FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

BelSports 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.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Prismark10 The Troubles in Northern Ireland inspired a lot films and dramas. Some more controversial than others.Alan Clarke's Elephant was totally left field. When the BBC broadcast it, they were inundated with complaints on television programmes such as 'Points of View.'Never before we had a television drama, almost wordless where one person shoots another person, a few minutes later someone else shoots another and so on and so on. Be they working in a petrol station, in a swimming pool, playing football, eating in a restaurant, at home or walking in the park, someone blasts them.These horrific random acts of violence in due course desensitizes us, maybe even leave us bored and confused as without dialogue we are unsure as to what is happening and just seeing people walking about until they take a gun out and shoot somebody.Alan Clarke was an early adopter of the Steadicam for television work which means we follow the various people out and about as the camera operator is alongside them.This was one of Clarke's last works who died a year later. Seeing Elephant again many years later, when the film is almost 25 years old, you get struck that this is a period piece with the now old model cars and that Northern Ireland has moved on since the peace process.

keith_b I was greatly amused at the writing credit for Bernard MacLaverty. Oh, you mean when that one guy said nothing or that other man didn't speak. Yeah, that's quotable stuff, all right. Certainly he wrote placement material used by the producer, although it is an absolute affront to say that he "wrote" anything.Still, it does give me a specific to use when pretentious people drool over lesser-known films. I can now praise MacLaverty's dialog and see what unfolds from there.The anonymity of the actions does reinforce the idea that violence can come at any turn and is never a proper solution. For that, I appreciated the film and its intent.

RobertF87 This film was made for British television in 1988, the last film by it's controversial creator Alan Clarke. There's no story here at all. Set in Northern Ireland, the film depicts a series of seemingly random killings.It is shot entirely on location with completely unknown actors. The film is quite disturbingly realistic. There is almost no dialogue in the film and absolutely no attempt to give the film any kind of context. The film is certainly well-made and impressive but the initial sense of shock fades before the film is over and the repeated images soon become dull, which might be the film's most disturbing aspect. In a way the use of gliding camera movements following characters either to their own deaths or to kill someone else, as well as the film's frequent use of holding on the image of the victims for some time after the killings take place can work against the involvement you might feel for this film. It is certainly worth watching, however. The casualness of the brutality and the haunting images linger for a long time after the end credits roll

Theo Robertson Someone want`s to do a realistic docudrama on sectarian killings in Northern Ireland ? Fine , but ELEPHANT`s not it . Alan Clarke seems to be under the impression that sectarian death squads are composed entirely of young men shooting dead other young men but the reality is somewhat different . In Northern Ireland during the troubles both loyalist and republican terrorists ( Both of which contain men and women , young and old ) viewed anyone from the other side as a legitimate target , it didn`t matter about your politics or religion , your age or sex as long as you lived in the Shankhill or the Falls you were fair game. And the method of murder dealt differs somewhat from ELEPHANT , a car bomb in a street of Saturday shoppers was a favourite with republicans while capturing an innocent passer by and torturing them to death with a stanley knife and red hot poker was a common practice amongst loyalists . Watching ELEPHANT you`d believe that people die quick and painless deaths - untrue. Many of victims of terrorism had their coffin lids screwed shut at their funerals so their families wouldn`t be allowed to see the horrific mutilations they`d suffered , the way they died were even more unforgivable than the fact they died in the first place . If you want to get educated about the horrors of the troubles give ELEPHANT a miss and read a book by someone like Martin Dillon who knows what he`s talking about