Elephant Reviews

Una simple pero experimental y curiosa cinta que expone el antes y durante los sucesos durante panoramas diferentes, la famosa matanza del '99. Será su máxima virtud y sacrifica elementos consecuentes en favor de este, por lo que muchos les encantará y muchos les frustrará.

Initial Thought: I have been pondering the idea of this movie for several years. I still to do this day hear about it or see it on lists. So finally I decided to check it out. To hear that this is improvised should make for a truly different experience for this kind of film.

Characters/Acting: Most of the actors here weren't actors at the time and even go by the first names in the movie. Among them the only ones I definitely recognize are Alex Frost and John Robinson. The acting is fairly decent given that most of the people here aren't actors. I like that it shows more people are bullied rather than just the shooters. It just shows that some people aren't as influenced by society and have a higher tolerance than others. Some of the characters reactions to things were pretty awful. One guy gets shot and the teacher acts like he must be playing! I mean up until the shooting the performances weren't bad and then bam you suddenly have some shoddy performances. Also why do we have a random named character that pops up ten minutes before it's over? He has no value to the story. He doesn't leave the school and ends up trying to sneak up on of the shooters to immediately get shot. This is literally all he does. I felt some characters really didn't add much to the story. Then again you can't make everyone be a fleshed out character. I wondered what happen to a few characters who had unseen fates. I'm sure it's obvious, but I still kind of wondered.

Story: We see a typical day in a high school. The only thing is that this day will end up going extremely downhill for the students. I have to say this will be a truly heavy watch. This kind of reminds me of a movie called 2:37 where we get to learn about multiple characters and seem some of the same interactions happen from different perspectives. This incorporates the reasoning behind such actions as being the effect of bullying and violent video games. There are a few continuity errors like a seen without a couch suddenly has one moments later. A few things here didn't make a whole lot of sense. People get shot with only exit wounds and not entries. It looks very odd given how much blood is seen. The guns also sound odd and seem to shoot without a flash at some points. Some of this reminds me of a two part episode of Degrassi. The ending was a bit unexpected and then it just goes all ambiguous on you.

Directing/Writing: Gus Van Sant takes this subject head on as the director and writer. I am quite familiar with him as I've enjoyed Good Will Hunting, Milk, and Promised Land. He did however piss me off with that horrible Psycho remake. It tries to be an arthouse approach to a difficult subject. The script is good. The issue is with the effects and make up. If you are going to do a film like this you have to make sure everything isn't going to look or sound awful. It pretty much takes the heaviness away. I sure do hope that the "actors" are the ones who chose their reactions and not what the script asked for. If otherwise shame on you Gus Van Sant.

Final Thought: This is a pretty controversial topic. While the subject here is heavy I didn't think it was executed as well as it could have been. It has quite a few errors throughout. I'm sure if they ironed the whole thing out it could have been amazing. For the subject dealt with I can see why it's been a popular film. The way everything is executed is so poor though. I honestly didn't think it was all that good. It was a huge disappointment. To think this won at Cannes is unbelievable. I don't recommend this at all.

"Elephant" is an interesting experiment, which could benefit from some editing and stronger acting. The ambiguity that surrounds the motivations of the killers is a frustrating, but perhaps relevant, critique of the shroud of confusion that surrounded the Columbine killings.

Parents, teachers, bullies, and the media were all held under scrutiny, and many school shootings later, we're still holding candles in the dark as to what motivates these kids to kill their peers- and themselves- in a time that seems rich with possibility.

The film is presented in a series of vignettes of students habitating a generic high school on the day of a Columbine-like massacre. Using nonprofessional actors and a handheld camera, the film recounts the a day in the kid's lives- for many, their last- slowly following them around the school as they interact with their teachers and each other.

The stand-out actors here are Alex Frost, as Alex, the apparent leader in the duo of shooters, and Matt Malloy as Mr. Luce, the apathetic principal. Most of the acting (unsurprisingly, considering the inexperience of the cast) is rather stiff and listless, while attempting to be 'real' and 'natural.' The stillness of the performances are rather confusing considering the extreme nature of the subject matter.


The characters are relatively interesting, not worth falling in love with but worth observing and studying. The most compelling character for me was Michelle (Kristen Hicks) a geeky student who deals with the bullying of her peers and the apathy of her teachers. Self-conscious of her legs, Michelle is told to tough it out and forced to wear shorts by an uncaring gym teacher.

The kids' individual dramas are made obsolete, a least for a little while, by the bigger drama of the shooting. This film is SLOW. 20% of the film is spent following the students, watching the back of their heads with intent interest. I would not recommend this movie to people who like fast-paced cinema. To people who are tolerant of slowness and stillness, I would not necessarily recommend it either.

"Elephant" is more an experiment than a full-fledged feature, and people out for entertainment should just forget it. But what do you expect with a Gus Van Sant indie movie about a school shooting? Sicko (cough.) Anyway, I feel pretty neutral about the feature as a whole. Some people might find it to be a film-student's dream, others will be bored silly. Though I may dismiss it, I will not forget it either.

I'm going to start this review off by saying that the first time I watched this was when I was 15. Me and a friend were having a sleepover, and we stayed up all night watching IFC when it came on. We had no idea what to expect, only that it was set in a high school (so we could relate) and it had a hot blonde boy in it. Needless to say this film is what made me interested in film study, and media in general.

What a powerful film. Really. It doesn't hold back. It doesn't fluff it with pillows and unicorns. It's just straight brutal.

I also love how watching it you feel like your part of the school, like your 16 again, waltzing the halls.

The cinematography is very indie and was a totally new style that I had never seen before (when I was 15). It caught my attention enough to infulence me to spend the next 6 years of my life (and counting) studying, making and watching film.

I love how the film shows you a broad view of a select number of students and takes you into the life of them, even if it's only for a few hours. The film lets you relate to them whilst reminising about the bullshit you went through in high school. It's a familiar feeling, which makes the long a drawn out shots not so hard to watch.

Another point is that the characters, and the actors have the same names. I think this is a brilliant idea even if some people think it's uncreative. I can see it would give the actors the feel that they really are in this situation by using their real first names. Which in turn makes their acting more realistic. It's also an easy way to effectivly use names that are common, names that you would typically see in public high schools.

This film also has one point where it makes me furious. They spend 90% of the film making you attached to these characters, and in 5 minutes completely massacres them. At first my reaction is like 'dlskhjlksdjgl;sdf WTH!' but I thought about it and came to the conclusion that it was such a good move on Van Sant's part.

These characters, they are not superheroes. They are normal average people with interests and flaws and everything that makes up me and you. They have stories, and lives filled with memories and experiances. They desevre to be heard just as much as us. When it comes to something like school shootings, they are not special. They are Scared, confused, weak and mortal. The reality of it is that an unarmed high schooler is nothing compared to a high schooler armed with bombs and guns. No matter how much you don't want to see the character you connected with the most not get hurt, it's just not logical. Emotionally or physcially, every single person you see in this film gets hurt.

Ok I think I'm done now.

Lastly, the only thing I saw a flaw with was the fact that you can never buy the guns that those boys did over the internet like that. It was too easy, and just not realistic. I had my ex marine friend tell me that fact.

This is nice example how to be inspired by Europan cinematography. I'm talking about the one shot scenes, which is always mark of a good director. It's logical because it's harder to do a scene, which longs 1-2 minutes than many few seconds' scenes instead. Sometimes, directors do this just because to show how good they are. But in this film there are special scenes called following shot. It means that the camera follows persons behind or along with them. This was first used by Bela Tárr (Hungarian) in Satan's tango and have become very popular. Of corse, I don't want to doubt creativity of Gus Vant Sant. Doing half of Elephant by following shots was great and effective idea. It just shows, that Gus Vant Sant can do really good movie.

Ever since I have heard about this flick, I became really eager to check it out. Indeed, Gus van Sant is a very good director and I always had a weak spot for his work but, to be honest, not all his movies have been completely successful (As a matter of fact, ‘Good Will Hunting’, his biggest success at the box-office, is actually rather overrated in my opinion). Fortunately, this movie really didn’t disappoint me. Indeed, basically, it is quite a shocking story told in a very particular way and you might find this approach rather unappealing but I thought it was in fact actually quite fascinating. I'm pretty sure that many viewers would find this movie frustrating because, while watching this, you have so many questions coming up in your mind but, eventually, no real answer at all is provided by this movie. Personally, I really loved the fact that you had to think about the movie and the events themselves on your own to find yourself the answers. I have to admit it though, the whole thing is terribly cold and distant (a little bit like Michael Haneke’s work as a matter of fact) so it is an acquired taste. To conclude, I thought it was a really fascinating flick and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Gus Van Sant’s work.

Having watched this film I have to say that I'm disapointed with it. I liked the fact that unknown actors and actresses were used and that they actually used their first names in the film, but the acting (IMHO) didn't seem very realistic at all, but maybe thats because I'm not an American. I didn't really like the camera work, especially the gliding after a character walking down a corridor, that just felt a bit weird to me. Also, later on in the film some of the actions of the characters just didn't make sense. I won't spoil anything here though. ;)

I get the film's impact and of course it does explore a serious issue, but maybe it's just one of those films that are set in a culture you need to have experienced to understand fully. This film is packed full with teenage problems, but it gives a detached view from the characters' actions and feelings and we never really find out why they are the way they are.

Don't let me put you off, it is an ok film, and it's one that you just need to make your own mind up about.