Watch Electrocuting an Elephant For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

How sad is this?

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Now here is some bad storytelling. This is one minute long - sure it's 1903, literally, but still - and we get barely any head up, just two shots: one of an elephant, bound with some wraps, coming up to the camera, and then the next shot the elephant gets electrocuted and falls over to his/her side. Dead. Who committed to this? Why did no one step in, like the police or possibly (if it existed) 1903's version of PETA? And what was Thomas Edison doing there filming it, for posterity? Why didn't he come with a script prepared and some stakes? Where's the three act structure here? Even for a documentary this is poor work.OK, so that's no very funny, I know. I think it's all I can do to try and mask the fact that I just watched an elephant get electrocuted. It's a purposeless act, but I haven't read the history on it so perhaps there was some context that was there. Maybe the elephant was old or sick and it came from the circus and it was time to set the elephant out to pasture? No, it looks relatively healthy, and as it stands there in poise before the electroshocks happen it seems content enough.Seriously, I have no idea if it was Edison's notion to shock the elephant, and I'd assume it wasn't (I looked it up and it wasn't his exactly, the elephant would've been killed anyway for killing a couple of people). But the fact is he documented it not for himself but for others to view, and it comes down to one of two things: anthropological purposes (that we see this horrible act for future generations to see and to be horrified by so that we further appreciate the life around us) or, most likely, to gain some public blood-thirst (or again to publicize his electricity, which sounds and is about right). These were the primitive days of cinema, when movies played very quickly, probably at some of the same circuses (or at least in that carnival atmosphere, and to audiences who's attention was brief before going on to this or that.How did people react then? I'd be curious to see if they were mortified or found it somehow, some way, entertaining. I'd sincerely hope not the latter, and it suddenly occurs to be the irony that it was because of Edison creating electricity that this could be a possibility to start with. It IS a part of history and in the context it was set in I know I should give it a pass. But in the 21st century, after so many decades where elephants have been decimated and Dumbo has become the example of elephants in cinema, it's really shocking (no pun intended).I don't know if this should even get a rating, but it does here.

This film captures the real life execution of an elephant by electrocution. The elephant was killed for two reasons, firstly because it had killed people on more than one occasion, secondly because Thomas Edison wanted to publicise his experiments with electricity.Some leap to defend this film and the great inventor Thomas Edison who made the film. They claim that Edison's brilliance as a scientist and the advancement in electricity safety he was supposed to be trying to bring about make this an important and legitimate scientific experiment which needed to be captured on film. They claim the fact the elephant had killed people makes it acceptable to kill it in this way. They also claim the elephant would not have suffered any more than any other form of execution.The flaws to their arguments are this:Firstly the elephant had been very cruelly treated and had only killed as a result of this cruel treatment. Apparently it killed a man who had deliberately burned the end of its trunk with a cigar. That kind of cruelty is totally unacceptable and an animal killing in those circumstances may need to be 'euthanised' for its own good but does not deserve to be punished cruelly or made to suffer further than it already had. Electrocution obviously is a painful and horrific way to die. No person would choose this death over an overdose of sedatives or a bullet in the brain so if you would not choose that death you cannot claim it is the best method for killing an intelligent animal that also feels pain. A humane way of killing the elephant would have been to put it to sleep with sedatives/tranquilisers then either shoot it in the brain or gas it or give lethal injection. There were plenty of guns capable of doing the job and tranquilisers, gas etc were easily available. Therefore the only reason to electrocute was for the purposes of demonstrating the effect of electrocution to publicise Edison's advancement of technology. To kill with unnecessary suffering for a publicity stunt is totally wrong and cruel. It is like making films of animal testing nowadays. Some tests may be scientifically necessary but many are not and none of them should be done for entertainment, publicity or money making.Edison was indeed a brilliant scientist with an important place in many scientific advances but that does not mean that he is allowed to do whatever he wants. There is plenty of evidence of him stealing other scientists ideas, suppressing other scientists inventions and acting unnecessarily cruelly or immorally for personal gain. His demonstrations of electricity were primarily for his financial gain and to promote his position as a foremost scientist. Killing that elephant did not advance the technology or improve our understanding of electricity it was just a cruel publicity stunt. Capturing it on film has created one of the worst films you will ever see. It has no film making quality of any kind and is purely a record of how humans treat animals in terrible ways. Sadly a fact that is true to this day.

Thomas Edison May Have Done Lots Of Great Inventions But WTF Is This!!!! I Am Sorry But This Movie Is Simply Awful. The Plot Is That This Elephant Walks To A Certain Point & Gets Electrocuted. Okay The Picture Quality Looked Like Someone Used It For Toilet Paper. I Thought That The Early Charlie Chaplin Films Were Awful. Okay Thomas Edison May Have Been An Inventor But Why Did He Make This Film He Could Have Filmed A Baby Being Fed & It Would Have Been Better. People Might Say I'm Being Harsh On The Times But Would You Enjoy Something Like This From What I Have Said Edison May Have Made The Lightbulb But Why Did He Make This Particular Movie. Well I Might Sound Like A Complete A##hole But Watch This On Youtube Then You Will See This Abomination. I Still Can't Believe This Film Is Completely Awful. All In All The Worst Short Film I Have Ever Seen.Rating: 1/10

Now here is a fascinating little film from the archives of Thomas A. Edison. 'Electrocuting an Elephant' is sure to arouse highly conflicting feelings among different audiences. Some people see it as absolutely despicable, the equivalent of an "animal snuff film" and an indicator of how loathsome the human race actually is. Others may see it as a glorious demonstration of the power of Alternating Current electricity, an invention that has since revolutionised life as we know it (though this definitely wasn't what Edison had intended). The film-goers among us may view 'Electrocuting an Elephant' as a fascinating cinematic curiosity from the early twentieth century, and a testament to film's ability to incite powerful emotions. I, myself, am unsure how exactly to approach this film – in any case, no verdict may be reached until we know all the facts.Topsy the elephant was born around 1875. She was a domestic animal with the Forepaugh Circus at Coney Island's Luna Park, measuring ten feet in height and 19 feet 11 inches in length. Over a three year period, Topsy killed three men – two of her keepers in Texas, and a third abusive trainer who tried to feed her a lit cigarette. She was then deemed an unacceptable threat to humans and sentenced to be put down, or "executed," if you were so inclined. Thomas Edison, who had been looking for a means to discredit AC electricity – which had been stealing the market for his DC electricity – suggested that Topsy be electrocuted, and he was able to convince the ASPCA that it would be a humane death.On January 4 1903, after being fed carrots laced with 460 grams of potassium cyanide, Topsy was led to her execution. A hawser (a heavy rope) was place around her neck, one end attached to a "donkey engine" and the other to a post. Wooden sandals lined with copper were attached to her feet, and these were connected by a copper wire to the Edison electric light plant. It took 6600 volts of electricity less than one minute to kill her, and 'Electrocuting an Elephant' captures every uncomfortable moment of it. Is this an entertaining film? Most certainly not. But, at the same time, isn't it all just incredibly interesting?