Rent Alan Clarke at the BBC: 1969-1989 (1989)

Review for Elephant: a visceral, horrific & extremely unsettling look at the Troubles - Alan Clarke at the BBC: 1969-1989 review by Timmy B

Recently, I wrote a review for the Gus Van Sant film Elephant, which was loosely inspired by the Columbine High School massacre. The film attracted controversy as well as praise, including somehow winning the Palmé Dor, which many people including myself were staggered by, seeing as it was at best a 3 star film. But it also reminded me of the original short film that it was based on/copied many of the elements of, which was seared into my memory when I first saw it and has stayed with me ever since.

The film looks at the random killings of innocent people by terrorists. We follow unnamed gunmen as they arrive at a location, search for their unnamed target, execute them in cold blood, then casually walk away. This is repeated many times over the course of it's 38 minutes. We learn nothing of who the victims are, what they have done, or why they needed to be executed.

When you first start watching it, with no real idea what it is about, you could have any number of reactions (shock, horror, confusion, perplexity ect.) But as it slowly goes on, you find yourself quietly horrified by every element of it. This is killing as it is in the real world: no special effects, no soundtrack, no glamorous protagonist saying a witty line. Ordinary men in casual clothes turn up to their targets workplace to end their lives without a second thought.

When it was first broadcast, it provoked a firestorm of controversy, from a general public who mainly saw the Troubles through the lens of the news media. They had never been confronted with something which was so basic and yet so brutal. In the world today, we have in many ways become completely desensitised to violence, as it is such an integral part of the media we consume (films, TV series, games, footage from war zones shown on social media platforms.) But in 1989, this was something which almost no-one in ordinary life had experienced.

For me, despite being released decades ago, it has not lost a miniscule of its power. It is a piece of media which has a ferocious & visceral anger behind it, which is a direct influence of its title, referring to the elephant in the room that no-one talks about but everyone can see. Between 3,500-4,000 people lost their lives due to violence in the Troubles. And this film was, in it's simplicity, one of the strongest pieces of media released at that time which showed the murders in all their horror.

Magnificent & electrifying filmmaking