Elephant (2003)
Written and Directed by Gus Van Sant
80 minutes.
Gus Van Sant’s Elephant is one of most chilling films of recent years. Based on the shootings at Columbine High School, Van Sant has us follow several students during the day of such a shooting. Using very long takes and smooth camera movement, the viewer almost feels as if they are spying on the students. We seen the day from a variety of perspectives and in the end we witness the shooting done by two troubled teens. The film won the Palme D’Or and Best Director at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, beating out Dogville, which everyone thought would take those prizes.
I was a high school senior in 1999, the year of the shooting at Columbine. I remember coming home and watching the end of the attack live on television. I remember going to school the next day and feeling very strange. We talked about it in some of my classes, why they did what they did, how to prevent it from happening. I suppose those are the same issues one would want Elephant to deal with, but it really does not. The film gives few, if any answers as to why things happened. It simple shows us how it happened, how an ordinary day in the lives of these young people was suddenly changed for the worse.
This is the only way one could make a film about school shootings. We can talk and debate forever on why students bring guns to school and kill others, but in the end the only people who really know why, are the shooters themselves. We are just witnesses to the events as they unfold. The film gives no excuses or reasons. Or does it? Near the end of the film we discover that the two shooters are also gay lovers. I found this to be a very odd twist, especial coming from such a well-known gay director like Van Sant. Did they shooters kill because they were not accepted as being gay? Some who are anti-homosexual could use that as a reason; they killed because they were gay and gays are not normal. In the end I think Van Sant added that simply to add it. It was another part of the story, albeit a strange one, especially when one kills the other out of nowhere.
Technically, this is a simply made film that any filmmaker could make. But, that takes none of Van Sant’s credit away. The camera movement is wonderful. The performances, by non-acting real high school students, is amazing. The pacing is slow, but it builds. The audience knows what is coming and the closer it gets the sicker you stomach feels. The title comes from the saying that there is an elephant in the room and no one is talking about it, there can be many interpretations as to what Van Sant thinks the elephant of this film is. This is a powerful film that brings with it great thought. In this day and age, Elephant is a very important film.
Grade: A
Written by David Bohnert
Copyright 2004