----------------------------Original message---------------------------- PSYCPAT inquires: "To the post that equated seeing an animal killed on screen with seeing it shrinkwrapped in the supermarket: I have difficulty comparing killing an animal for its meat with killing an animal for some goal of cinematic verite. Could you clarify?" I wasn't quite equating the two--yet you seem to be. I was trying to make the point that in certain films (such as the ones I mentioned), the point is brought home that survival has often required the death of animals for our sustenance. The sacrifice of the pig in TREE OF THE WOODEN CLOGS is a difficultexample, since the pig is important to the family but they've come to the end of all other resources. In other films, such killings are simply a fact of rural life. Sometimes--as in Cisse's BRIGHTNESS--the killing is sacrificial. I would suggest, as another post seems to say, that modern urban audiences often find such scenes upsetting, yet think nothing of heading to Sizzler for a sirloin or plucking some of Frank Perdue's best from the shelves. See WALKABOUT(which I mentioned) where he crosscuts the aborigine's killing of an animal (kangaroo?) with shots of meat in a market. I hope that clarifies--though the intent of your question wasn't quite clear either! Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)