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Elephant [2004]
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Elephant, the elegant and unsettling movie from Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting), depicts students at a high school before and during a harrowing, Columbine-style shooting. The movie follows one young boy who takes over the wheel from his drunken dad while returning from lunch, then loops back in time and follows another student who crosses paths with the first, then loops back and follows another--all captured in long, unedited tracking shots that are serene and unhurried, even when two boys in camouflage gear, carrying heavy bags, arrive at the school and begin shooting. Elephant doesn't attempt to explain their behaviour; it simply places the audience back in the brief yet interminable window of adolescence, when life is trivial and painfully important at the same time. Your reaction to Elephant will depend as much on your life experiences as anything in the movie itself. --Bret Fetzer
The elephant in the room
Review date: 2008-05-01 Rating: 10 out of 10
Sometimes its worth looking at a film like this and examining whether it was showered with acclaim because its actually any good or because it's a fashionable subject. In the case of Elephant the praise was completely justified as this is a movie that succeeds in everything it sets out to do.
Elephant is an odd little film that sets out to juxtapose the ordinariness of the daily situation with the extremity of its outcome. To that end the cast was set during a casting call for local high school students in director Gus Van Sant's hometown. The resulting cast were largely not (at the time) professional actors and the roles they would play were in many cases moulded by the teenagers themselves. As Van Sant explains in an interview extra the characters are also teen movie archetypes to an extent and this serves to make the school that acts as the setting seem familiar. At just under 80 minutes long the film chronicles the final hour in the day of the characters leading up to an event that will (without wanting to make it too melodramatic) shatter their lives. In that hour the lives of the characters intersect, however briefly, and this is mixed in with parts of the 24 hours previously for two of their number.
Essentially Elephant is a fictionalised rendering of a High School shooting spree, heavily influenced by the infamous Columbine Massacre. To that end it is set as an ordinary school day until the first shot is fired. Long, dialogue free, stretches abound as characters move from one place to the next. Some of the characters are likeable, others are not so likeable, its clear though that they are teenagers and none deserve to die. Van Sant makes no effort to lay blame for this kind of event. When Alex, the mastermind of the shooting, begins to work his masterplan it could be for any number of reasons. He is being bullied, he may not be entirely sane, he is an outsider whose only real friend is not on his level, he is a latch key kid, he plays violent video games, guns are easy to come by. Any one or all of these may be ultimately the cause of the violence and death that make up the last 20 minutes or so of the movie. Its not movie violence either- there's no heavy metal soundtrack or pithy one liners, and there's no dramatic poses or improbable physicality. Only a palpable feeling of terror and a lack of apprehension.
Films like Elephant are necessarily rare. We watch movies to escape, not to have to face up to grim realities. Films like Elephant are also necessary. In this movie Van Sant isn't apportioning blame or providing easy answers. He's not trying to tell us the answers, only to make us face up to the harsh reality of the questions. The elephant in the room here is how a society can allow its children to massacre each other no matter what the cause. Highly recommended.
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Reviews
It stays with you
Review date: 2008-04-22 Rating: 10 out of 10
I saw this movie in an Arts Cinema in Chelsea a few years ago and still think about it. I loved the fact that it doesn't rush but follows each person for a period of time using the moments and places, viewed from different perspectives to show the time frame of the movie.
I felt that one of it's strong points is the fact it doesn't over analyse the minds of the killers. We've all seen computer games where the view on screen is a castle/cave/dungeon or whatever and the weapon is at the bottom of the screen while the 'hero' goes around killing everything in sight...well, maybe that was all the influence & reason they needed. Who knows. Maybe they didn't like Mondays either.
If you're after reasons, analysis, blood, gore & guts, dramatics and special effects avoid this one but if you're after an incredible and thought provoking movie I can't recommend it high enough
Elephant by Gus Van Sant
Review date: 2008-03-07 Rating: 8 out of 10
The film is a true artistic masterpiece, with brilliant camera use, plot and the way the story is presented as a whole. The film follows various characters at an American High School (the actor's real names are used in the film for realism) and the absolute catastrophy that ensews at the end of the film. It is based on the true events of the Columbine High School Massacre in 1999 as more of a docu-drama rather than a full blown drama. After reading some of the poorly rated reviews left by customers I was actually quite shocked because this film is very good, they just obviously can't see an artistically sound film. I just can't express how artistic this film really is.
A great buy, but don't get it if you're easily shocked.
I'd also like to point out the reasoning behind the title of the film: in America there's a saying, "The elephant in the room," referring to a problem that no-one will admit is present, therefore referring to the events that occurred.
Modern Day Neo-realism
Review date: 2008-03-07 Rating: 10 out of 10
This film is a piece of art. As far as I can remember (I saw this film a couple of years ago) there is very little dialogue and pretty much no action until the end (save piano playing and an un-neccessary shower scene).
The haunting part of this film is that none of the characters act any different to if they were actually at their school, giving the film a very authentic quality.
The score (Moonlight Sonata) paces the film brilliantly; slow and methodical like the build up to its bloody climax.
Also, the directors choice to show scenes from different view points (but not changing what happens - as other films do to try and show eyewitness irregularity) lulls the viewer into a sense of familiarisation, making the shooting scene more violent.
Don't buy this if you have a short attention span or dislike films that concentrate more on cinematography and less on character development and plot - which sounds bad but the film pulls it off.
Total Garbage: Watch Heart of America Instead
Review date: 2008-02-08 Rating: 2 out of 10
This so-called 'masterpiece' by Gus Van Sant is yet another turkey which is suppossed to deal with the causes behind shootings in US high schools but which in reality tell you absolutely nothing about the reasons for them, plus having to stand seemingly eternal scenes of people walking through corridors doing or saying nothing instead of the filmakers putting a minimum effort on explaining what is going on inside the minds of the soon to be killers. Nearly as bad as watching the Fox Channel News talking about it: All copies of this trash should first have voodoo done to them, then burn to a crisp and finally what is left of them sent to outer space in a rocket and crushed against a meteorite which won't pass near Earth in the next billion years: that's how bad this film is. Watch Heart of America instead to find the truth behind shootings like those depicted here.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
John Robinson (IX)
Alex Frost
Jordan Taylor (II)
Elias McConnell
Eric Deulen
Director(s):
Recording label: Optimum Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Optimum Home Entertainment
EAN: 5060034571162
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2004-07-26
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 80 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2004-04-08
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: German (Original Language)