Peaceable Kingdom

The two presented in the course have been completely opposite of one another in what they show and how they display the information. While having been terrified when viewing Earthlings, I was expecting a similar reaction to Peaceable Kingdom. However, there can be no comparison made between the two they are extremely different. While Earthlings was gruesome and made me feel horrible about how I help in the pain obtained by animals, Peaceable Kingdom showed the nicer side of the fight for animal’s rights. There has always been a relationship between humans and animals but somewhere along the way the concern for one another disappeared. It was crazy to see this farmer not really think of profit but only of the animal’s well being, that is not common in today’s world especially in a country such as America. For him to sit in front of a camera and show emotions when talking about his encounter with dead animals hanging from trees and his connection with his cow made me wonder why and how factory farms exists. In Earthlings, the concern for animals by humans was never shown, it was always just a want to hurt them and end their lives. I don’t understand how these movies are so different when covering the same topic. It makes me wonder about the reality of the situation and which is the side to believe. I mean while I know that cruel things do happen to animals how often they occur is Earthlings only taking a bit of footage and manipulating the audience to think that this is always the case. These movies of course play into the course and our thoughts on the fight for animals rights. I believe that these films were a good balance to the semester’s text giving two different sides of the story. Having seen several PETA videos on the side and having been extremely effected by Earthlings I would never think something as calming as Peaceable Kingdom would also have an effect of me, it would give me hope that things could and have started to change slowly. It also shows that the fight for animals doesn’t solely rely on pictures of cruelty but it also depends on the sentiments of humans towards animals and whether they choose to support the problem or find a solution.