Water for Elephants:
The dangers and beauty of a circus life
By Dilshan Boange
Based on Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel of the same name Water for Elephants
American romantic drama film directed by Francis Lawrence was released
in 2011. It has the acting talents of stars Reese Witherspoon as Marlena
Rosenbluth, Robert Pattinson as Jacob Jankowski, and Christoph Waltz as
August Rosenbluth.
Narrated mainly in flashbacks the film opens in present day, when the
proprietor of a small travelling circus meets an elderly man who has
apparently wandered away from his nursing home group, which attended the
circus earlier that day. The conversation they develop reveals the
elderly man had a career in the circus business. The elderly man is
Jacob Jankowski
who had been present during one of the most infamous circus disasters
of all time, which leads to the unraveling of a personal past and page
off circus history.
Promising career
As a Cornell veterinary medicine student on the brink of a promising
career, Jacob suffers the misfortune of losing his parents during his
final examination, who are killed in a car crash. His father has left
massive debts, and the bank was foreclosing on Jacob’s home. Despondent
and believing that continuing with his education has no purpose he jumps
onto a passing train becoming a store away.
Jacob discovers later that he jumped on the Benzini Brothers Circus
train. He sees a beautiful woman, Marlena Rosenbluth, and meets August
Rosenbluth, the circus owner, who is the head animal trainer, and
Marlena’s husband.
Jacob reveals he studied veterinary science and has noticed a problem
with the star horse in the show. August agrees to hire Jacob as a vet
for the circus animals after Jacob tells August that the horse named
Silver has laminitis, is in terrible pain and will soon be unable to
walk, never mind perform.
August instructs Jacob to give a solution to Silver and keep him
performing as long as possible.
But Jacob cannot bear to see Silver’s suffering and takes it upon
himself to put Silver down. August is furious with Jacob’s decision to
euthanise Silver against orders. To show Jacob who is boss, he threatens
to throw him from the moving train - telling him that an animal’s
suffering is nothing compared to a man’s, and that Jacob must carry out
all of August’s future orders if he wants to keep his job.
Troubled relationship
What develops later is that August adds Rosie the elephant as
Silver’s replacement. He is initially thrilled and invites Jacob to his
car for dinner and cocktails with him and Marlena. Jacob who is
attracted to Marlena watches uncomfortably as the married couple dance
in front of him, but later in the evening becomes clear that their
relationship is a troubled one.
In the weeks that pass by, August becomes frustrated when Rosie the
elephant seems impossible to train. August is aggressive with Rosie,
beating her when she fails to follow orders. After one such beating that
August gave to Rosie when she ran away after fleeing from the event and
dropping Marlena, Jacob realises that the elephant was trained in the
Polish language and only inderstands Polish commands.
Rosie begins to perform above expectation when she is instructed in
Polish and the circus enjoys a period of much success.
Working closely together to train Rosie, Jacob and Marlena find
themselves falling in love.
When August discovers this, he cruelly taunts the two plotting a cold
revenge. Upon learning August plans to throw Jacob from the train one
night Marlena and Jacob run away together.
Hiding in a local hotel, they are discovered by August’s henchmen who
drag Marlena away and severely assault Jacob.
Cruelty
On returning to the circus to find Marlena, Jacob comes to know that
his friends Walter and Camel were thrown from the train and killed. What
transpires is that several circus employees have become fed up with
August’s murderous cruelty and unleash their revenge by unlocking all
the animals’ cages while a jam-packed audience is enjoying the star
attraction performance by Marlena and Rosie.
The chaos that breaks out is furious and Jacob attempts to find
Marlena in the midst of it and August attacks him. When Marlena tries to
stop August from beating Jacob, he turns his fury on her and attempts to
choke her, while one of August’s henchmen continues beating Jacob. Two
circus workers save Jacob just in time.
Lying on the ground, bloodied and beaten, he looks up and sees Rosie
hit August on the back of the head with a metal pole, killing the
autocratic and remorseless circus owner.
The movie ends with the elderly Jacob explaining what happened
afterwards. He had returned to Cornell, completed his degree and become
a qualified veterinarian. Taking several of the horses and Rosie Jacob
and Marlena had got jobs with another circus outfit – Jacob as a vet and
Marlena in performing with the animals. They had got married and had
five children and kept Rosie until her death many years later.
Jacob then reveals that eventually, he took a job as a vet at the
Albany Zoo and Marlena died peacefully in her bed at an old age. The
final moments of the movie shows Jacob convincing his interlocutor to
hire him in the ticket booth.
Although initially skeptical the circus owner agrees, and the delight
of the development that has happened in his life moves Jacob to say that
he has finally ‘come home’.
|