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Tusk Reviews

1980
1 hr 59 mins
Drama
NR

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Perhaps meant as an experimental film with a dash of politics and two shakes of comedy, this ultimately unpalatable mix by noted director Alexandro Jodorowsky might have had too many cooks. Three people are cited as having had a hand in the story, written and rewritten three times. The tale itself follows the life of a young British colonial woman in India around 1900 or so and is based on a novel by Reginald Campbell. Rather than simply focus on the woman (Cyrielle Clair), the tale juxtaposes her life with that of an elephant named Tusk (convincingly played by Tusk, the elephant). The results are beautiful shots of the landscape unmatched by the mix of characters ranging from a Maharaja to a reverend to a few idiotic merchants and various types in-between.

This confusing, pseudo-art film parallels the life of Clair, an English girl in turn-of-the-century India, with that of Tusk, the elephant of her dreams. The film is utterly incoherent--the script went through the hands of many writers--and culling a story from this mess borders on the impossible. The cast is almost uniformly awful. Clair seems more like she's playing than performing, and her supporting cast ranges from tolerable to laughably unfunny. The soundtrack, which is more noisy than anything else, has plenty of elephant trumpeting. The director, famous for his EL TORO, publicly acknowledged a love for Luis Bunuel's films and obviously tried to emulate his mentor here. The imitation is pale, with lots of pretty pictures wrapped around a wholly empty package. The beautiful locations are the only reasons worth watching the film.