i remember this when it was originally broadcast i was only twelve and had just discovered Billy Connolly i thought that it would be rude so i got permission to stay up late (9,30 come on i was only 12)and boy was i surprised with what i got. A lovely little ghost story that has stuck with me nearly 30 years it suckered you into thinking that both characters would have a happy ending, they do in a way but not in the way that anybody expected and with a twist in the tail not used as well until the sixth sense.Billy Connolly was so understated i was blown away he may have been in some misguided roles since but this was fabulous i did have a very poor quality VHS of this i wore it out. a little gem that has long been forgotten by many but still appreciated but a select few.
4 Reviews
The Elephants' Graveyard
Prismark1026 November 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Director Alan Clarke made hard hitting dramas such as The Firm, Scum and Made in Britain. He also made Penda's Fen, something multi layered with roots in paganism.
By the same token Scots director John Mackenzie directed The Long Good Friday, A Sense of Freedom and Just Another Saturday. He seemed to specialise in the mean streets of Glasgow.
The Elephants' Graveyard is Mackenzie broadening his horizons. An attempt to do something deeper, maybe magical realism again with a nod to Scottish paganism.
Bunny (Jon Morrison) is a postman who is meant to go to work. He has lost his job and spends his days in the woods rather than tell his wife that he is unemployed.
One day he encounters a free spirited drifter Jody (Billy Connolly.) He also pretends to be at work. Both men bond, talke, drink wine and have a boisterous time where they try to out dare each other.
Bunny is always careful not to mess his clothes. Jody persuades him to cross a stream and Bunny gets his clothes wet.
Eventually Jody confides to Bunny that he only got married because his wife was pregnant and did not want to tell his mother what happened. The exactly same thing happened to Bunny.
In a narrative sense this drama has Jody as the catalyst. This stranger could be danger or someone who understands Bunny's predicament.
He first tries to loosen up Bunny, even riling him. Jody talks about his days in the merchant navy and how he ended up back in his hometown.
Bunny wants to escape, he could not after he made his girlfriend pregnant and felt obligated to marry her. His hopes and dreams dashed.
The drama gets better once the men attempt to reach a poetical understanding. In the end Jody was either a ghost or a figment of Bunny's imagination. Someone to show Bunny another road, one that does not see him rambling on the woods all day.
This was a two hander that has good performances from Morrison and Connolly.
By the same token Scots director John Mackenzie directed The Long Good Friday, A Sense of Freedom and Just Another Saturday. He seemed to specialise in the mean streets of Glasgow.
The Elephants' Graveyard is Mackenzie broadening his horizons. An attempt to do something deeper, maybe magical realism again with a nod to Scottish paganism.
Bunny (Jon Morrison) is a postman who is meant to go to work. He has lost his job and spends his days in the woods rather than tell his wife that he is unemployed.
One day he encounters a free spirited drifter Jody (Billy Connolly.) He also pretends to be at work. Both men bond, talke, drink wine and have a boisterous time where they try to out dare each other.
Bunny is always careful not to mess his clothes. Jody persuades him to cross a stream and Bunny gets his clothes wet.
Eventually Jody confides to Bunny that he only got married because his wife was pregnant and did not want to tell his mother what happened. The exactly same thing happened to Bunny.
In a narrative sense this drama has Jody as the catalyst. This stranger could be danger or someone who understands Bunny's predicament.
He first tries to loosen up Bunny, even riling him. Jody talks about his days in the merchant navy and how he ended up back in his hometown.
Bunny wants to escape, he could not after he made his girlfriend pregnant and felt obligated to marry her. His hopes and dreams dashed.
The drama gets better once the men attempt to reach a poetical understanding. In the end Jody was either a ghost or a figment of Bunny's imagination. Someone to show Bunny another road, one that does not see him rambling on the woods all day.
This was a two hander that has good performances from Morrison and Connolly.
Neither Chance Nor Choice
JamesHitchcock28 December 2022
"The Elephants' Graveyard" was the second of three "Plays for Today" written by the Scottish playwright Peter McDougall for the BBC in the 1970s, the others being "Just Another Saturday" and "Just a Boy's Game". Like "Just a Boy's Game" it is set in and around McDougall's home town of Greenock.
There is not a lot of plot, and only two characters. Two men, Bunny and Jody, meet one morning in the hills above Greenock. They spend the day wandering through the hills, drinking wine (straight out of the bottle) and talking. It emerges that both men are unemployed but are afraid to admit the truth about their situation to their wives and families, so pretend to have jobs. Bunny, claims to be a postman, Jody to be a factory worker. In order to maintain their pretence, they have to disappear from home every day, and spend their supposed working hours wandering the streets or the countryside or, if the weather is bad, sitting in the local library. It also appears that Bunny had to get married young, before he was able to support a wife and family, because he got his girlfriend pregnant.
Jody is the older of the two men, probably supposed to be over forty. (In 1976 Billy Connolly would still have been in his early thirties, but that beard made him look older). He is also more philosophical than Bunny- he has been described as a "working class philosopher"- and sums up the condition of the British working class in the seventies. (I say "in the seventies", but his words still ring true today).
"You get neither chance nor choice. You leave school and straight to work without even thinking about it. Then you get married without even knowing about it. Then spend the rest of your days using both as an excuse for never have done anything with your life".
In the mid-seventies Connolly was one of the rising stars on the British entertainment scene, even if at this period he was perhaps better known as a stand-up comedian than as a dramatic actor. (It was around this time that I first remember him, doing a brilliant routine on the "Parkinson" show on television). Here, in one of his early forays into acting, he shows that he also had great talent in that direction, and there is another very good performance from Jon Morrison.
Some have seen an element of the supernatural in the play, interpreting Jody as Bunny's alter ego, his older self from a few years later, still in the same predicament but able to treat it with a greater philosophical detachment. This is certainly one possible interpretation, and it is strengthened by the fact that, apart from the beard, there is a certain physical resemblance between Connolly and the clean-shaven Morrison. It is, however, not the only possible reading of the play; it may be unlikely that two men should meet who are playing exactly the same trick on their wives, but it is not beyond the bounds of possibility, and it is left open to us to see Jody as a real, and separate, individual. McDougall never commits himself either way. Perhaps it is well that he does not; this is one of those occasions where ambiguity is more fruitful than certainty. Despite the sparseness of the plot, this is a first-rate play. 8/10.
There is not a lot of plot, and only two characters. Two men, Bunny and Jody, meet one morning in the hills above Greenock. They spend the day wandering through the hills, drinking wine (straight out of the bottle) and talking. It emerges that both men are unemployed but are afraid to admit the truth about their situation to their wives and families, so pretend to have jobs. Bunny, claims to be a postman, Jody to be a factory worker. In order to maintain their pretence, they have to disappear from home every day, and spend their supposed working hours wandering the streets or the countryside or, if the weather is bad, sitting in the local library. It also appears that Bunny had to get married young, before he was able to support a wife and family, because he got his girlfriend pregnant.
Jody is the older of the two men, probably supposed to be over forty. (In 1976 Billy Connolly would still have been in his early thirties, but that beard made him look older). He is also more philosophical than Bunny- he has been described as a "working class philosopher"- and sums up the condition of the British working class in the seventies. (I say "in the seventies", but his words still ring true today).
"You get neither chance nor choice. You leave school and straight to work without even thinking about it. Then you get married without even knowing about it. Then spend the rest of your days using both as an excuse for never have done anything with your life".
In the mid-seventies Connolly was one of the rising stars on the British entertainment scene, even if at this period he was perhaps better known as a stand-up comedian than as a dramatic actor. (It was around this time that I first remember him, doing a brilliant routine on the "Parkinson" show on television). Here, in one of his early forays into acting, he shows that he also had great talent in that direction, and there is another very good performance from Jon Morrison.
Some have seen an element of the supernatural in the play, interpreting Jody as Bunny's alter ego, his older self from a few years later, still in the same predicament but able to treat it with a greater philosophical detachment. This is certainly one possible interpretation, and it is strengthened by the fact that, apart from the beard, there is a certain physical resemblance between Connolly and the clean-shaven Morrison. It is, however, not the only possible reading of the play; it may be unlikely that two men should meet who are playing exactly the same trick on their wives, but it is not beyond the bounds of possibility, and it is left open to us to see Jody as a real, and separate, individual. McDougall never commits himself either way. Perhaps it is well that he does not; this is one of those occasions where ambiguity is more fruitful than certainty. Despite the sparseness of the plot, this is a first-rate play. 8/10.
Brilliant....
macadam12228 August 2008
Billy Connolly is a brilliant actor who became so famous for his comedy that he was effectively lost to acting. On a par with the best in his generation, his touching portrayal in this masterpiece is nothing short of brilliant. Jon Morrison also deserves mention for his excellent work here. The two men work effectively together and give the play some real resonance.A sensitive play about what it means to be grown up, and the responsibilities that brings. Perhaps slightly dated now in this day and age of gap years and mass unemployment, the play, nevertheless, has something to offer everyone. Thoroughly recommended, though very rarely seen now. A superb theatrical experience.
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