In one of the very last images of the last episode of the series District 31while we see the heroes of the series projected into a peaceful future, far from the crimes that have made their daily life as police officers during all these years, the ex-commander Daniel Chiasson is on the hunt – we know it, if we followed this series long enough, Chiasson is a hunter.
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
During this final appearance, we see him raise his rifle and aim. Unsurprisingly, when a beautiful moose appears in the crosshairs, the hunter lowers his weapon and replaces the safety catch.
I say “unsurprisingly” because, as soon as this scene began, even before we were shown the animal, I knew that the commander would hold his fire.
Since at least Deer Hunter, in 1978, the gratification of the prey by the hunter has become an archetype of appeasement in cinema. It is actually an effective metaphor (easy but effective) of a newfound peace after a journey through human violence.
More generally, the actual death of animals while hunting is an immense cinematographic taboo. The origin of this phenomenon can be traced back to Baby, Walt Disney’s cartoon, which caused a real shock when it was released in 1942: the death of Bambi’s mother, killed by a hunter’s bullet, provoked such a reaction that the most graphic images of the original version were withdrawn. More than six decades later, the film still appeared in the top 25 horror movies established by Time Magazine !
40,000 violent deaths at age 20
Curiously, if it is practically impossible to see animals being slain on the screen, it is not the same for humans. Moreover, in the same aforementioned episode of District 31, we witness the execution of a biker by bullet at point-blank range. This will not cause any outcry from viewers (the most sensitive having been warned at the start of the program that scenes of violence were on the menu). If, on the other hand, Commander Chiasson had shot his moose, social networks would not stop…
The Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard often points out – to be sorry – that at the age of 20, a human will have witnessed an average of 40,000 violent deaths. But to see a game fall under a bullet, you have to frequent the social media of hunting groups.
This discrepancy between the representation of human death and its social acceptability and those of animal death is paradoxical.
Because, think about it, the vast majority of us would suffer a brutal psychological shock that could lead to lasting post-traumatic symptoms if he saw “in real life” another human being shot down before his eyes. By contrast, the sight of an animal death, in a slaughterhouse or while hunting, could shock many people, but would be unlikely to change the course of their lives.
In the series, the good Commander Chiasson killed the evil Phaneuf in cold blood at close range. He nevertheless pardons a moose. He remains fundamentally sympathetic!