Elephant Elephant is a 2003 American film written and directed by Gus Van Sant. It stars mostly new and nonprofessional actors, including John Robinson, Alex Frost and Eric Deulen. The film takes place in the fictional Watt High School, in Portland, Oregon and chronicles the events surrounding a fictional school shooting, based in part on the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre.
This film is tough, brutal, and trueful about school shootings and violence in general.
What does that mean?
Well there's an old saying that goes something like, "You'll always fail at an anti-war movie because war on film is always intersting." Well this takes violence, and makes sure it's drained of all style, and everything Hollywood and that leaves you with what violence really is...random, mean, and soul destroying.
This film is out to show you there's no romance in violence, there's no reason in it (violence and reason do not mix), and this movie is out to wound you.
Elephant received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and won best director for Gus Van Sant at Cannes. If you haven't seen it, HBO Films bought it and has been showing it late night this month, TIVO it, stay up for it, check for program guide for it, or buy a TV Guide, hell if you don't have HBO NETFLICK the thing. There's no reason to not see this movie.
The odd title is some what explained thanks to wiki.
Van Sant has explained the "elephant" idea in several ways, besides the direct reference to Clarke's earlier work. It is an allusion to the proverbial "elephant in the room," a large problem that no one talks about but everyone must find their way around as they go about their daily lives. It also invokes the Indian parable about the blind wise men who, unable to grasp the whole, interpret the elephant only in terms of the part they can comprehend: "An elephant is a tree," said the blind man who grasped the leg; "An elephant is a snake," said the one who touched the trunk; etc. Finally, during the press conference at Cannes, Van Sant mentioned that the creative staff had also experimented with allusions to certain policies and attitudes represented by the Republican Party, whose party symbol is an elephant.
Please, if you believe that movies should effect you, watch Elephant.
That movie seemed like it had potential but Van Sant really screwed it up. The acting is okay but the direction and cinematography are just horrendous. I'm fine with a little experimentation in cinema but this just went too far and the story suffered greatly; I mean, I just couldn't identify with any of the characters beyond surface level and the fact that most of them are killed.
The subject matter was intriguing. And intense psychological study of what makes these kids commit these acts would have been great but Van Sant just left it at the surface and just didn't go deep enough, sacrificing story for long meandering pans and shots that do nothing but follow a character from one location to another.
By all means watch it, and I fully understand why some people would never want to see it again, it hurts your soul to watch it. It's brutal...it's good.
