Review: 'Elephant' Is Fictional Columbine

[BluesBear]

Thu Oct 23, 8:38 AM ET

By CHRISTY LEMIRE, AP Entertainment Writer

During the closing credits of "Elephant," after the names of the kid who played Punk Guy (Wolfgang Williams), the dolly grip (Brian Lawson) and the gaffer (Bruce "Sarge" Fleskes) comes the obligatory disclaimer that this film is a work of fiction, and that any similarity to real people or events is purely coincidental.

Yeah, right.

"Elephant" is director Gus Van Sant (news)'s depiction of a seemingly ordinary day at a seemingly ordinary high school. But during its climax — when two camouflage-clad students walk around campus, killing their classmates one by one with the arsenal they've assembled — it's impossible not to think of what happened during an extraordinary day in 1999 at Columbine High School.

The film, which was a surprise winner of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival (news - web sites), is so similar to the events of that day and so graphic, it could be seen as an attempt to exploit the shootings for entertainment or shock value.

Michael Moore (news) went further: He showed the actual surveillance footage from the high school in his 2002 documentary "Bowling for Columbine," which relentlessly sought a solution to the problem of school shootings. (That segment, by the way, was the most moving part of his entire film.)

Van Sant, who previously explored troubled youth with "My Own Private Idaho," "Drugstore Cowboy" and even the feel-good "Finding Forrester," seems less interested in pointing fingers; he'd rather let the events of the day play out, and challenges us to interpret answers for ourselves.

And there are no easy answers. Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen) seem to be misfits. The popular kids tease them. They're into guns, they play violent video games and watch a TV show about Hitler. Before going on their shooting spree, they share a tentative kiss. All of this — or none of this — could have driven them to kill.

Van Sant also challenges us simply to pay attention, employing the same extreme minimalism that made his film "Gerry" — in which Matt Damon (news) and Casey Affleck (news) trekked through the desert and barely spoke — so agonizing.

This time, Van Sant uses the technique much more powerfully. With long tracking shots, he follows several students as they walk across campus, through the halls, into classrooms, into the bathrooms. Harris Savides' crisp cinematography heightens the sense of realism.

The "actors" are actual students who helped write the script, which was largely improvised and consists of long stretches of silence. This can get boring, but that's necessary if Van Sant is going to fling himself fully into the conceit of depicting a day in the life.

The approach is oddly riveting, though — not unlike the inexplicable pull of reality television — because the tension builds slowly, and you know what's going to happen at the end of the day.

But first, Van Sant lulls us with the rhythms of routine.

Easygoing Eli (Elias McConnell) develops pictures for his photography class. The popular couple, Carrie (Carrie Finklea) and Nathan (Nathan Tyson), sign out to have lunch off-campus. Brittany, Jordan and Nicole (Brittany Mountain, Jordan Taylor and Nicole George) pick at their salads and make plans to go shopping before stopping in the girls' bathroom to make themselves throw up.

That bulimia scene is so very "Heathers" — a movie that satirized teen angst and high school terrorism in 1989 — and which today would have really seemed exploitative. "Elephant" doesn't.

"Elephant," a Fine Line Features release, is rated R for disturbing violent content, language, brief sexuality and drug use, all involving teens. Running time: 81 minutes. Three stars out of four.


original story


Has anyone seen this movie? Does it focus on the personalities and events that lead up to the climax or does it take the easy route and just blame the guns? Is it more realistic than that psuedo-documentary "Bowling"? or is it just more anti-gun propoganda?

 

[Justin]

Hmm...Before Harris and Klebold went on their rampage they left a video-taped note. In part of it they talked about how they hoped that their massacre would be made into a movie by someone like Spielberg or Tarantine.

Way to go, Gus. You just gave two mass-murdering psychopathic mouthbreathers their posthumous wish.

Jerk.

Oh, and your remake of Psycho sucked.

 

[Standing Wolf]

It was shot for the monkey see, monkey do crowd.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Like Col. Dave Grossman said, the rate of violence is directly proportional to the violence protrayed in the media.

 

[Travis McGee]

4V50 Gary: Grossman's "On Killing" is MUST reading. I don't agree with all of his theories, but most of what he says must be read to understand today's violence-prone kids. Films like "Kill Bill" and video games are stripping away the normal human reluctance to kill fellow humans.

In any American CW2, there will be atrocities beyond belief. The Godless nihilistic tattoo-necked pierce-faced crowd will slaughter without feeling anything but a little thrill.

Matt

 

[Daniel T]

It doesn't take the media or tatoos for "atrocities beyond belief" to be committed. There is a lot of God and very little media in the Middle East, for example.

I guess it's just easier to blame the "teevee" for all of societies' ills.

 

[Balog]

As a (former) history major, I'm always amused by the cries of "We've become so much worse than we used to be!" Depends on what you're comparing. In some places in South America, Indians were hunted with dogs up until the 1930's. Ancient Rome killed thousands for entertainment and in celebration and remembrance of the dead. Many of the primitive cultures around the world tortured their enemies and consumed their bodies. The Nazis. The Communists. Imperial Japan. The Spanish had both the Inquisition and the conquistadors, neither of whom could be described as "Godless". I could go on.
But I hear you saying, "But that's not America!" Even ignoring the Indians; there was an "extermination order" in IIRC Missouri regarding Mormons, many places in the South tolerated torturing and lynching blacks for years after the War Between the States, and speaking of that war have you ever studied Sherman's march to the sea?
People have never been all that reluctant to kill each other. Having tattoos on one's neck or jewelry in one's face is not a symptom of "Godless nihilism" which btw is as redundant as saying Godless atheism. Statements that blame humans natural depravity on video games, music, and movies is blissninny-ism at it's worst.

Edit for typo

 

[Mark Tyson]

Grossman's book was great. Did you read the appendices? He makes some comments on how the increase in violence is certainly not due to increased lethality of weapons, as the blissninnies claim.

He even used Soldier of Fortune magazine as one of his sources! That's got to set the blissninnies off.

As for the role of media/video game violence in crime, I think the jury's still out. It's true that the country has always been violent. It's also true that many law abiding people like violent video games and movies. But there are specific cases of individuals or even groups imitating movies - for example, the increase in illegal street drag racing that took place after the first fast & furious movie. Of course this does not justify any form of censorship in any way whatsoever - the makers of this content are not responsible for the evil things people do. People find justification for violence in the Bible as well. Grossman doesn't suggest that, but he does suggest some kind of informal social pressure for less media violence.

 

[Justin]

You

Have

Got

To

Be

Kidding.

I read Grossman's book a couple of years ago, and the only conclusion that I could draw from it is that Grossman is a pseudo-intellectual hack who's trying to pass himself off as an expert so he can get face time on the TeeVee and make the public speaking route.

While some of his hypotheses seemed to hold some merit, they were blatantly simplistic. Of course if you set up a 'ring the bell, get some drool' Pavlovian system it's going to cause the subject to get a positive reaction from something they otherwise might not.

But then he goes off and posits that maybe its high time for Mr. Gooberment to step in and regulate entertainment 'for the sake of the children.'

I'm sorry, but I no more want the government regulating the type of entertainment I watch than I want them regulating how many rounds the magazine in my firearm holds.

And what happens after all violence is taken out of movies, video games, books and television?

Yeah, they'll tell you you can't shoot at human silhouette targets at IDPA, IPSC, or CAS events.

I'm sorry, but Grossman is nothing more than the latest in a long string of charlatans who've been preaching to the equivalent of a modern-day anti-media Women's Temperance Union. Of course, this is nothing new. In the early 1900's Penny Bloods- cheap paperback novels that often dealt with salacious topics were blamed for society's ills. Then in the 1950's comic books were blamed for the downfall of American children with the publication of Fredric Wertham's 'Seduction of the Innocent.' The only difference Grossman has exhibited is his willingness to wrap his writings in psycho-babble pseudoscience.

If there truly is any justice in this world, Grossman will be relegated to the trash heap of junk science. As far as I'm concerned Grossman is to the 1st Amendment what Sarah Brady is to the 2nd.

 

[ModIMark0]

Justin,
You referred to the pulp fiction of the the early 20th century as 'penny bloods'. Those are the same as the 'penny dreadfuls', I presume?
I also recall that in the 1950s there was a type of joke that had a title similar to 'penny blood' or 'penny dreadful'. It was quite tasteless and one example goes aong these lines:
Junior: Mommy, why do I keep walking around in circles?
Mother: Shut up Junior, or I'll nail your other foot to the floor.

I recall this merely because in a book on Ed Gein there was mention of the sudden appearance of these tasteless jokes at the time that Gein was caught, though there was no mention of it being a cause for his behavior. I can only guess that it was the author's desire to put some disturbing general cultural trends or phenomena into the book as background.

 

[Justin]

MIM0-

After doing a quick internet search, it would appear that Penny Bloods and Penny Dreadfuls are pretty much the same thing.

I can only guess that it was the author's desire to put some disturbing general cultural trends or phenomena into the book as background.

More than likely. It makes for good copy, even though correlation is not a sign of causation.