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| you should be watching |
| Elephant. (2003) I finally got around to watching Gus Van Sant's "response" to the Columbine shootings. This morning, I'm not sure it was a great idea to view the film right before I had to go back to my high school. As with many Van Sant films, Elephant is a snapshot-style story laid out with extended shots, carefully-loaded atmosphere, and no-payoff storytelling. But what makes Elephant different than, say, the artistically-loaded My Own Private Idaho is the content: boys with tabula-rasa character development blast away their peers, PSP-style. Film and television rarely capture the essence of high school life. The simultaneous monotony and complex angst is difficult to capture within two hours. Van Sant chose to show us some moments of a few select students' day... the outsider girl shelving books in the library, the always-late-due-to-alcoholic-dad kid wandering the halls; the artsy-photographer-guy raising his camera to face his assassin. The violence is quick and unstoppable, which makes it more frightening. There is rhyme and reason, but there's no logical way to prevent the evil from coming in. In fact, the school is lighted with many bright windows and doors... and no safety. Van Sant doesn't judge-- nor does he give us any insight to anybody's character. Watching this film, knowing the thousands of high school kids I've known, I couldn't pass any judgement. There's no reason on the surface for anybody's actions-- even those who seem to be locked into their stereotypical high school roles. "Mean Principal Guy" doesn't get my sympathy when he gets gunned down, but it doesn't feel cathartic-- it just is. To me, the most disturbing element of this film was its realism in its detached-ness. Like watching kids play a videogame or laser tag, there's no real suspense. We don't expect anyone to escape. And the only real thing we can "feel" is our helplessness. |