Tusk
Tusk review contributed by Steve Puchalski at
Shock Cinema
Even though my print of this ultra-obscure Jodorowsky pic was in French with
NO subtitles, you really don't need a translation in order to get the gist of
this self-termed "fable panique." Set in turn of the century India,
Jodorowsky drops most of his crazed mystical/religious/hallucinogenic
stylings in order to tell a relatively straightforward story of a little
girl, Elise, and a little elephant, Tusk, both of whom are born at the same
time, and how their lives interconnect over the years (yawn). It begins on a
good note, with Jodorowsky intercutting an elephant and a woman, each giving
birth. But the movie swiftly turns into nothing more than a Disney G-rated
nature film, with most of the $5 million budget going for Elephants-Are-Us
rentals. There are a few sledgehammer-subtle points about French colonialism
vs. the Forces of Nature, with Anton Diffring playing the girl's tyranical
father, and a nutty Indian medicine man popping up for comic relief. But for
most of this debacle's interminable two hour running time all we're fed are
long scenes of big animals lumbering around the countryside. When the little
girl grows up, she discovers a psychic link to Tusk the Elephant when she
stops it in its tracks during a rampage, but NONE of Jodorowsky's crackpot
enlightenment or savage grotesqueries from his earlier epics is on display
here. Instead, it takes all too many predictable routes, such as Elise
getting kidnapped by the buffoonish bad guys (they're the ones who don't
respect elephants), with our heroic packyderm saving her life. Perhaps the
problem lies in the fact Jodorowsky was adapting a novel entitled "Poo Lorn
of the Elephants", which, for all I know was some shitty children's book.
Maybe Jodorowsky was so desperate to get behind a camera after all his failed
attepts at DUNE, that he grabbed the first thing to come along. Or perhaps he
just wanted a free trip to India.
Language: French
Directed by
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Cast (in alphabetical order)
Cyrielle Claire
Anton Diffring
Christopher Mitchum
Written by
Nicholas Niciphor
