Elephant

On the face of it the 1989 film Elephant by British director Alan Clarke is a piece of social realism, mainly because of it's subject matter (sectarian killings in Belfast during The Troubles), some aspects of it's aesthetic and the fact that a young Danny Boyle conceived the idea and took the role of producer. Having said this upon closer inspection there are many experimental traits in the approach of the film-makers.

The film shows 18 murders in just under 40 minutes and is based on real police reports of sectarian killings in Belfast during The Troubles. This is played out as just one murder after another. There is no plot, narrative or music throughout and only one piece of dialogue. Adding to this, it is shot on 16mm film creating a similar look to a documentary. By disregarding these usual staples of film all that is left is the point that the director is trying to get across.

Elephant is an experimental piece used to get across how brutal, unnecessary yet still everyday sectarian violence was in Belfast at that time.

The audience is not given any context. Most importantly in that the viewer is unaware of the side of the conflict anyone is on, which helps to show how trivial the rift is.

The minimalistic style of the film puts you right the at the scene of the crime, with tracking shots of people, followed by a killing and the a static shot of the body which works to make the viewer feel as if they have found it, the staging of which was probably really helped by the police reports. So much of the film is calm, quiet and still, again briinging across that this is not an unusual occurrence.

Still from Alan Clarke's Elephant (1989)

The title of the film came from the Irish author Bernard MacLaverty's description of The Troubles as 'the elephant in our living room'. Sharing the title 'Elephant' is Gus Van Sant's 2003 work based around the Columbine High School Massacre of 1999. Van Sant's film is heavily influenced by Clarke's. 

Still from Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003)

The film is summed up best in the words of director and writer David Leland when he said that,

'The cumulative effect is that you say,"It's got to stop. The killing has to stop." Instinctively, without an intellectual process, it becomes a gut reaction.'