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Elephant
A depiction of a series of violent killings in Northern Ireland.
Release : | 1989 |
Rating : | 7.1 |
Studio : | BBC, BBC Northern Ireland, |
Crew : | Director of Photography, Director of Photography, |
Cast : | Tim Loane Paddy Rocks |
Genre : | Crime TV Movie |
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Save your money for something good and enjoyable
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
This short film serves two purposes. It provides a chilling perspective on the anonymity of civil conflict and it offers a meditation on violence in the media. The premise is equally primitive and thought- provoking. It simply follows around random, casually dressed men (who look like members of The Smiths and Big Country) as they slay other men in dilapidated Belfast settings. The minimal soundtrack of footsteps and gunfire creates a hypnotic and creepy atmosphere. All of the sound and lack thereof is necessary. The closeups of the handguns are necessary, as are the lingering shots of post-mortem bodies. Seconds can feel like minutes. Clarke's attempt to confront the audience forces us to ponder the dehumanization of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. The irony behind the appeal of this film is that for those who wish to watch violent action movies just for the sake of the spectacle of violence will be the most disappointed. That is exactly why this film is so important. It numbs us to violence. The lack of a narrative provides us the question of why we want to see what we are seeing. To turn gratuitous, prolonged violence into something boring becomes a statement on how desensitized a society can become to death and war.
The film is made up of 18 short films, showing unjustified killings. In each part of this strange thriller, a murderer and a sacrifice and usually but them in the shot no one.The painting "Elephant", is filled with a cold, so a neutral atmosphere. If from what you can get here is a pleasure as the mood of the film. All shorts are designed in one color, unrelated, they still look very harmonious.This film may be a benefit for young filmmakers to make films, in which there are scenes of murder.Of course, if you look at the film with plenty of imagination, it can be to make up the history of each murder, thereby determining why it happened.After a while, after this film, there is a picture of Gus Van Sant, going by the same name. There definitely is a connection there, because in one of the interviews himself Van Sant said that after watching the "elephant" Clark, he wanted to withdraw his "Elephant." I think he is right and is the spectator Clark, who watched this movie with plenty of imagination. That imagined Van Sant, the mass murder at the school, and quite original show cause, not as pure, but the name speaks for itself, the problem is definitely there, it is just in the minds of others, there is much we would not get. Both elephants, a very similar atmosphere that captivates the viewer, who manages the end to inspect these movies.
Despite the fact that I enjoyed the movie, the slow pace really tookaway from the movie's entertainment value. I thought that Elephanthad great potential as far as a hit goes but what it lacked was apunching moment. Sure there was the school shooting part but wefigured out that was going to happen ages before it actually did sowe came to expect it. One thing that I can rave about in this film was the camera angles.I loved how the camera seemed to be following the actor. Andeach shot was a piece of art on it's own. It made the movierespectable really. I can't say that I would have even finishedwatching Elephant if it wasn't for it captivating camera work.Overall, Elephant was an enjoyable flick that I would definitelyrecommend to someone in search of an "artsy" film.
I saw Elephant when it was first broadcast on BBC TV in 1989. There was a certain amount of hoo-ha about it, as the BBC had already put it back for a few months - films about the North of Ireland were, and are, touchy subjects. Watching it is riveting. The complete absence of story, dialogue and explanation serves to bring home the fact that, after all the talk and propaganda and fine words about freeing Ireland from the British oppressors or defending Ulster from the filthy Taigs, killing is killing - people are dying, frequently and horribly, and can there ever be a "reason" for it? I grew up in sheltered south Dublin and witnessed the Troubles at second-hand, filtered through the language of journalism; Elephant brought home to me, in the most visceral way, the relentless insanity of the situation. The film should be compulsory viewing in UK and Irish schools.The major criticism of Elephant is that it's too simple - that the lack of context and explanation aren't enough. But the serial nature of it, muder after murder after murder, have an unforgettable power. It's not meant to be an attempt at the overall picture; it's a cry of horror against an appalling situation. I saw it once, ten years ago, and have never forgotten it.It was directed by the late Alan Clarke, undoubtedly the best director of TV Britain has ever seen (maybe the best British director since Michael Powell). He had already given early breaks to Tim Roth (in Made in Britain) and Gary Oldman (in The Firm - not the Tom Cruise vehicle, but a brutal TV movie about soccer hooliganism). The title comes from the writer Bernard MacLaverty, who said that the Troubles were like having an elephant in your living room. That's what it was like to watch this film.