rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2003
Directed by Gus Van Sant; produced by Dany Wolf; written by Gus Van Sant
Starring Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson, Elias McConnell, Jordan Taylor, Carrie Finklea
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'Elephant' is a movie that simply watches one day on a high school. That day
is a tragic day. Like that one day on Columbine a lot of innocent people
will be killed by two boys with motives we will never know. This is the
strength and weakness of this movie. The movie watches, nothing more. A
couple of characters are introduced, some die and some survive by pure luck.
We do not get any reasons, nothing is explained, nothing or no one is
blamed. In my opinion I think this is the best approach and 'Elephant' has
become an interesting piece of cinema.
I am afraid that most audiences will not agree. There is no real story. With
long tracking shots we follow a character, go back in time a little, and
again with long tracking shots we follow another character. All this leads
up to the killings. Since the movie just wants to show a dramatic event we
do not see exaggerations. The killings are not shown in action sequences but
simply as what they are; cold blooded murder. The best example of this comes
from a character named Benny. He helps a girl escape through a window and
goes back into the school. Minutes later he approaches one of the two
killing boys from behind and the exact opposite of what we normally would
see in a Hollywood film happens.
Although the movie is not engaging for most people I think it is a good
movie. Without big stars and without an explaining screenplay the movie
works as it should work. It is something that has happened and could happen
again. In a way it is as simple as that.