May 25, 2003
Deliverance
TV3 showed Snake Eyes as their Sunday night movie tonight. The first ten minutes features a boxing match that is essential to the rest of the story - TV3 edited it out completely, presumably to spare their viewers sensitivities (or maybe to confuse them completely, since a key part of the plot resolution hinges on the fight).
TG4 had no such qualms with their Sunday night documentary. It was about organic pig-farming in Gaeltacht areas. It followed the fortunes of one German family who were lovingly rearing by hand three chubby and mischievous looking piggies. If there's one thing I've learned from Warlord comics and war movies, it's that if someone hunts you out of a building, shouting "Raus, swein, raus!!" in a guttural voice, it will not end well for you. Now, here's a hint for any farmyard animal. If this should happens, run, and don't look back.
Alas, these three little piggies went to the abattoir, and they weren't coming home. First they were duped into a trailer, by a trail of oats. The farmer, still smiling, explained that if the pigs became stressed, it would affect the quality of the meat (something to do with adrenaline retention) Once in the trailer, they were fed poitín, just to chill them out further. Once they got to the abattoir, they shuffled out, grinning (since they were pissed).
Now, in most documentaries, there is usually a quick cut to the aftermath. Not in this one. The man in the abattoir casually clamped a set of electrodes over cute piggy #1, who dropped like a stone. While it was still twitching, abattoir man hooked its leg to a pulley, hoisted the pig up, and ripped a huge gash in its throat. A huge gush of blood covered the floor. (At this point, any townies watching the programme had probably switched back to ER - less blood, and the cute ones live.). For maximum gross-out value, we got to see the piggies washed in scalding water, plucked clean of hair and then blow-torched. A final scene showed a line of ghostly white pigs heads on hooks in the factory, as they proceeded up the production line.
By way of contrast, the programme interspersed the scenes of the slaughter with scenes from an old RTE documentary showing how pigs were killed in the old days. Difference number one - not much concern over the pigs stress levels. The pig in question was chased around the field squealing in terror until it was (literally) hog-tied, spread-eagled upside down across a trailer- the end was the same, and just as bloody.
If I had one criticism of the programme it is that I do not know how you can do a documentary on pig-farming without mentioning the smell of pig shit. (And I haven't even mentioned the part where the little old lady sat by the fire reminiscing about how she used to pull out the teeth of the new born piglets by hand. Out of earshot of the sow. Something about keeping the stress levels low).
The programme finished with (another) smiling German butcher, with the sort of moustache built for twirling, happily feeding pork mince (i.e. the three little piggies) into a sausage maker.
Babe, it wasn't.
Posted by Monasette at May 25, 2003 11:36 PM