He_who_lurks This print is featured as an unadvertised bonus to Kino's magnificent collection "The Movies Begin: A Treasury of Early Cinema" in the second volume, namely "The European Pioneers." The reason they call this an unadvertised bonus is because the print survives in a most blurred condition, thus it is below Kino's standard quality.Before I discuss this film I would like to straighten out some things. First, it wasn't Edison who suggested to electrocute Topsy, at least from what I've read on Wikipedia. The only way Edison had to do with the execution was that his film company released this short. The rumor that he just randomly jumped in to kill Topsy with electricity is NOT true. Second the elephant had killed a man who accidentally burnt her trunk with the butt of his cigar. She was a harmful elephant. That may not excuse her electrocution, but they had to do something. The film begins with Topsy the elephant being led to her death on Coney Island, being led by an elephant handler. We then see her standing with the sandals strapped to her feet. The current is turned on and Topsy goes stiff, then slowly falls to the ground. The End. While many may think this is an awful film, it is merely just documenting the event and presents it as it happened. Don't resent me for saying this, but I'm glad they did film the event simply to preserve this piece of history--even if the content isn't particularly enjoyable.(Note: I am getting near to finishing reviewing all the unadvertised bonuses. The other 7 I've reviewed are "Girls Swinging" (1897) "The Interrupted Bathers" and "The Draped Model" (both 1902) "Shooting Captured Insurgents" (1898) "Execution of a Spy" (1900) "Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison" (1901) and "The Burlesque Suicide No 2" (1902).

cricket crockett PETA people constantly are deriding Texas, where we perhaps have more than our fair share of stockyards, slaughter houses, and meat-packing plants. But unlike the Swedish meatball folks, we do not grind horse into our tube steaks, nor do we wolf down swan burgers as does the British royal family. But about 22 seconds into this 77.34-second ELECTROCUTING AN ELEPHANT Edison short, a sign is seen above the cheering throng of New York City immigrant spectators along the lines of "Available May 2nd, 1903 at Luna Park: Dumbo Dogs--Elephant on a stick!" No cow suffered in the history of the Lone Star state the way poor Topsy suffers here, led through the pervert crowd by the world's most infamous inventor, chained by ankle rings to four stakes, jolted to tippy-toe as her right front foot begins to sizzle, then felled as five-foot flames shoot from her left hind paw as she's literally burned alive just like Joan of Arc in the 1400s. When last seen, Topsy's head is still thrashing around as her tongue swirls out toward her trunk: the "execution," intended to win old Tom the Osing Osing contract for a human electric chair based on "humane" DC or direct current, has FAILED (leaving men to poke steel rods through her eyeballs or something to finish her off). Not only were tickets sold to this "cultural event," but Edison raked in additional thousands for years to come at his peep show "kinetoscopes." I don't care if Topsy personally killed Tom's mom, dad, wife, brothers, sisters, kids, and grandkids: this event is unwarranted barbarism, and all of the mercenary motives behind it--from novelty meat treats to government contracts to sensationalistic snuff film sales--no doubt inspired Leni Riefenstahl to make TRIUMPH OF THE WILL for Hitler! It's hard to dispute ELECTROCUTING AN ELEPHANT is the most scandalous and horrific 77 seconds in cinema history.

Rodrigo Amaro This is one of those old films that I even know it existed until the day I make a strange research on internet about filmed deaths, and the execution of Topsy, an elephant, happened to be one of the oldest executions captured by a camera. Today you can watch and complain that the film it's almost not watchable because of it's theme and because it's very difficult to see something, the movie is too old.But what Thomas Edison were thinking in filming such atrocity? First, let me explain what this short is about. Topsy was a domesticated elephant with the Forepaugh Circus at Coney Island's and she killed three men. Fearing that Topsy would be a threat to everybody a bunch of people decided to execute her, but they wanted to do it in the harmless possible way. So, they opted for the electrocution. The rest become this movie, not much impacting nowadays but it created something more horrible than everything you can think of.The mankind didn't evolved after this movie, it only went downhill in every single aspect of its capacity of destruction. I mean, after this movie it seemed that animal killing was allowed and many so-called filmmakers started to film horrific acts of violence towards animals. Hollywood movies, Foreign movies, documentaries, and sometimes even in the news you can see things like that. I really think that this film pointed the way on how human race would follow. The recent images of today's films are far more shocking than Edison's film. For instance, the documentary "Death on a Factory Farm" has unspeakable scenes (OK, it was a denounce against farmers who are animal abusers and it was used in a trial to convict such people), or the infamous horror movie "Cannibal Holocaust" who featured several unnecessary animal deaths (By the way, except for that scenes, this is an incredible and great horror movie). There are more disgusting and shocking and gratuity examples of that. Even for not being so striking now, it's almost impossible not fell sorry for the poor elephant, a human being that just wanted to live. Now: it's a bad movie or it's good movie? Well, I don't have a opinion formed about it except that it was a unnecessary waste of time for Edison and the people who helped making this short. To me it was just an experience in seeing a movie made in 1903 and see how things were in that time. Have we changed? Think about it!

WakenPayne Thomas Edison May Have Done Lots Of Great Inventions But WTF Is This!!!! I Am Sorry But This Movie Is Simply Awful. The Plot Is That This Elephant Walks To A Certain Point & Gets Electrocuted. Okay The Picture Quality Looked Like Someone Used It For Toilet Paper. I Thought That The Early Charlie Chaplin Films Were Awful. Okay Thomas Edison May Have Been An Inventor But Why Did He Make This Film He Could Have Filmed A Baby Being Fed & It Would Have Been Better. People Might Say I'm Being Harsh On The Times But Would You Enjoy Something Like This From What I Have Said Edison May Have Made The Lightbulb But Why Did He Make This Particular Movie. Well I Might Sound Like A Complete A##hole But Watch This On Youtube Then You Will See This Abomination. I Still Can't Believe This Film Is Completely Awful. All In All The Worst Short Film I Have Ever Seen.Rating: 1/10