Elephant

Trailer—Elephant

As someone who was in high school during the Columbine shootings, I feel a connection and sensitivity to the events, and to what it was like to be a teenager at that particular time. This was when people first took to obsessing over violence in video games, and song lyrics were being blamed for kids' bad behavior. I feel that this movie only contributes to the paranoid, "look how messed up kids are today" feeling among masses of parents and legislators, and fails to present any actual insight. It is a voyeuristic dramatization of tragic events without the complexity of building fully developed characters, offering hope in the midst of despair, or even taking a fresh look at things we have all seen before.

Many people hated it, now I know why. This is not for everyone. Strangely shot and strangely structured, it's a novelty item all the way. Gus Van Sant has freed himself from every bit of possible mainstream blood that he still carried inside him, and made this slap in the cheek to everybody who thought they could preview what kind of movie this would be. Not a morality tale, not an easy readable message, not at all. This movie is as curious and strange a movie can be. And it's one of the most original and exquisite pieces of movie language I have seen this year. Many will hate it, I just gaped in awe to the burst of such silence.

A day in the life of a group of average high schoolers. However today will be no ordinary day as something horrific occurs at the school, affecting all their lives. Great drama by Gus Van Sant. Chillingly and harrowingly shows the terror and stark reality of high school shootings from victims' perspectives. Very gritty and plausible. Very topical too. The Columbine shooting was only 3-4 years earlier and since then there have been numerous school shootings in the USA. Quite chilling in that it could easily depict one of those shootings.