"Elephant" is a film loosely based on the Columbine American school shootings. As soon as you know this, plot wise you know the whole film. For this reason I can see why people might be disappointed in this Palm d'Or winner but I loved it. For me it's not about the story but the way a film's style can affect and move the audience.
One of the critisms I've heard against this film is the lack of characterisation. How can you sympathise with characters when the film barely touches on any of them but this is exactly where the film stands out for me. In a voyeristic style we are introduced to several students as they go about an ordinary day of high school. 'Introduced' is the key word here as our snapshots into their day only ever leave us with clues as to who they are as characters. There's John whose father's a drunk, Eli studying photography, a bookish girl, a couple facing a pregnancy scare and three gossiping girlfriends. All are seemingly visited by the camera, sometimes drifting behind them as they walk corridors in silence, other times slipping in and out of their conversations. For a movie there's an extrordinary sense of the ordinary about everything.
Despite this however the film never seems documentary-like. What Gus Van Sant actually creates is an overwhelming sense of heightened reality. There's an eery feeling of calm and soon you realise that events are being shown again but from different perspectives. Another reviewer could describe this as boring. Not only is not much happening but it's doing so repeatably from other angles! However as the camera drifted ghost like around people and corridors it gave me a sense of being able to wander the school knowing the fate of the students but unable to act on it. The quiet calm time you have to think during the film opens up various possibilities like this. Many of my thoughts were about hindsight. Looking back on these incidental moments with the knowledge of how the day would end gave significance to things which would have been forgotten had the day been like any other.
Aside from the atmosphere created I think the lack of characterisation is equally deliberate and affecting. Even if we were in the school we wouldn't necessarily know much about another classmate beyond the superficial. This doesn't make the character less real but more so. The recognisable ordinaryness makes the eventual shootings all the more shocking. During the lead up to the shooting the sense of dread creeps through the film. However the pace itself stays calm and unaffected even as horrific events invade the scenes of normality
The only critism I would have of 'Elephant' is in its depiction of the two boys responsible for the massacre. Much of the film objectively lets the audience consider the senselessness of the tragedy. The killers though seem only to embody all the usual subjects of blame from violent computer games and Nazi history to easily obtainable weaponary. Possibly the dodgiest and most unnecessary reference is that they also happen to be closet homosexuals.
All this considered I enjoyed 'Elephant' because it was different. Characters aren't developed but their deaths are still affecting whilst killings are shocking without being gory. Even though it was different it was still unmistakeably a Gus Van Sant film. Like my most favourite director Stanley Kubrick, Van Sant creates a world where all his films exist. If you've seen 'My Own Private Idaho' or 'Drugstore Cowboy' it's like stepping into that same distinctive world all over again.
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
very good review, opened up my mind to new ways of thinking about the film!
nickyturnill 20.07.2005 14:19
I just watched this at the weekend. Three stars in my opinion but still worth a look. I did lack something but I watched out of fascination I suppose. There was quite a lot of uproar about this when it was first released as they didn't request permission from the families of those involved which is pretty harsh....
PrincessMoo 09.07.2004 11:47
I watched this last night and I and the 2 other people I watched it with were really let down. We knew that the beginning was said to be slow but nothing actually happened until the last 20minutes of the 80 minute film. I have to say that it is the second worst film I have seen, ever! I understand that you enjoyed it but I think it takes a certain person to like this movie-maybe you have a large attention span!
Elephant, the elegant and unsettling movie from Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho,Good ... more
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 f...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Elephant, the elegant and unsettling movie from Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho,Good ... more
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 f...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Inspired by the tragic events at Columbine High School, Elephant won both the Palme D'Or ... more
and Best Director prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Shooting on location in an everyday American High school, with a cast primarily made up of students from...
![Elephant [DVD] [2004]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78512281.jpg "Elephant [DVD] [2004]")
Jun 22nd, 2004
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