Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Earthlings

Earthlings is a multi-award winning 2003 documentary by writer/director Shaun Monson. Narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, it uses facts and footage to examine in a blunt and methodical manner how through speciesism, humans have come to treat non-human animals as property. We use them for food, clothing, entertainment and experimentation. We breed and exploit them for profit and in doing so, we neglect them, frighten them and often torture them until they're deemed ready for slaughter.

As sad and awful as the sounds and images are in this documentary, they reflect quite accurately what goes on "out of sight". Regardless of whether or not you choose to consume animals, the information you'll hear and the images you'll see will disturb you. If you do consume animals, I hope that watching this film will lead you to reconsider.



3 comments:

Luis Tovar said...

Earthlings is a really great documentary, although there are a few things that I am not agree with.

I know that Earthlings was a decisive moment for many people who afterwards go vegan.

Definitively, worth a view.

jimpurdy1943@yahoo.com said...

Terrible. I couldn't watch the whole thing.

M said...

Jim: It's definitely a difficult thing to watch. I tried running through it for my second time yesterday to remember what exactly was in it and had to stop around 20 minutes short of the end.

Luis: You're probably right that this film's been responsible for opening a lot of people's eyes and getting them to go vegan. I'm curious. What is there in it with which you disagree?