Alan Clarke - Elephant

This film was suggested by my tutor on my assignment 1 feedback. It is certainly an interesting and thought provoking film. The 39 minute short consists entirely of separate sequences of men walking towards a destination where they finally shoot other men. The camera pans, keeping the assassins central to the shot as they walk through deserted streets and empty warehouses. We become part of the scene, as we closely follow the action. There is little if any dialogue except the sound of footsteps and background noise. The gunshots being most prominent. Once the victim is dead the viewer separates from the assassin's viewpoint and lingers on the victim's body.

The sequence repeats with different backdrops, actors, sometimes more than one victim is shot or more than one killer is followed. There is an interesting pace to the work. As each assassination scene is the same but yet different as the gunman hunts down his victim, pushing open a row of cubicle doors, following long corridors, etc.

The surprise ending is that after following two killers into a building, one of them lines up against a wall and a waiting man shoots him dead. The senselessness of the previous killings is highlighted even more strongly in this scene. The film was shot in Northern Ireland and the title refers to the political troubles at the time (elephant in the room) that intruded upon everyday life as people tried to live a normal life.

I need some time to think about how this work relates to my assignment 1 project. I think the pace and surprise in the narrative is what my tutor is probably referring to. I have a dual narrative in my image sequence that needs some work and a way to link it together at some point. I've purposefully not looked at the work for a while to put some distance and get a bit of perspective. I've thought about the work though, and do have some ideas on how to improve the it.