its sides. It's an ugly scene and the horse is clearly in agony. But was the horse "acting"? Later, after the horse throws McCambridge, killing her (justice served), it limps back to the ranch - shot in silhouette, against a nighttime sky. An evocative, haunting moment.
But wait!
Finally, I
always wanted to interview Doris Day, something that evaded me during my career. One subject that I specifically wanted to address was about a film she made in
1962 - "Billy Rose's Jumbo," a musical named after its elephant star. The animal is forced
to do silly routines that are humiliating for a creature as magnificent
and sentient as an elephant. What did it take? Again, was there any cruelty involved? Doris, of course, was a vocal animal
activist and this is one area of her career I would have loved to discuss with
her.That said, thanks Ben and Carol for the observation.
Note in Passing: Getting back to Frankel's "Marley & Me"... The film works beautifully as an intelligent, acute depiction of what's like to have a relationship with an animal and how the sudden absence of an animal companion can make one feel so terribly desolate because, well, the animal is always, reliably there - a point driven in the scene where stars Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson watch videos after Marley's passing.
In one of the videos, Aniston is standing at a kitchen counter talking to a friend. She has a baby on her hip and eating food off the counter. Marley is behind her and, almost absent-mindedly, without thinking, she gives Marley some of the food - because she just knew he would be there.
But, now, he isn't. No longer.
"Marley & Me." A truly under-appreciated film, the only "animal movie" I can tolerate.
Regarding Comments:
All comments are enthusiastically appreciated but are moderated before
publication. Replies signed "unknown" or "anonymous" are not
encouraged. Please sign any response with a name (real or fabricated) or
initials. Be advised that a "name" will be assigned to any accepted
post signed "unknown" or "anonymous." Thank you. -J
* * * * *
~images~
(from top)
~Ben Mankiewicz
~photography: Turner Classic Movies 2019©
~Marley, as a pup in "Marley & Me"
~photography: Twentieth Century-Fox 2008©
~Animal trainer Carol Tresan who works in tandem with her husband and partner Greg
~photography: Animal Casting Atlanta 2019©
~Animal trainer Pat Derby and friend
~photography:PAWS 1995©
~Opening title card for the film "Giant"
~photography: Warner Bros.1956©
~Doris Day and Jimmy Durante in "Billy Rose's Jumbo"
~photography: MGM 1962©
~Marley, as a young adult in "Marley & Me"
~photography: Twentieth Century-Fox 2008©
~Marley, as a pup in "Marley & Me"
~photography: Twentieth Century-Fox 2008©
~Animal trainer Carol Tresan who works in tandem with her husband and partner Greg
~photography: Animal Casting Atlanta 2019©
~Animal trainer Pat Derby and friend
~photography:PAWS 1995©
~Opening title card for the film "Giant"
~photography: Warner Bros.1956©
~Doris Day and Jimmy Durante in "Billy Rose's Jumbo"
~photography: MGM 1962©
~Marley, as a young adult in "Marley & Me"
~photography: Twentieth Century-Fox 2008©
17 comments:
I agree. Nothing ever good happens to an animal in an animal movie. Their journey is always arduous and they tend to meet every kind of abuse imaginable - lots of bad people doing unspeakable things. Why is that?
Because of what YOU wrote, I'll try to watch Marley and Me next time it is on. But yeah, would I ever watch Old Yeller? Yeah, like I'm going to have my fingernails removed by a specialist in Chinese torture.
Oh, I dunno. The dog in ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD came out smelling like a rose. :-)
I agree about Ben as host. When Robert Osborne died, I was afraid that might mark the decline of TCM, but I think he's been terrific. I just had the pleasure of watching him interview Ava DuVernay for an episode of "The Essentials." This one was especially dear to me because she chose a movie called "Losing Ground," which was the one feature film written and directed by Kathleen Collins, who I was very lucky to have had as a film professor at City College of New York in 1980/81. After the movie finished, Ben told Ava, "My instincts are to not say this because it'll sound stupid, but when African American characters are written and directed by an African American, they sound different!" He said this with a sheepish grin, and Ava laughed warmly in response; it was both charming and exactly what he should have said, in just the way he should have said it. Ben had big shoes to fill and he's done so admirably.
Important post, Joe. I remember reading years ago about how the orangutan in "Every Which Way But Loose" was beaten regularly - on set - by its trainer. I've always been surprised that Clint Eastwood never commented on that.
I also remember a film from the '80s with Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt that featured monkeys that were allegedly abused during its making.
That would be "Project X."
Great stuff, Joe, and it needed to be said. When a family in a movie has a pet cat or dog or rabbit, I brace myself for the worst – and I’m almost always right! There is a website (https://www.doesthedogdie.com/) where you can check in advance for spoiler alerts regarding emotionally upsetting subject matter. It bothers me so much that I can’t get past the animal slaughter in the hunting sequence in Renoir’s Rules of the Game, a movie that turns up on every best list. That scene wrecks the movie for me.
Good idea. Moviegoers have to become pro-active and self-protective - anything to avoid seeing what one does not want to see in a film
Yes, I've read about Pat Derby who once trained animals for films and then renounced the practice, becoming animal activist. She wrote books on the subject and started PAWS in Northern California as a refuge for animal actors that were abandoned by their trainers. In the incident involving the orangutan in the Eastwood film, its owner was making money off the animal and should have respected and protected it. Sad.
Joe- You write - "Making that particular moment in "Giant' even more deplorable to contemplate (let alone watch) is that, once the men in the film realize that McCambridge died after the horse threw her, they shoot the poor animal."
Not true. The horse was shot because it broke a leg in the ordeal. Hence, the limp. To a self-proclaimed animal rights activist this might not seem like a much better reason, although I understand this used to be standard practice with injured horses.
If you want to make a point about taking revenge on animals, pick on "Gone with the Wind".
Thanks for the heads-up, Bubuel. Bad error on my part. My only excuse - albeit a half-hearted one - is that, as I said, I try to avoid watching the film and, when I do, I watch that particular sequence with my eyes (and, apparently, my ears) half-closed. Excellent point about GWTW.
Joe- Sounds like TMZ and PETA may have jumped the gun on this one. But I agree that this doesn't change the situation of animals working on films. Zeissmann.
I'd like to jump on the "Marley" bandwagon. Frankel did a great job on it. It's just too bad that his credit was on the film. I think if it said "Directed by Wes Anderson" or "Directed by Alexander Payne," the critical consensus would have been markedly different. Yes, I'm convinced critics often review credits, basing their decisions on exactly who made the movie in question.
Based on the poster, I expected "Marley and Me" to an exercise in cute. But enough critics whose opinions I respect,including you, have said good things about it that I now want to see it.
I thought "Marley and Me" was the prequel to "A Christmas Carol."
You’re correct, Mike. FYI. It’s also the title of the Bob Marley biography, soon to be a major film by Tom Hooper featuring an all-canine cast. Can’t wait! -J
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