I'm going to go out on a limb here and criticize this movie quite a bit, so if you think a movie concerning a worthy cause must not be criticized please stop reading now :-)
Let's start with the good: Earthlings is a unique and visually shocking insight into how animals are mistreated (this word doesn't do the cruelty justice) in our civilization, with focus on food production, clothing, entertainment and research. It opens ones eyes to condemnable practices beyond anything that you thought could be possible, that however seem to be all too common in those industries. Some might consider the videos shown disgusting, however I'd dare to say that there are humans even capable of this is even more shocking than the visuals of slaughtered animals.
So let's gets to the bad: The movie is in many parts very unspecific, showing atrocity after atrocity, while only rarely explaining why this happens (legal situation? slaughterers doing it for fun?) or alternatives (cost?). It also does for the most part not differentiate in any way between practices in different countries. I'm sure that many of the things shown are illegal and uncommon in some countries of the world. Naming those countries that ALLOW these atrocities by name would have been a very good idea.
The film's general theme therefor is very negative - pretending the ONLY way out of this madness is veganism, COMPLETELY ignoring ANY other ways that could significantly improve the situation (for example regulations from the government). In addition to this, it claims that the despicable torture of these animals is necessary for the industry, even though the movie itself shows in a few cases that "humane" treatment and fairly painless killing of animals is just a question of slightly higher costs.
Then right before in the end, the documentary completely disposes of any logic and reason: While the whole movie's theme is that animals are so much like us in regards to consciousness, pain and their body/brain, it starts to completely deny any relationship between humans and animals once the usage of animals of medical research becomes the topic. I fully agree that some (much?) of this research is morally despicable, but suddenly claiming that there is ABSOLUTELY no benefit to us humans from doing research on lab animals, while at the same time claiming they are suddenly SO very different from us is just totally absurd. Surely those scientists must all be doing those experiments just to inflict pain for their personal pleasure, after all why else would they be doing this research if there is no benefit at all? The whole reasoning presented here in this part of the movie is absurd, lacks any logic and really harms the movie's message by saying to the viewer who notices: "we don't care about truth, we care about animals!".
And then, right before the end, he goes on by listing pretty much every major illness humans face including cancer then blaming them ALL on the fact that we eat meat. Well, I guess the world really is just black and white for those guys...
The movie closes by reminding us that ALL animals used in the areas of food production, cloth production and science die in pain beyond belief. Every single one of them. Yeah, that really what they claim, even though their own movie in a few cases has shown that painless killing is possible and often is not done just because of slightly higher costs. Of course facts are not in line with the movies general message are completely ignored (animals can die very painfully in nature too) and the only "solution" presented here is again: Become a vegan, or you're responsible for this.
To sum it up: Shocking pictures, worth seeing and thinking about. But don't expect a well researched report that gives you numbers or percents or names (virtually no effort is made to show how common some methods are), or even proposes solutions (except veganism). This movie was made to shock and to convince by shock only, objectivity was lost somewhere along the way.
I'd rate it at 6.5 / 10, because even though it does not care about truth and objectivity (which I think are quite important in a documentary) it is still very much worth seeing.
Let's start with the good: Earthlings is a unique and visually shocking insight into how animals are mistreated (this word doesn't do the cruelty justice) in our civilization, with focus on food production, clothing, entertainment and research. It opens ones eyes to condemnable practices beyond anything that you thought could be possible, that however seem to be all too common in those industries. Some might consider the videos shown disgusting, however I'd dare to say that there are humans even capable of this is even more shocking than the visuals of slaughtered animals.
So let's gets to the bad: The movie is in many parts very unspecific, showing atrocity after atrocity, while only rarely explaining why this happens (legal situation? slaughterers doing it for fun?) or alternatives (cost?). It also does for the most part not differentiate in any way between practices in different countries. I'm sure that many of the things shown are illegal and uncommon in some countries of the world. Naming those countries that ALLOW these atrocities by name would have been a very good idea.
The film's general theme therefor is very negative - pretending the ONLY way out of this madness is veganism, COMPLETELY ignoring ANY other ways that could significantly improve the situation (for example regulations from the government). In addition to this, it claims that the despicable torture of these animals is necessary for the industry, even though the movie itself shows in a few cases that "humane" treatment and fairly painless killing of animals is just a question of slightly higher costs.
Then right before in the end, the documentary completely disposes of any logic and reason: While the whole movie's theme is that animals are so much like us in regards to consciousness, pain and their body/brain, it starts to completely deny any relationship between humans and animals once the usage of animals of medical research becomes the topic. I fully agree that some (much?) of this research is morally despicable, but suddenly claiming that there is ABSOLUTELY no benefit to us humans from doing research on lab animals, while at the same time claiming they are suddenly SO very different from us is just totally absurd. Surely those scientists must all be doing those experiments just to inflict pain for their personal pleasure, after all why else would they be doing this research if there is no benefit at all? The whole reasoning presented here in this part of the movie is absurd, lacks any logic and really harms the movie's message by saying to the viewer who notices: "we don't care about truth, we care about animals!".
And then, right before the end, he goes on by listing pretty much every major illness humans face including cancer then blaming them ALL on the fact that we eat meat. Well, I guess the world really is just black and white for those guys...
The movie closes by reminding us that ALL animals used in the areas of food production, cloth production and science die in pain beyond belief. Every single one of them. Yeah, that really what they claim, even though their own movie in a few cases has shown that painless killing is possible and often is not done just because of slightly higher costs. Of course facts are not in line with the movies general message are completely ignored (animals can die very painfully in nature too) and the only "solution" presented here is again: Become a vegan, or you're responsible for this.
To sum it up: Shocking pictures, worth seeing and thinking about. But don't expect a well researched report that gives you numbers or percents or names (virtually no effort is made to show how common some methods are), or even proposes solutions (except veganism). This movie was made to shock and to convince by shock only, objectivity was lost somewhere along the way.
I'd rate it at 6.5 / 10, because even though it does not care about truth and objectivity (which I think are quite important in a documentary) it is still very much worth seeing.