was the goldfish getting squished real ?? - Dead of Winter (1987) Discussion

[–] dead_doll00 19 years ago

I very much doubt it. It looked like the doc positioned his shoe over it and lowered it just a bit, but not enough for us to see any fish-squishing. I doubt PETA would have looked fondly at something like that anyway.

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[–] moviecollector 18 years ago

It was probably a fake fish. I would have laughed if there was a quick insert shot of the bottom of the shoe coming down to squish a Goldfish snack cracker. :)

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[–] WarpedRecord 16 years ago

If it were a real goldfish, would the SPCA have allowed it?

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] DavidStHubbinsUSA 14 years ago

You have to remember the year this movie was made. While there was some type of concern for animal safety on set at that time, I was in my teens and don't recall there being any organizations that held any real power (at least not anywhere close to what they have now) and the public didn't get the media it gets now by a long shot. If the fish was real or if it was fake I'm willing to bet it would have been totally up to the director and how he felt about it. Fish held much less in the way of rights in 1987.

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[–] tomfern 11 years ago

In 1986, I was working in a bookstore as the manager, and I clearly remember articles and books coming through the store about PETA being very active in every aspect of animal usage, abuse, and care. And there were organizations way before they came onto the scene that looked out for animal welfare in movies and TV. There's no way they would have allowed a live goldfish to be squished for a movie...and filmed no less.

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[–] charleigh000 16 years ago

It was real, the fish was called Dave. RIP Dave 1986-1987.

Why don't we just wait here for a little while... see what happens...

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[–] 666Night999 10 years ago

Moment of silence for Dave.

It could have been a fake shoe. Maybe the shoe was hollowed out and the fish was real.

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[–] botl 15 years ago

I have the DVD and I used the "Step" button during that scene, you see the fish moving, then one second before he puts his foot down the fish isn't moving. So it was a live fish, then it was replaced with a dead one.

"Keep a little Marc in your heart" ~ Marc Bolan

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[–] magnuspetersson72 13 years ago

Is it illegal to kill a fish or what???

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[–] MiloBrownburger 10 years ago

I bet they did dozens of takes with real fish....and then mashed the little buggers up into nuggets and ate them with tartar sauce. Yum!

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[–] spisok_korablei 11 years ago

Those animal cruelty related questions on imdb are simply adorable.

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[–] rickwj324 10 years ago

I haven't seen this movie so I can't speak as to whether the scene is real or not, but in the 80's it very well may have been real. Animal protection was a lot less back then and something like a goldfish wouldn't have been frowned upon as much as something like a dog or cat.
Look at the snake scene near the beginning of Friday the 13th. They chopped it's head off on-screen. It wasn't fake.

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