Cow (I) (2021) User Reviews

21st Century Slavery

[oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx · 7/10 · 16 January 2022]

One of the most illuminating documentaries in film history is called Titicut Follies (1967), one of the first and only times a director got under the skin of an institution, which Andrea Arnold manages again with Cow. Follies uncovers the horrendous maltreatment of people at an asylum in Massachusetts. It's remarkable because of the co-operation given to the filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. The medical staff at Titicut simply do not have the self awareness or empathy to know that they do wrong and give him the run of the place. In the most jawdropping moment a doctor smoking a cigarette over an anaesthetised patient, lets his fag ash fall into the man's open mouth, and no-one bats an eyelid. Exposés since that time have been rather subdued as most wrongdoers are informed enough to be a completely different person when they know a camera is nearby.

The farmers here simply feel that everything they do is justified (or maybe they crave judgement?), and so they have given Andrea Arnold and her crew the run of the place. Like Wiseman before her Arnold simply points her camera at stuff going on, there are no interviews, no explanatory notes, the camera eye does all the talking. They spend four years focussing mainly on one cow, Luma, her day-to-day experience, and those of her calf. When the calf is announced female I didn't know whether to be relieved or appalled, males are often shot straight away as rearing them to sell on as veal is not economical, whilst the female become part of the dairy herd; which is better, murder or slavery?

Cow is the nightmare of Fritz Lang's Metropolis come true, where persons literally become part of machines. On the farm placid and majestic creatures are cruelly exploited, and then when the economics of keeping them enslaved stops making sense, abruptly murdered. There are indeed Wisemanian moments here, where a farmhand comments that Luma is bad for being protective. "Bad" here meaning that she doesn't do exactly what her enslavers want when they want it ("Fair is foul and foul is fair"); the second farmhand knows a faux pas has been made on camera. The farmers are of that chilling breed of individuals who know what they do is wrong but do it anyway, because there are no repercussions. We can at least say of them that they are not sadists, no-one deliberately harms an animal here for entertainment (although things like this have been videoed on other farms).

Numerous unpleasant scenes include debudding without anaesthetic (to make the slaves more manageable the tissue that grows horns is burned away), Luma refusing to eat after her latest child is abducted and industrial milking apparatus dangling in slurry.

Arnold's treatment feels occasionally tone deaf, Luma is corralled into a pen with a bull to get made pregnant yet again (cows are essentially kept permanently pregnant and have no agency whatsoever), and Arnold feels it's appropriate to edit this in with a firework display, as if something remotely romantic is happening when breeding of slaves occurs. In interviews Arnold has talked about the service that the cows have given us, the problem is that cows have their free will removed, they are not giving us service, everything they give is being taken. I gave the film a 6 because for all its revelations I do still feel that Arnold doesn't fully get it.

It is sobering to remind oneself that of all the lurid horrors of Cow, this is likely the best a farm gets, and the best simply isn't good enough. We can stop the suffering, end deforestation and end climate change if we stop enslaving animals, but we enjoy the taste of these easily substituted products too much. The childishly absurd "bacon tho" and "cheese tho" arguments win out. Humanity had better hope that no wrathful judge exists.

Bovine Bullies...

[Xstal · 7/10 · 18 April 2022]

Condemned to a life on a prison farm, there's plenty here to raise the alarm, perpetually expecting, poked, prodded and collecting, appreciation paid through point blank firearm.

Agonizing Torture

[stellasmama-65793 · 7/10 · 18 May 2022]

I just want to give everyone a heads up. This isn't one of James Herriot's bucolic Yorkshire farms. If this documentary were rated, it would be an R for depicting constant torture of these magnificent animals and their young. I couldn't take it and had to walk out of the theater and rethink my whole life as to what to eat and drink from now on. It was shocking what mass production of dairy products causes in the inhumane ways the livestock are treated. I would not recommend for children or sensitive adults for that matter. I was not the only one who walked out of that theater today.

work, work, done

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 7 April 2022]

Greetings again from the darkness. Farming and ranching are about two main things: commerce and sourcing food and other items (wool, leather, cotton, etc). Director Andrea Arnold won an Oscar for her short film WASP (2003), and also directed a couple of narratives that I've seen, WUTHERING HEIGHTS (2011) and AMERICAN HONEY (2016). Her first feature documentary takes us to a dairy farm in rural England, and closely follows the daily life of the cows on the farm.

We open with the birth of a calf and the instant bonding with its mother, Luma. Then, as we've seen in other documentaries, the two are separated and we clearly see the anxiety this creates in the bovines. But this is a working dairy farm and cows exist for two reasons: to produce milk and to have babies. Ms. Arnold wisely keeps the focus on the cows, and the human workers are rarely seen or heard. It's not a pleasant existence for the cows. They spend time being milked by a metallic contraption or being impregnated by a local bull. Denied connection with their offspring, the cows seem to be allowed very little time to frolic or graze in the fields.

Cinematographer Magda Kowalczyk does get some creative shots, but there are a few times the closeness of the camera to the cows gives us a feeling of temporary motion sickness. We are also bounced between mother and calf quite often, and we 'feel' the mother's bellowing as she longs for her baby. The point is made that cows have feelings, especially as related to their offspring, but some of the attempts to drive that home stretch credulity a bit too far. Also responsible for a slight dulling of the film's impact is that it arrives so closely to last year's artistic masterpiece, GUNDA (2021) from Viktor Kosakovskiy, though director Arnold wins for the most abrupt ending (for us and the cow).

In theaters and On Demand beginning April 8, 2022.

Will make you rethink your food

[dgohmann · 10/10 · 12 April 2022]

Upon watching this documentary I didin't really know what to expect. I saw a glowing score on Rotten Tomatoes and love a good documentary so I rented this film to see what it was about. All I can say is that its unlike any film I've ever seen and is something that will stick with me, forever.

I won't ever view cows in the same way, and I think that is a good thing. The film has almost zero dialogue, and really puts you into the life of a cow and everything they are put through, just to provide us meat and milk. Their lives are seen as pure commoditity, only useful until they can no longer give birth anymore.

The film is simple, elegant, and powerful. Its not an easy watch and is at times very painful to endure, but its very worth it. The films ending was so abrubt that I sat in silence for many minutes after pondering what I had just watched, and how I take for granted the many things that consume in my life because an animal endures torture for me.

If you watch "Cow", know that it won't be an easy film to sit through. It can be repetitive, but that is by design, becuase that's what a cows life is. An endless loop of miserable repitition all on the name of giving us the products that we consume every day. I for one am so glad I watched this film because tis forever given me a thankfullness for an animal that is far too often ignored when it should be put upon a pedestal for all they provide to us.

More context needed

[euroGary · 6/10 · 13 October 2021]

The 2021 London Film Festival described 'Cow' as a documentary following the life of Luma, a cow caught up in the UK's dairy industry. In fact both Luma (who actually seems to be called 'Emma' by the dairy workers) and her unnamed calf - whose birth features in the opening scenes - get near-equal screen time. They are together for only a brief time before the calf is placed in an isolation hut and Luma is returned to a life of intensive milking, grazing, another pregnancy and, ultimately, death. Eventually the calf is placed in a group of other calves as she in her turn is introduced to her place in the industry.

Such a lot of what happens in this film is not explained: for instance, why was the calf placed in isolation? Why were holes burned in her forehead? (at least, that is what it looked like.) Why did the dairy farm decide to shoot Luma when - from the horrendous size of her distended udder - it seemed she was still capable of intensively producing milk? I suppose it could be argued that not providing such information puts the audience in the same position as the cows themselves: they, after all, will not have a clue what is happening to them. But I would rather have had the information in order to assess for myself whether how the animals are treated can be justified or not.

A danger with any documentary about how we treat animals is that the viewer will be manipulated by the film maker to feel emotive sympathy for the animals (not, of course, that sympathy is a bad thing). There were one or two occasions where I felt that happened here: for instance, when Luma and her calf are separated director Andrea Arnold gradually mutes all the sound - of other cows, the dairy machinery etc - until only Luma's breathing is heard, which creates a sense of loneliness. (And were there really fireworks in the sky when Luma is once again impregnated?) But on the whole I thought this documentary came across as pretty even-handed: those concerned with animal welfare will not be impressed by the machine-led husbandry on display, while those worried about negative portrayals of the dairy industry will be pleased that no obvious, malicious cruelty is on display (although the viewer may wonder if the dairy workers are *quite* so cheery and friendly to the animals when they do not have a documentary film crew in the vicinity...)

Beautiful and Sad

[cynstar-66531 · 9/10 · 3 October 2022]

This is a stunning film of the everyday insensitivity and cruelty suffered by cows. But I fear that someone who doesn't exactly know what they're seeing will not understand the brutality. This is an ordinary dairy farm--not a gigantic factory farm. And the employees shown seem mild-mannered & there is nothing that would be considered overt abuse, like beating the cows. But what you do see is cows bred to have udders so unnaturally and grotesquely large that they can't even walk normally, a calf having her ears punctured and horns burned off with no anesthetic, a cow who is given drugs to restart her cycle right after giving birth, and who burns out years before a normal lifespan for a cow--which is 20-24 years in a healthy setting--and 10-14 in confinement--and this cow only makes it to 6. It is heartbreaking to see her calf taken away almost immediately. The signs of her grief may be too subtle for some to perceive, but they are most certainly there. Perhaps the most misleading thing is the docility of the cows. It is the resignation of prisoners with no hope of escape! Cows have been bred for docility for many generations. Any who show resistance to their captivity are soon culled; only the most docile continue to be bred. It was very painful to actually see this stuff, even though I obviously already knew about a lot of it. I had reduced my dairy consumption by about 95%--now it is absolutely 100%--never again will I eat the products of such suffering.

An admirable endeavour, but too personal to draw in the viewer

[wellthatswhatithinkanyway · 7/10 · 19 February 2022]

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

Documentary filmmaker Andrea Arnold follows Luma, a cow around a dairy farm, through her daily cycle of grazing, milking, and cultivation, through to giving birth to her calf, with whom she becomes separated. The monotonous routine of her life is captured in grim detail, before she meets her inevitably grim end.

Dairy farming is a matter that has been raised a lot recently with regards the whole climate change movement, and this very intimate, personal film shines a light on the plight of a typical, average cow reared in such an environment, who inevitably meets with a grim conclusion.

Arnold has admittedly tried to aim for a very personal, close up film, which shines through in scenes at the beginning, with Luma staring directly into the camera with an almost pleading glare, but the complete lack of context ends up leaving the viewer alienated. To anyone not familiar with the agricultural process, some sort of overhead offering some kind of explanation as to what is taking place, or some statistics around dairy farming, would have put us in the picture and made it more involving.

With the lack of verbal input, Arnold uses an emotive soundtrack at various points to illicit our feelings. It all builds up to a grim, unoptimistic ending, not quite as gory as you may has envisaged, but still pretty stark and brutal, in the end pulled off with all the subtlety of a mafia hit. If only there'd been a little more context and clarity to it all, and his brutally tragic story could have had the true impact Arnold was aiming for. ***

Horrible life!

[cathyfootsie · 10/10 · 6 August 2022]

This is just absolutely pitiful the life of a cow and when they shot the cow in the end I just lost it. No more milk or hamburger for me. I think someone needs to see how these cows are treated.

There is no sense in crying over spilt milk

[marcobrcc · 7/10 · 20 December 2022]

An honest look at how cow farming works in the first world. No commentary, no agenda, as little interference as possible. Each viewer can watch with his own eyes and make up his own opinion about the topic. This documentary portrays a civilized farm, so take in consideration that in most of the farms around the world life for cows is much worse. Also consider that the farm owners/workers might have slightly changed their behavior knowing they were filmed. Having said that, it looked to me quite honest and genuine. I liked the absence of sentimentalism and the close portrait of farm cows. I'm a consumer of milk and cheese, but at the same time I love animals and cows. Is there something we can do that reconciles the two?

True age of Kali

[R0biSh0bi · 10/10 · 14 January 2022]

This is an eye opener, everyone must watch whether, whatever your viewpoint. Then make a decision what you want to do with your lifestyle after. I highly recommend my local school to send children on visits to farms to see how animals live there and are treated.

Cow

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 2 February 2023]

It is what it sounds like, a documentary film about the life of a cow (or rather two cows), it received positive reviews and sounded like it might be interesting, so I was up for it, directed by Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, American Honey). Basically, it is a close-up portrait of the daily lives of a dairy cow named Luma and her calf. It starts with the birth of the calf, assisted by the farm worker, before it is separated from the mother. Luma is often taken for milking and is sometimes checked over by farmer works and veterinarians, including cutting her hooves. The calf meanwhile grows up in its own pen, and is disbudded (dehorned) using hot rods, it is done for safety reasons, for both the animal and the humans. Luma and her calf are let out occasionally into the fields (separately) to eat fresh grass. At one point, Luma is taken to be mated, put into a pen with a male cow and eventually he mounts her, and at this moment R&B music can be heard and there are fireworks banging in the sky. Luma is later confirmed as pregnant, and she later gives birth to another calf. It ends with a farm work shooting Luma dead with a pistol, while the calf continues to grow up. The film features no commentary or dialogue, besides the occasional casual words of the farm workers and veterinarians. It also does not have any music soundtrack, besides audible R&B songs on a distant radio heard during the milking sessions, and the song "Milk" by Garbage plays in the end credits. The direction by Arnold is simplistic but effective, and the cinematography by Magda Kowalczyk is improvised but observational and intimate. It simply captures the everyday events a cow goes through on a farm, including milking, feeding, mating, check-ups, birthing, and yes, death. It is perhaps melancholic for the treatment of the animals in some instances and is quietly confrontational and acknowledges what a great service a cow does for us, producing milk (and eventually meat, let's be honest). In general, it is a surprisingly interesting and compelling watch, a fascinating documentary. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Documentary. Very good!

A straightforward, unassisted look at the horrors of dairy farming.

[lhutcherson1 · 4/10 · 20 February 2022]

This movie seems to be from the cows perspective. Institutionalized animal exploitation. These cows suffer a life of indignity by constantly being kept pregnant to keep up milk excessive production. Then after a lifetime of service are dispassionately slaughtered to support the meat and leather industry. It is terrible how these poor creatures are exploited. Especially poignant when you consider that not one of the product produced by this effort is actually healthy for human consumption. The cost to the environment is also horrific. When will humans evolve beyond this barbaric practice?

Gut Wrenching

[Neon_Gold · 9/10 · 14 February 2022]

I'm not actually sure why this didn't get a Oscar nod this year because it was fantastic.

It's completely Cinéma vérité. No dialogue or set up scenes, just showing the life of this cow, Luma.

The shots are amazing. The way the camera will linger on something at just the right moment. It maybe me anthropomorphising her but Jesus Christ I could like feel Luma's pain. It was screaming out the TV at me. The sadness in her eyes and the way she walked especially when you juxtapose it to her baby running around the field. It was just heartbreaking.

She was used like a factory, and then the ending. Wow. That's what she got after giving her life and body for their profit. It was crushing.

I read that the director wanted to the audience to really see the cows and I think she achieved this perfectly. You see that they are alive, they cry for their children just like we would if ours were taken away. They care for their children just like us.

Im so mad it didn't get an Oscar nomination!

It's not propaganda, it's vérité

[CameronRVideo · 10/10 · 12 April 2022]

Do you eat dairy? This film is for you.

I will never be the same after this film. I was already a fan of Arnold, but this film wrecked me. There is no gratuitous violence, just the truth. The empathy you feel for these intelligent beings in inescapable. This is a brave film. Watch it if you're brave.

The price of your glass of milk

[juliajulcia · 9/10 · 2 June 2022]

The documentary "Cow" of Andrea Arnold shows every day's endeavors of a cow on a dairy farm. It brings us closer to the dark truth behind human exploitation of other species, where our desire of drinking milk makes millions of creatures suffer and live in fear.

This straightforward approach of showing us one specific cow and her way from giving a birth to death, allows us to empathize and understand what is hidden and invisible to a consumer of a milk product. It reminds us that we have no right to use other forms of life just to increase our own comfort. It manages to immerse us into a mind of a cow, living in fear and with no understanding of her own fate.

A method of no narration or dialogue is successful in providing us with tools that help us to distinguish emotions from cold thoughts. The documentary has a simple form, yet still, it manages to be rich in its effectiveness. It succeeds in being immersive, thought-provoking, moving and leaves us with questions that we need to answer ourselves.

I believe that the film's memo and the statement that it makes are on the same pathway of delivering similar messages related to discovering the incomprehensible human sense of superiority over everything else.

While the eponymous cow's way of thinking is less complex and abstract than the potential of the human brain, assuming it is therefore inferior due to that is a result of a rather shallow thinking. The document shows us that cows' greatest dreams and desires are not all that different from human ones. As equal to us, cows just want to be happy. Their way of being happy is to be close to others, surrounded by their family, and by grazing grass in beautiful clearings amidst nature and good weather. What prevents them from being happy in this way is a human system based on taking advantage of others and getting rid of them when they are no longer useful. As long as the destructive and harmful system continues, the suffering of the livestock will continue. However, not only theirs, because the system in which we operate ultimately hurts us, humans, as well.

Unrelenting, hard to watch, reality

[tulloch-liam · 10/10 · 15 February 2022]

The documentary Cow is an eye opener, long takes, raw footage, very few words over the hour thirty, and the inevitable ending, leaves a bitter taste in your mouth and it's not the tannins.

Fake reviews popped up like liberty caps in a cow patty

[realityinmind · 1/10 · 19 September 2022]

Its unfortunate that this title didn't get more exposure because it does have its merit. While it is indeed a portrait of the daily lives of two cows, it has more value as the portrait of the daily lives of a cow farmer. Because, to be honest, cows are boring. But all the different aspects of cow farming are actually quite interesting. On YouTube there is a guy who makes vids showing how he fixes cows' hoofs, and he has amassed quite a following!

This film is being sold to the public as a documentary, but it is not a documentary. It is just a video recording of cows and cow farming. Documentaries have purpose... they at the very least have scripts. But this video has neither. Its just a bunch of random (and I mean VERY random) clips of cows on a cow farm, strung together with no narration, soundtrack, or anything. (Though there is a scene where the cows make whoopee and some fireworks are included with some uplifting music... nice touch!).

The people commenting that it is so sad, or so uplifting, or so groundbreaking, or whatever.... clearly they have never been to a cow farm, or simply been around cows for just a few minutes. There is absolutely nothing sad about this film. There is a scene with a dead cow on the ground and some construction vehicles in the background.... that's it. There is no music or narration, so there is nothing to be sad about..... what, a dead cow is sad? Scenes that could have made an emotional connection with the audience are lost to either the inexperience of the filmmakers or they simply did not care to showcase anything interesting..... such as when the cows can be seen in front of the starry sky.... why is that scene only 10 seconds long?!

One thing I can say about this video..... it shows that cows have personality. They are not just lifeless beings staring blankly into the air and mooing about like a cow being herded on a... ummm.... nevermind. That idea was lost on the filmmakers too, because no emotions are portrayed. The workers treat the cows like cattle on a farm. The cameramen treat the cows like cattle on a farm (to the dismay of the cow being tortured by the presence of a camera directly in her face right after she gave birth.... she moos "leave me alone" incessantly for the 5 freaking minutes that the camera states at her).

Overall this film feels like someone on the farm bought a camera, and just turned it on randomly throughout the life of the cows. That's it. Its cow farming, no more no less.

But I happen to find cow farming interesting, so I watched this film all the way through.

People, please stop artificially inflating the rating.... this is not a 7 star film. Its 4 or 5 at the most. But I'm forced to give it a 1 to try and balance things out.

Must watch

[oscariveragarcia · 10/10 · 14 February 2022]

You should definitely see this, it's a beautiful cinematographic work that takes a closer look at about something that many people prefer to ignore, a reality that we can live through this film, as if we were part of it, sometimes it can be hard to watch but it is necessary to have a real perspective that helps to rethink our interaction with our environment.

Fantastic film, very moving

[kerryannhopkins · 10/10 · 5 December 2022]

Fantastic film, very moving, I cried many times, and the end was shocking. My heart goes out to cows who are slaves on farms and have their children taken off them so early. The cows are producing milk all their lives due to be forced to be pregnant and they suffer immensely carrying the heavy milk.

I do not eat dairy because of cow abuse.

The farmers were on their best behaviour as they were being filmed, remember that.

One woman cooed 'oh good girl' speaking to the calf like a dog, whilst dehorning it with no pain relief. Just messed up.

Cows are gentle creatures, this is why humans can get away with abusing them.

I drink Momma Barista oat milk now, which is gorgeous, and eat plant cheese. I'll never pay for dairy again as you're paying for the enslavement of cows! Hell no, I can not do that.

Hard to watch

[TogosDad · 8/10 · 13 February 2022]

Because you know how it's gonna end. At least environment is better than U. S. factor farms. But I only go for grass-fed free range milk and meat, if I eat meat at all. I do not care what kind of "mind" a cow has, this is no way to treat these beautiful animals. Here must be a better way. Humans must be kind to all creation.

Showing the brutal reality that most don't want to see

[mallanjacobsson · 10/10 · 20 April 2022]

Well made with alot of presence. Oscar material in the way there is no dialogue or person explaining everything. Excellent soundstrack. Questions are answered alog the way as the documentary develops.

OMG This is the most horrible movie I have ever seen

[permet-33540 · 1/10 · 14 October 2022]

I have seen literally 10s of thousands of movies. But this is the most gruesome and useless one I have yet seen. I had to fast forward through most of it because it was 2 grotesque to watch. There was no narrative, which made watching this movie impossibly boring. Thank God for fast forward to help me through. I didn't miss anything by fast forwarding, but then there was NOTHING to see! Just a bunch of ugly cows on a very muddy farm.

The farm was portrayed as a muddy mess. Why didn't they film a nicer farm or during a drier period? (There are two farms close to where I live in metro Boston where the cows are in heaven compared to the ugly underbelly of the farming world that is the subject of this depressing film. There is comparatively little or no mud at those two nearby farms)

Why was this movie made? To turn people into vegetarians? Only an idiot would mistake this movie as representative of ALL cow farms. And why would anyone watch it? It's mind numbingly boring. And why would ANYONE rave about this thing. There is no story and nothing interesting happens (except one cow is euthanized). My advice: don't waste your time.

Amazing story, cow.

[deanrollason · 10/10 · 10 January 2022]

Stunning documentary, excellent storytelling of the cow called Luma that builds upon the unforgiving apocalypse. Top notch cinematography for its genre and i would absolutely recommend this to all audiences. Cow had me crying with joy to me in emotional tears. Cow. I love Cow. The image, the poster the film, cow. Nothing has ever made me more happy than a single image of a cow in a back background. The movie itself is more better than Spiderman- No way home, the story is more impeccable than any high-budget film could ever aquire. Cow is amazing and nothing less.

Shame

[yazgangokhan · 10/10 · 17 February 2022]

After watching this movie and all the things i have experienced in my life i am sure that human kind must extinct. Disgusted being a member of this kind.