The Origins Of 6 Features Common In Films
4. The “No Animals Were Harmed” Disclaimer Came To Use After Filmmakers Threw A Horse Off A Cliff
1925 silent epic Ben Hur saw as many as 150 horses die during its production. While 150 is a phenomenally large number, murdering horses for cinematic purposes was a fairly common occurrence in Hollywood during that era.
These were the days before the invention of CGI or even the computer as we know it today. Special effects were comparatively crude and the animal rights movement hadn’t picked up steam yet. As such, a filmmaker’s idea of portraying the death of a horse as convincingly as possible usually involved just straight up killing the animal.
Nowadays they train horses to fall softly on padded surfaces. Back then, they just unleashed tripwire on them while they were in full gallop. Given the popularity of westerns in the 1920s and ‘30s, animal abuse in Hollywood was a full-blown epidemic.
It’s the 1939 film Jesse James that finally focused public anger on the issue. Filmmakers outfitted two horses with blinders and tricked them into jumping off a 70-foot-cliff. The American Humane Association got involved. It has been giving its “No animals were harmed” stamp of approval since then.