Horses have had a long and rocky history in Hollywood. Early Hollywood films put horses through grueling working conditions, often resulting in injury or death. They were essentially treated as disposable.
KENDRA COULTER: It is a horse named Ghost who first signals that something is awry in the sky in Jordan Peele’s latest visually and thematically ambitious film Nope… As a subversive Western science fiction kaleidoscope, Nope challenges viewers to consider technology, surveillance, other worldly life and the making of spectacle through different lenses — including the eyes of animals. The result is an unsettling view that exposes core ethical questions about animals’ work in films, including in Nope itself…
Horses have had a long and rocky history in Hollywood. Early Hollywood films put horses through grueling working conditions, often resulting in injury or death. They were essentially treated as disposable. Now on-set animal action, in the United States at least, is monitored by the nonprofit American Humane.
Plus, animals on screen are increasingly computer-generated images or motion capture marvels that fuse digital imagery with human actors, as was the case in the award-winning rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy starring Andy Serkis as the lead chimpanzee, Caesar. We have both reformed and replaced animals’ work in the making of entertainment.
Horses and chimpanzees are now often placed on opposite sides of a perceived line between accepted and unacceptable animal use. Most horses are domesticated and have worked for humans for thousands of years. Their careers, reproduction and social lives are largely controlled by humans. In contrast, although individual chimpanzees have been held captive, their species remains wild…
In Nope, the tragedy involving Gordy (Terry Notary) is revealed in excruciating detail, including an evocative moment when the chimpanzee sees his young co-star Ricky (Jacob Kim), hiding under a table. The two reach out to touch hands, as bullets fly. In a situation ripe with horror, viewers are asked to consider whether the foundational tragedy is Gordy’s employment as an actor…
Each chapter in the film is named after an animal — Ghost, Lucky, Clover, Gordy and Jean Jacket — foregrounding four horses and one chimpanzee. The horses are essential to the Heywood family’s livelihood and legacy, with OJ noting that he needs to get up early because “he has mouths to feed.” Yet the ultimate fate of Ghost, the horse who rang the initial alarm by bolting away, is unclear. More troublingly, Clover meets an untimely end (off screen), one which is surprisingly un-mourned and barely noted…
Animal actors and the skill involved in their work are being recognized. The canine star of the Canadian television program Hudson and Rex, Diesel vom Burgimwald, is named in the credits and regularly appears on the show’s social media channels. Jeff Daniels, in his Emmy-acceptance speech for Godless, thanked his equine partner, Apollo.
Yet the real horses who played Lucky, Clover and Ghost in Nope are not included in the credits. The head horse wrangler — Bobby Lovgren — is named, but the horses are omitted. In a film that powerfully explores the ethics of animal actors, for those it depends upon to be erased in this way is strange.
When it comes to our ethical duties to other animals — especially if we ask them to work for our entertainment — we must use great caution and pay close attention when they say “nope.” Representation and respect should go hand in hoof. SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEOS: