Cow Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Cow Blu-ray Movie Review

Milk is murder?

Reviewed by Randy Miller III August 3, 2022

A rare example of true cinéma vérité achieving its goal, Andrea Arnold's documentary Cow lightly pulls back a curtain on the dairy industry's treatment of four-legged servants. During 94 mostly wordless minutes we live with "Luma", otherwise known as #1129, a cow residing on a nameless UK factory farm where she's just given birth to a fifth calf. Forcibly separated from her young, Cow follows Luma's day-to-day life during several years that include near-endless milking and the arrival of calf #6, another planned pregnancy to maintain milk production levels. After she inevitably dries up, Luma will not live out the rest of her days peacefully grazing in a magic-hour meadow.

Cow is not an especially graphic or even shocking portrayal of modern factory farming, nor is it some kind of hidden camera hit piece. (Reportedly, director Andrea Arnold warned farm owners and employees about the film's potential damage.) Instead, it's a simple and almost disarmingly straightforward examination of life from a cow's perspective. When Luma's calf is pulled away, shortly after its birth, the camera lingers on her plaintive cries of protest. We follow her down narrow corridors into small pens, only to be stuck inside after the gate closes behind us. When calf ears are tagged and their foreheads are forcibly burned to prevent horns from growing, we have to watch too.

Despite the potentially PETA-grade end result, Arnold's film doesn't seem especially overbearing or preachy; Cow is more empathetic than excessive, concerned only with showing the dairy industry from a purely bovine point of view. It's only fundamental flaw -- which may be a partial byproduct of the vérité approach it doggedly champions -- is the lack of context for outsiders: names, places, equipment, even actions are never identified, nor do we get any sort of narrator to guide us through the journey*. This is understandable since, after all, Cow's planned perspective wouldn't allow room for such human designations anyway. But it might alienate total farming outsiders and even young viewers whose parents want to show them a bit of raw reality to explain why "we're only buying oat milk now".

Even so, Cow was obviously a labor of love and, unless you're completely unmoved by some part of this documentary, will likely cause you to re-think your level of dairy consumption. Its unyielding narrative-free approach makes Cow a bit tough to watch for different reasons, but at least the message isn't sonically overcooked: short pieces of ambient music have been added to break up the quiet stretches, and a few diegetic radio hits can also be heard in the background. (Some with eerily on-the-nose lyrics, even -- did the director call in during request hour or something?)

IFC Films' Blu-ray presentation of Cow borders on overkill given the film's modest A/V ambitions, and its total lack of bonus features -- even those "call to action" ones usually present on documentaries of this type -- doesn't help matters either. But this is a film worth seeing for sure, no matter which route you might take to get there.

* - An alternate Descriptive Audio track kinda-sorta adds a narrator -- see the "Audio Quality" section below.

Cow Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot on digital video with mostly hand-held cameras, Cow is no visual marvel but seems to be right on par with most documentaries of this type, as its in-the-moment footage means that some shots aren't carefully lit or even composed well. But within these pretty narrow boundaries lies a decent (or at least acceptable) 1080p transfer that likely matches its original source material fairly well, even though it's occasionally dampened by excessive noise, slightly blown-out white levels, and mild smearing in low-light scenarios. Color values fit the drab and dreary indoor environments, while occasional beauty breaks arrive with rare sunny trips into small, grassy fields. Overall, this is a workable presentation that would probably even look fine enough on DVD, but I'm certainly glad a Blu-ray option is offered.

Cow Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cow's default DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix is likewise unremarkable, if once again due to the modest source material. There's only so much sonic excitement you can wring out of a cinéma vérité documentary with almost no added music, which translates to the occasional faint echo of moos, heavy equipment, and other farming elements that reach ever-so-slightly into the rear channels. A few light weather-related events likewise add occasional touches of interest along the way, but Cow is a mostly front-driven experience and not an especially gripping one at that. Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered during the main feature, but speech is so rare you probably won't need them.

Interestingly enough, a separate 2.0 English Descriptive Audio track is also included as well; normally such things are reserved for visually impaired viewers, but younger and inexperienced ones may find it helpful as the British narrator helpfully explains most of what's going on as it happens. Although the speaker doesn't go into much detail regarding specific practices (such as what "horn burning" is, which I had to look up), this track's inclusion as a second option is appreciated since it actually changes the documentary's atmosphere and tone in a significant way.

Cow Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with a promotional insert. Normally I wouldn't comment on such things, but the back cover description does not represent the film's tone very well and hopefully won't lead new viewers to expect what's clearly being marketed as more of a standard family-friendly affair. No extras are included.

Cow Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Andrea Arnold's documentary Cow is like raw milk: not pasteurized, not homogenized, and not for everyone. But it's nothing if not a carefully constructed film about most factory farms' inhumane, profit-first treatment of four-legged servants, put together in such a way as to empathize with one side rather than shock or shame the other. It's certainly worth a watch but there's probably not a whole lot of replay here, which kind of mirrors IFC Films' Blu-ray package: its A/V presentation does what it can for the modest source material and no extras are included. But if purchased, Cow will most certainly get passed around to family and friends rather than sit on the shelf, collecting dust.