User Reviews

Earthlings exposes the atrocities committed against animals, that if viewed in human terms would amount to the most evil crimes against humanity, and should (I hope someday will) be considered as such. It is an important and informative film, fueled by horrific images captured through an unflinching camera lens.

Go into this expecting to be overwhelmed by what you are going to see. I have seen images from the holocaust and the rape of Nangjing and read stories of torture from WW2 and these are frighteningly similar. Much to my surprise it is never preachy - nor does it need to be. The nightmarish images, which to my mind resemble a reasonable facsimile of Hell itself, with the innocent being tortured by their evil overlords, are more than enough. Evil is not the only word that comes to mind when you hear what the workers and trainers say to their sorry subjects as they inflict their torture. But I do not hate the evil men, I somehow pity them, both for the lives they lead and their loss of something I deeply value - empathy and compassion.

What makes Earthlings so powerfully convincing is actually quite simple if you believe that inflicting pain and suffering on an innocent living being is wrong. This kind of suffering could be the result of something as simple as not spaying/neutering your pet. Unfortunately as history shows us, we have a lot to learn about how to treat each other, let alone the animals that share our world. Earthlings gives voice to those that are powerless and cannot speak out on their own behalf.

The film makes a strong argument for some form of compromise on the meat eater/vegetarian debate, but it also delves into the issue of fur trading, animals as a form of entertainment (ie zoos), and as test subjects in the name of science. The footage in each segment is nothing short of incredible and is surely the result of years of effort, on the shoulders of many impassioned individuals, in order to be collected. To those who contributed to this effort, I salute you.

Its true that Earthlings does not offer solutions to all of the problems it seeks to expose. Nor could it hope to do so. The viewer is challenged to seek their own answers and carry the voice of the voiceless to the lawmakers. I can only hope that more people see this and make changes in how they live their lives, and the laws that govern the treatment of animals. The devastating reality is that this potentially life-changing documentary contains only a microscopic portion of what is happening every single day, in every single country, around the world.

This is a must see and should be required viewing in high school classrooms. In case you decide not to watch Earthlings, particularly if it is because you believe animals are ignorant and don't deserve to be treated humanely, I want you to know that ignorance is NOT bliss if you walk on four legs.

This is such a brilliant piece of work from Shaun Monson and Joaquin Phoenix. Using undercover footage, the film shows what the animals go through to give us the products that the human race uses every day.

The average Joe eats meat, but wouldn't kill an animal himself. He tries his best not to think about how it went from a living breathing pig or cow, to a rasher of bacon or a steak. Many people get through their whole lives protected from the horrible truth. As Phoenix said in the film "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarians." Well, this documentary shows what's going on behind those walls. This film is not just about animals used for the food industry, but also shines the light on - among others - the fur industry, animal circuses and animal experimentation.

By avoiding overly emotive language the film has a tremendous impact and the biggest shame is that not more people have seen it - or even heard of it. Please watch this film, and tell others about it. It gives an incite into the things we take for granted.

You don't have to buy it - it's free to watch on google.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1282796533661048967

Watch it all. Take an hour and a bit out of your life for this movie - it will change it. I have been vegan ever since watching this movie.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I witnessed in this documentary. I am ashamed to admit that I never really associated a piece of steak with a cow or veal with a calf. I just went about my day blissfully unaware of the horrors of the animal farming industry. I was filled with shame and remorse after watching earthlings. I went vegan cold turkey. Imagine I did this a month before Thanksgiving and when I went home for the holiday and saw that fried turkey displayed on the table all I felt was a deep sense of sorrow for the poor bird. I said a silent prayer for it.

I have not been able to look at meat or any animal product without first seeing the life that was taken in pursuit of unnecessary consusumption.

Earthlings is a must see. I recommend it to everyone I know. It has made me more conscious and compassionate.

An extremely disturbing film. I, like some other readers, felt physically ill and at one point stopped the movie - coming back to it a couple of days later.

I'm sure we have all seen disturbing footage or heard gruesome stories, but what made this seem different was it was very well narrated and the content well structured.

The sound track was wonderful but sombre with the likes of Moby and others of his ilk.

An amazing movie... and a catalyst for all of us to consider what we can do to help the situation - no matter how small the contribution.

Unquestionably the most comprehensive look at animal abuses and cruelty ever made. A very sobering look at why animal rights is something we must all recognize. Joaquin Phoenix does a wonderful job narrating (he's a life-long vegan), and brings a solemn tone to the film. The video clips are hard to watch, but are undeniably happening millions of times every day, all over the world. With any luck, people will watch this film and be inspired to reject and prevent this kind of cruelty from occurring in the future. I know I will.

I will give this film a 10, because even though I knew some of the information going into it, the film still covers more aspects of animal rights than I ever though imaginable.

EARTHLINGS – CATCH IT (A) Earthlings, is so depressing and shocking that it can't be expressed in words. I applause the director Shaun Monson, who created such an incredible documentary which covers all important expects of animals usage in our society nowadays. Joaquin phoenix narrations is extremely powerful, his voice makes the every word and sentence meaningful and important. Bravo of Joaquin Phoenix for being a part of such an incredible thought provoking subject matter. Everything's is so provocative and eye opening that while watching the movie it put me in deep silence. Everyone should watch this in the 1st chance they get. I know we can't stop the slaughter houses or scientific projects but having knowledge and awareness of what's happening around us is really important. Otherwise, there won't be any difference between people lived in Stone Age and us (so-Called social people).

As many other have stated about this film. I still wonders WHY isn't a film such as this up on regular television?

Humanity showed its faces in our more modern world during world war II and how the Nazis treated jews, gypsies and other people that didn't fit their kingdom. Stalin showed his way of tormenting his own people with starvation etc. estimated losses under stalins rule comes up to 40 million people.

Now this we air on TV's we read about it in school and everybody are horrified how humans could do such acts of terror well take a look at this film and you will see that we are still doing it the only thing is we have turned to other species than ourselves. But everything from what we saw in world war ii is here and even worse things than that in my opinion.

I simply can't understand how we can ignore these slaughter houses anylonger. It makes my blood boil when I see the people working in theses places, if someone where to die in pain it should be the human doing what he/she does.

I fell ashamed to be among humans when I see that we are so many that are capable of doing theses sic things. OF COURSE I must add that NOT all slaughter houses do act like these but there are many and they are totally legal... its insane!

I hope that someday this film ends up on TV everywhere and that humans will say NO! We did stop what happened during the nazi regime. Stop this as well!

I can totally understand how someone can have a lack of compassion for animals. By the end of this documentary I felt somewhat numb myself, from the ceaseless onslaught of horror contained within. So if you're brought up, for instance, in a hunting culture, or a biblical culture, or an "animal manufacturing" culture, or the outskirts of a bull-fighting ring, you're probably numb to the suffering of living things, too. What this movie sets out to do is climb into the minds of those who have lost perspective for whatever reason and remind them that if they're still mistreating animals, or participating in the mistreatment of animals, then they're not fulfilling a major responsibility of being human, and are therefore part human, semi-human, sub-human.

Call me a softy, but I've felt for a long, long time that there's really no fundamental difference between humans and other animals. Therefore, animals experience things like pain, despair, horror and fear the same way we do. To me this just makes logical, common sense. But again, I can totally understand how someone can disagree. I, and the creators of this film, just ask those naysayers to remember, to look deep within ourselves, beyond their conditioning, that it is possible for humans to err when it comes to such belief systems. The Nazis are a good example - they treated Jews like animals. But honestly, the stuff in this documentary are the same - and far worse, in many cases - than what the Nazis did to the Jews. Nazis still had a relative modicum of respect and restraint for other humans compared to the way animals are treated by humans. If you disagree then you need to get a grip, and look at the images in this movie, and compare the number of Jews (in the millions) to the number of animals (in the billions). Let's be frank.

The truth is this documentary is not going to change those who are like the people depicted in the movie who are completely blind to what they're really doing. Many humans are beyond hope in that respect. But it will change those who are straddling the fence. It will give them the knowledge they prayed would never interrupt their meals. It's not a message. It's a reality. A grim, horrific, and terribly sad reality.

Regardless of your views on animal rights or whether or not you eat meat, everyone should watch "Earthlings."

"Earthings" shows the horrible truth behind where our food comes from and what these poor defenseless beings have to go through so we can fill our stomachs.

Prepare to be shocked and repulsed. I realize in giving that warning, people will want to avoid this film. The truth is horrible and we have been living in lies if we pretend that we are not accountable for the cruelty inflicted on these beings on our behalf.

Meat-eaters and lacto-ovo vegetarians will want to avoid this film out of guilt. Vegans will want to avoid it because they are against violence. Everyone will want to avoid it because it is hard to confront.

Regardless if you watch "Earthlings" or not, we are all responsible and will someday be accountable. If you choose to continue to eat meat, dairy, and eggs after watching this film, at least you will do so knowing what you are doing to these beings.

We have all been brainwashed by tradition and marketing into ignoring the truth behind where the food comes from. It is time to wake up.

You can watch "Earthings" for free on the internet. There is no excuse to live our lives in ignorance.

It took me 3 days to finish watching this. Haven't seen a more harrowing documentary. This actually goes on to prove that humans are the most cruel of all animals on this planet. The documentary talks about animals in five different parts. They are shown as pets, as a source of food, entertainment, clothes and experimental subjects. The tortures which the animals are subjected to and the different manners of killing them are shown in their full brutality. Many of the scenes are more disturbing than any of the movies which contain so called graphic scenes. The viewer will be appalled and horrified as to what these animals are subjected to. Just closing our eyes and thinking that the animals are treated humanely before they are dispatched to the other world is naive. watch this and prepare to be blown literally.

All I want to say here after watching this documentary is that if you still want to use animal products please anesthetize those poor creatures.

Thank you God for letting me being born in a family who are traditionally vegetarian. It's not late if you want to turn into one!

Don't cage them. Have that experience by traveling protected in natural reservoirs.

Use substitute to leather. Put an effort to find one.

Own the tag VEGAN or Vegetarian.

Final Verdict: For what's shown, RIP humanity.

Early on, Earthlings, a documentary film by Shaun Monson, presents striking images of Nazi genocidal atrocities towards Jews, which elicit a curious cognitive dissonance in the viewer's mind - certainly the Jews were cruelly "treated like animals", but on this occasion we are moved to ask a different question: should even animals be treated this way? Or did the Nazi treatment of Jews stem in fact from the socially accepted reduction of animals to mere objects? From there on, it goes on to discuss the extent of modern society's pervasive speciesism, successively covering five expanses: Pets, Food, Clothes, Entertainment and Science. The ordering of this sequence is cunning and effective, and it helps Monson make his case about the endemic nature of speciesism in our society.

Earthlings speaks to our innate sense of compassion. Something that is there inside all of us, but needs a reawakening. It is a movie that examines our spiritual conscience, personal evolution and so much more. I did have to prepare myself before I watched it mentally not to cry through the entire movie. I managed to get by with tears welling up in my eyes, and some trickling down my face, but that was unavoidable. If you have at least a bit of a heart within you, this movie is going to make you cringe at times and evoke some serious emotion, but that is not a good enough reason not to see it. I'm not going to attempt to describe the ghastly scenes in Earthlings. There were parts I missed because I had to turn away. At other times I acted like a little kid watching a horror film, covering my face with my hands, only watching what could slip through the cracks between my fingers. But this is no horror movie. Earthlings is real. Yes, it is inconvenient to find this out. Yes, it is going to make you rethink your ways, and yes, it may lead you to make some major changes in your life, but that is what evolution of the human being and spirit is all about.

As a production, Monson's Earthlings is a meticulously crafted work, featuring narration by Joaquin Phoenix, a moodily effective musical score by Moby, and rare footage from inside the animal factory farming industry that must have been difficult to acquire, giving it the right atmosphere and the right facts to really drive the message home.

Earthlings forcefully, sometimes disturbingly, reminds us of an essential character of our consciousness, something about ourselves that our culture often dismisses: compassion and empathy. Along the way it shows and tells some inconvenient truths that most of us would probably prefer to avoid, laying bare a mass hypocrisy that we mindlessly accept. Earthlings shows us what is right there to see, if we would only look directly and honestly.

Watching a documentary like this is not an easy thing to do. But it is something that all people should do. The way animals are treated by humans is nothing short of horrific. The sad fact is that people don't want to be educated in this regard. It is far easier for them to remain ignorant. The question that I was constantly asking myself throughout this film, is "how can people work in these places, and inflict the level of cruelty to these animals so blatantly". Perhaps they are numb to it. But I guess the fact that they can become numb to is means that there is probably no hope for these animals at all. The truly sad part is that many of them seemed to enjoy their work. I certainly hope that I am wrong.

This documentary covers *all* facets of human speciesism (a term that is referred to throughout the film). Pets, and pet abuse, animals for food and clothing, cruelty to animals in the name of human entertainment, zoos, circuses. Although I do consider myself to be an educated vegan, I did learn a lot from watching this documentary. The tone in which Joaquin Phoenix narrated was very compelling. You can tell that he is passionate about the subject.

I suspect that only a vegan or perhaps a vegetarian would be able to watch this all the way through. Most people that support the industries that are outlined within the film, would likely turn it off when it gets to the graphic sections, as they wouldn't want to be put off their dinner. As the film says, it's easier to remain ignorant, so that you don't have to battle with your conscience and make the hard decisions.

I urge everyone that gets the opportunity to see this documentary, to do so. It really is an education indeed. It can be purchased on line from http://www.isawearthlings.com/

This was a very moving documentary. It shocked and terrified me throughout. It was painful to watch some scenes, I cringed and blenched and almost cried.

I hope and pray that governments around the world would watch these documentaries and do something. Laws should be made and enforced to defend and protect these animals.

These type of documentaries should be broadcast on national TV, so people can be aware of some of the horror that's being done to these animals.

The incidents that are shown in the documentary might be isolated and not wide-spread, but they are real nonetheless. They take place in the western "civilized" world, where supposedly all is well and perfect, for man and beast! Watch this with your friends, share it with co-workers, tell your barber about it, ...whatever. But you owe it to your conscience to spread the word.

I feel the need to respond to some of the criticisms I read in the comments on here. In many of the low reviews people cite two main reasons, they call it vegan/PETA propaganda or they say it is too violent and disgusting. Obviously it is "propaganda" for animal rights activists, that is the whole point of the movie. Everything documentary, book, pamphlet, speech etc. that was directed towards a purpose in the past was propaganda too.

Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech was propaganda for the civil rights movement, that did not mean he did not have a point or he was wrong, but he certainly did not give the arguments of white southerners equal weight did he? Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Susan B. Anthony, and every other human rights campaigner in history did the same. But please remember, none of these now famous civil rights campaigns were universally accepted in the past. Nelson Mandela was put in jail (and not just by the white South African government, the US government supported them for many many years). MLK was shot, female suffragettes were beat up and ridiculed. The pattern is the same, and the documentary identifies it in the first minute. Resistance to the truth Step 1: Ridicule (call it propaganda) Step 2: Violent Resistance Step 3: Acceptance.

For all the others who say its too violent, well that is the point, it is showing the reality of the animal product consumption industry. Do you complain that a documentary about the holocaust is too violent? Get real. Using this as a criticism is honestly sickening and it shows just how detached from reality some people are. Reality does not have a Hollywood happy ending. This is what happens, this is where your meat comes from. Shutting your eyes to the reality and ignoring it will not make it go away. How many Germans simply shut their eyes to what was happening around them?

Yes nature is cruel, yes lions kill zebra and eat them alive. Does that mean that we humans as sentient self-aware creatures are justified in doing the same? It reminds me a debate that Friedrich Hayek and John Rawls had about what constitutes a just society. Hayek said that nature is inherently "unfair" and the sooner "liberals" like Rawls deal with that fact the better off we will be. Rawls brilliantly responded that nature is neither fair nor unfair, it simply is nature, and how we deal with that fact is what makes our society fair or unfair.

I am not saying Earthlings is the best documentary ever, nor do I completely agree with all of PETA or the documentary's positions. I am also not a vegan. This film is difficult to watch, and it should be.

People should be disgusted by this piece because it represents what is true in today's society and what is disgusting. If you cannot kill your own meat humanly, you should not be eating it. Lethargy and turning a blind eye hurts you just as much as anyone. This is the reason for heart disease and obesity being rampant in the USA. If you need to run and kill your own prey (and most often unsuccessful) to survive then meat is a calorie packed choice for your sustenance - if you graze and meander all day (like most couch potatoes and most in the US) than you should be eating a grazer's diet of veggies. Meat from suffering dirty animals is not necessary in a modern human's diet.

And, I disagree with the otherwise eloquent poster below. I have never felt drained or tired from my diet - in fact I feel lean and energetic.... and guilt-free.

In the end, there is every reason to watch this film. It is every persons obligation to know what exists in their own backyard and what they are contributing to. If you are fine with your actions after that - at least it is your informed choice.

As some pointed out, no answers. Just a sad reflection. But rather than pull it apart too much, I wanted to point out to all the vegetarians out there the following: Lobby groups pressed ALL governments over many years to raise the bar when it comes to allowing new pharmaceutical products onto the market. It is good to have a degree of obvious measures in place, but the rigorous testing required for government (eg FDA) approval is extremely burdensome. As a consequence, one of the best ways for pharmaceutical companies to meet these increasingly higher standards is to prove that the new drug actually treats the illness and has not or very few low-impact side effects. And how do they prove it? By testing it on animals! Yes - we know that liquid paper is harmful to the human eye because the manufacturers observed the destruction it causes to rabbit eyes. And yes, chickens are cramped up in cages in shocking conditions before they are killed and put on a supermarket hot-chicken rotisserie. But it is pointless protesting against that so vehemently, but somewhat "excusing" pharmaceutical companies doing the same thing because it is in the interest of the heath and well-being of humans. A lot of soap-avoiding vegans will still take anti-biotics. Do they know what and how many animals were sacrificed (probably in a cruel and inhumane fashion) to get that product on the shelf? There's a contradiction there that is only further fueled when the same soap-avoid vegans want more government regulation of big multi-national corporations such as pharmaceutical companies. This results in more animal testing, that doesn't necessarily catch everything anyway. How did Vioxx get through?

I must advise that this documentary/movie/film narrows very disturbing subjects and if you wanna watch be morally prepared because you are never going to experience your local market the same way. And you will fell bad about yourself in allot of situations afterward.

This was the only movie, ever, that made me cry. I saw it alone and by the end of 20 minutes I was tearing apart. I felt ashamed on the way we allow things like this to happen.

I understand it's impossible to remove meat from our food chain but we could at least treat the animals with dignity and praise them for what they provide to us. They're lives!

The movie will show you how immune and grotesque we as human beings can be. And most of it falls in the same category reduce cost or by other words make some people richer by taking advantage of the defenseless ones, in these case the animals and people with no other life choices that must take a apart on this...

I can say this movie can change your life but the solution is not on ones single hands and changes on politics have to be implemented in order to prevent this, hopefully some of tomorrow leaders will watch this and take measures in the future.

One sentence remain staggered in my head:

"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields".

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.

I feel pain in my body after watching how animals are in pain! I cant believe how we are torturing animals and how everybody see and know it but nobody do nothing to help them...

I started reading about human rights when I was around 18 after i had been arrested I began reading the world section of newspapers. I discovered that the world beyond America is very different, many people in America have serious problems, poverty can kill here too, but in comparison to parts of Africa and places all over the globe, places as close as hati, America is heaven. So I joined a human rights group at UCONN and learned a lot. Its on thing to be aware of world issues but to really research the problems changes your perspective on life, on justice really. I had a dog for 17 years his name was comet, he was my best friend. He got hit by a car, I was getting ready to work the 3rd shift at espn the car droveaway, I'm thankful it did I don't know what I would have done to the driver. His death changed my life, like the death of a close family member it didn't matter that he was "just" a dog to me, for months nothing seemed to be right, colors were off, the sky wasn't right, my conversations meant nothing, life was dark. I don't remember how but I came across a man named Gary Francione, and read his book an "introduction to animal rights your child or the dog?". I was never the same after reading that book, I didn't know there were law professors writing about what I felt. since then I have read many books, watched hours of video of abuse and whatever else I came across to better understand the plight of animals, the unnecessary pain. I could not watch this movie straight on thru, I needed to watch it in pieces, it was the most honest film I have ever seen about the way we treat animals as things, and not sentient creatures. I didn't think you could make a movie like that, I didn't think anyone cared but I was wrong, a lot of people care. start with yourself, giving up animal products is the surest way you can help animals, learn about going vegan. good luck

This documentary shows 'behind the scenes' of what goes on behind closed walls, when it comes to our use of animals. Right from the beginning, harsh realities are shown onto the screen. It is hard to watch this movie, without feeling sympathy for the creatures that are born to be exploited. The message in this movie is strong and insightful. I highly recommend this for those who want to know the truth of how animals are treated. Every aspect of the animals lives are presented in this film. If it does not turn you into a vegetarian, you might, at least, think about it. This documentary may as well be up there as one of the best.

Hi all, I'm a 20 yr old Sydney boy who was asked by a mate to watch this film. I've read some of your comments. Here is my response: I, like some of you have stated, also have a strong stomach when it comes to watching "goresome" and violent eruptions of human behaviour. Nazi-ism to animals doesn't even come close to interpreting the horrors portrayed in this film. The fundamental objective of this movie was not to sicken you and "turn you off" meat in terms of food, science, fashion or entertainment. It was to simply inform you, not only of the daily mistreating of animals on a worldwide scale, but as how humanity perceives other beings that live on this planet, and how we perceive ourselves. I am a vegetarian living in Australia (was born in India where the majority of people are vegetarians & cows are sacred). Being a vegetarian in a western culture is difficult enough it is, supplementing for foods without meats (even some simple veggie burgers would have beef or some sort of meat substance in them). Also, I never had much faith in humanity especially in recent years with corrupt politics, terrorism, and general arrogant human behaviour. I could give you all a thesis on why and how humanity has failed in co-existing on a planet that us, one single species out of so many, has destroyed through what we consider "our evolution" (Pollution, waste, animal cruelty to name a few).

When I saw scenes throughout this film, I was not only appalled by the graphical representation of mistreating of animals, but what upset me the most is that we, as humans, as earthlings, have no compassion or moral value whatsoever. People will state that animals are edible because of their religious scriptures, or that it will provide us with the required nutrients and supplements, or even that we DO have the right to kill an animal, as long as it is done in a civil, appropriate manner. Others will mention I am over-exaggerating, misunderstanding and being difficult with the issue. The truth is, if animals didn't exist... we would treat our fellow human beings the same way. We used humans for sport in the Colosseum in Greece. Cannibalism has arisen during times of survival or sacrifice. We bully each other during our youth, and don't realise the affects of this until we have come of age, and have suffered mental conditions from it. We believe in torture to other human beings, racism, Nazi-ism.

This film is based around animal mistreating but branches off to so many other factors. I put the two things in my life first that the majority of humans in our modern world would put last, Morals and Compassion. I would rather have some sort of deficiency in my body (I may feel a little more tired than normal people, or not as strong) than to eat something that used to live, breathe and feel. Having a deficiency is a small price to pay than to kill an animal. I don't care if killing animals is done for religious, financial, social or even health purposes. Just like I would never kill another human being, I could never kill an animal. Not because of this film, not because of my beliefs, but because I feel obligated to.

Fight for what you believe in with compassion, intelligence and strong moral ground! PS: Sorry if I misspell anything, I'm bloody exhausted.

Everybody should watch this movie. Mankind can be so evil and depraved. If an individual does not become vegetarian, at least he/she should reduce the amount of meat that they eat. Also the meat industry urgently needs a re-haul. I have always wondered that if people stopped eating meat, would humans evolve to become herbivores? To me that seems to make logical sense. Also there is no longer a need at least in the Western world to use animals for clothing. The sale of fur and leather is an abomination. Experiments must be ceased immediately. Joaquin Phoenix did a magnificent job in his narrative. The music by Moby suited the movie very well.

This movie illustrates very, very clearly, that there are acts of violence in this world that so many of use are contributing to, albeit unknowingly in many cases.

I think its probably pretty fair to say that we all want a world with less violence, a world with more kindness.

What can you do to make this happen? The solution is beautifully simple: Be the change you want to see in the world. (Those are Ghandi's words, not mine, by the way) If you want a world in which there is less violence, stop contributing to violence in the world.

Violence begets violence....

and Peace begets Peace.

Deep down, we all know this to be true.

It takes a willingness to change, as a person, to implement these changes. That can be scary, because to say that there is something about oneself that needs to change is to admit to being imperfect.

Be brave. Do WHAT YOU CAN to contribute less to violence, whatever it is, and your world will be less violent, and more peaceful.

If you only feel comfortable with a small change at first, then make that change, and you will be rewarded with a greater sense of peace. This process of change and reward may continue for the rest of your life.

I can tell you from my experience, this has been, and is, a very rewarding process for me.