Nothing's broke me like this has
This film to me is more of an exercise on the ethical limits of documentary filmmaking than anything else.
Is it a fantastic, piercing, impactful piece of cinema? Absolutely.
Is it technically original and attempts to bring something new (or at least less overly done) to the table? Also true.
What is its message? One gets the sense that it is criticising its subject matter, mostly because it takes the perspective of the cow. But in reality, its objective observational style of filmmaking is mostly non-dogmatic, and each will take from it what best aligns with what they already mostly believed in before watching it. That is - animals lovers will think the film uncovers the dairy industry’s horrors; radical animal rights activists will revolt at the filmmaker’s inertia and lack of intervention to save the cow it follows; spectators which are neutral to the cause will mostly assume a “it is what it is” stance; and of course, anti-vegans won’t see anything wrong with what is shown (after all, look -they’re even letting the cows roam free for a little bit!).
If you’re a film fan or scholar you can have any of the above opinions on the subject matter, but you will also leave Cow with additional intelectual contemplation on what exactly the role of a documentarian is supposed to be. Is it okay for the director not to intervene for the sake of objective/neutral filmmaking or is it exploitive and self-serving to :asterisk_symbol:spoiler:asterisk_symbol: just stand by and do nothing as you watch a cow get shot in the head in the name of art?
"Meh" is, as far as I'm concerned, the only correct rating for a movie where you sit and watch cows for an hour and a half. The cows will agree with me. This film could also have been 20 minutes long, that would have had the same effect for me. I don't eat meat, and for good reason. The udders that drag on the ground and the cow that can hardly walk, my God, what are we doing to those poor animals. Hardly any cow dies of old age, so not this one either. I think it all takes a bit too long in this documentary, much the same, and a bit too much false sentiment with the cow looking purposefully into the camera.
Shout by Miguel A. ReinaBlockedParent2022-03-06T18:22:10Z
What strikes the most is the kindness with which the farmers treat the cows that they lock up, burn, inseminate, and separate from their offsprings. In the countryside, the calves run as they yearn for freedom. Something similar is the treatment that the director gives her film, close to the eyes, attentive to the mooing, but in the end manipulative in the use of sound, like a "kind" vision into a concentration camp .