A movie with a kid-killing bull
December 14, 2013 2:33 PM   Subscribe

I have a dim memory of seeing a movie on television in which a young person is killed by a bull after wandering into its fenced-off bull field, but I haven't had any luck searching for a film title.

Some possible things about this film:

The film was likely a drama in which this is one occurrence in a community/family. I think the victim dies offscreen and is young--I'm thinking a boy, though this may be my projection. I think the boy was trespassing or otherwise dismissing some earlier warning when this happens and is found after-the-fact. The nature of the bull's enclosure was not a rodeo or a western cowboy-y setting, but something more like a field of a farm or homestead. I believe I saw this on TV at someone's house, likely between 1985-1995 in the United States when I was a boy myself.

I remember having nightmares of crossing ranch-style wood fencing into unseen dangers that I think were provoked by this fleeting viewing. Any ideas?
posted by dougmoon to Media & Arts (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Could it have been the Thorn Birds? It was a TV mini-series from the mid-80s (but replayed often), based on a farm in Australia. A young boy name Stewie dies due to an attack from a wild boar.
posted by kimberussell at 2:42 PM on December 14, 2013


Response by poster: That fits a lot of the boy-gored bill! but finding the scene on youtube didn't ring any bells unfortunately.
posted by dougmoon at 3:11 PM on December 14, 2013


This is a SUPER long shot, as a) I don't believe it would've been shown on TV in the mid-80s/90s, and b) I'd think you'd remember the animated bits, but by any chance could you be thinking of Song of the South? The kid in question doesn't actually die, but he does get seriously wounded by a bull upon wandering through its bull-field - it's pretty much the ONLY (non-animated) thing I remember about this movie after seeing it when I was 5-ish, and I do recall being pretty disturbed by that scene.

Again, probably not what you're thinking of but I thought I'd toss it out there just in case!
posted by DingoMutt at 3:25 PM on December 14, 2013


Response by poster: I just watched the relevant scene in Song of the South, and maybe that's it. I was in a military family in Germany and Belgium during most of those years and was assuming I saw the movie on TV while visiting the States for a funeral or holiday. I might have seen Song of the South on a European home video release or something at someone's house overseas. I was familiar as a kid with the animated song bits at least, if not the live-action frame narrative.

And I thought the only trauma Song of the South had to offer was in its racism.
posted by dougmoon at 3:58 PM on December 14, 2013


>And I thought the only trauma Song of the South had to offer was in its racism

totally off-topic, but at the end of SotS, the rich white kid, the white-trash little girl, and the african-american boy all go off to play together - sending the message that we can all get along - and appealing directly to the children, that they need not adopt the hang-ups of their adults. Lots of folks think SotS is racist but IMHO I think this is a real misunderstood film.
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 5:26 AM on December 15, 2013


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