Elephant (2003)
Perhaps it was the cafeteria food - sometimes that's all it takes to send a student on a one-way trip to Lunch Lady Land.
Starring: |
Eric Deulen |
Released By: |
Fine Line Features |
Released In: |
2003 |
Rated: |
R |
Reviewed By: |
Adam Mast |
Grade: |
B |
Elephant (which won best picture and director at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival) is a movie that is all at once frustrating and compelling. This should come as no surprise as the picture was directed by Gus Van Sant whose last film (the ridiculous Gerry) was completely frustrating.
Elephant takes place in a high school located in every-town U.S.A., giving us a glimpse of a typical day for regular teenagers as they pass the time mingling (and gossiping) between classes. Little do most of these bored kids know that by the end of the day, many of their lives will be plunged into a living nightmare.
Inspired by the awful events that occurred at Columbine High School, this experimental and mostly improvised film doesn't attempt to examine why that particular tragedy took place. Gus Van Sant realizes that we may never really know why Columbine had to happen, so he simply re-creates a fictional scenario, and the end result is provocative, terrifying and incredibly aggravating.
Adding to the overall effect, Van Sant opted to use real high school students as opposed to actors, and he puts them in a more than familiar setting and allows them to go about a normal school day. As was the case in Gerry, there are several long tracking shots, most of which show students walking through the endless halls of their campus. Sometimes there is nothing but silence while other moments assault your senses with these kids overlapping chatter about this and that - basically complaining about all the BS they have to deal with as a result of this parent or that friend . . . bla bla bla.
As expected, two crazed students enter the campus and open fire on unsuspecting teenagers. As far as we can tell, there isn't any real motivation for why they've decided to take this violent course of action (although one seemingly unnecessary moment illustrates that perhaps they were picked on because they were homosexual). They simply seem to be acting this way because they can, and that is the most horrifying notion of the entire film.
Some may argue that this movie doesn't seem to make any kind of point, particularly about Columbine. And to some extent I agree with this - Columbine was just a senseless and horrible massacre that never really should have happened, but it did.
On the other hand, I don't think there's any denying that Elephant makes a fair share of powerful statements. In one sequence, we are introduced to Benny, a character who appears to be a football player type. He's clearly in shape, and even though Benny never utters a single word, we are well aware of what kind of person he is. He's a hero of sorts, and this sets up one of the most powerful single moments in the film.
Unfortunately, Van Sant can't refrain from including moments that are downright laughable - including one in which three teenage girls walk into the restroom and purge themselves in unison. Scenes like this offset the realism and are ultimately unnecessary.
Still, it's hard to shake the overall effectiveness of this movie. It's haunting and relevant. And like last year's Irreversible, Elephant is a film that audiences will most likely admire for it's craftsmanship or just as likely totally hate.
Strangely, I'm on the fence with this one. I admired a lot of it, but felt that Van Sant certainly could have exercised a little restraint during a few sequences. I will say that it's far better than Gerry. At the very least, Elephant has something to say. And it's chillingly plain as day: that sometimes, bad things happen for no reason at all.
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