Keswick Film Club - Reviews - Cow

"Cow" is a documentary and was directed by Andrea Arnold, much lauded for her previous, very different films such as "Red Road" and "Fish Tank". Arnold's films have a "gritty realism" and themes of impoverishment. She is also known for giving her actors almost total control over their characters.

These themes could be seen in "Cow" where her directing is very non-intrusive, letting this story of one cow's life unfold at a natural pace. Her view is unflinching and we see all aspects of the cow's life in detail.

Arnold's directing style could be seen as dispassionate, but by letting the story and images speak for themselves, the film becomes a powerful indictment of the dairy industry. The farm workers involved are rarely seen but are naturally caring, but they are caught on the economic treadmill that needs to produce huge quantities of milk cheaply. The cows, Holsteins, are bred purely for the grotesque size of their udders, and we see them dispatched after a few short years when their yield drops. This industrial use of animals can only change when we accept that we need to pay a realistic price for our food and insist on organic standards.