Cow

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. ***

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.

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?

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!

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.