Anonymous Asks:
Also, in the film the clown continuously request that the main character drink the whisky from the flask. This happens in several scenes, but by the end of the film the main character never drinks from the flask and it is never revealed nor discussed the possible consequences of the doing so. One might interpret that by drinking from the flask would be the final nail in the coffin and that would kill the main character. As the film ends with the main character still not awake and laying on the floor, we can assume that he's not waking up at all. Back to the main point of the flask, why have so much emphasis on the drinking of the flask if it neither helps nor hinders the main characters situation?
bydirector Said:
Originally, elysium as referred to by the Greeks was simply the afterlife with no other connotations. It was often stated to be separate from the Earth but a place between Zeus and Hades. In other religions, such as Christianity, this place is often referred to as “limbo”. It wasn’t until later in which the Greeks evolved their thinking of elysium to be a heavenly place or paradise reserved only for Kings and Gods.
The film itself treats it as “limbo”, with Danny only believing he is in the elysian fields because it was mentioned to him earlier by his therapist and it was the name of his father’s book.
I for one believe that Danny is merely dreaming throughout his journey, whereas my co-writer feels opposite. Everything we did in the film in regards to the elysian fields was intentional. We wanted the audience to come up with their own conclusions as to what the experience was for Danny. We deliberately mentioned the elysian fields in the first scene as a way to explore Danny’s line of thinking while in his drug induced state. It as my co-writer Danny Chadwick who included that his father also be a writer and he decided to name the book in order to further establish this theme. Basically, your view of what elysium is or isn’t is entirely up to you, although it is not a discrepancy.
The flask element that you mention was something that transfered over from my original version of Elysium to the remake (which was the version we released). You are entirely right in your observations that the flask seems lost and disjointed and serving no real purpose or danger. The original version featured the main character as being an alcoholic to which the flask was an element to further Danny’s demons. We ended up adding in drugs and alcohol and sadly the flask, while intentional to keep, was overlooked in terms of story and relevance.
The flask is not the only thing that has bothered me since we’ve released the picture as I have, even to this day, returned to constructively and objectively criticize. Danny’s girlfriend Ellie is another prime example, as she was never in any real danger. These are merely two things that bug me about the movie and has since prompted me to return to the story and re-write another draft that addresses these and many other problems. We may or may not actually film it, but its something Danny and I have discussed at great lengths to fix.
Elysium was a major learning experience for all of us, but it taught me some important things in terms of scripting, as well as directing that I have since applied to American Rejects and other scripting projects and short films. I can honestly go and on about the things that irritate me about Elysium but that is what doing these projects have been about for me; learning. Regardless, you are right and it was a major flaw that escaped the attention of myself and my creative team.
Thank you for watching the film and bringing to my attention your ultimate view on the picture and some flaws that may or may not have been obvious. The film is (sadly) filled with many of them.
