Elephant (2003)

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A review of this movie could easily evolve into a full fledged essay about school shootings in America, but we will have to consider that this is a work of art, a fictional depiction and not a documentary or, god forbid, a blueprint. The most disturbing aspect of the movie is the shallowness, carelessness and totally unempathetic way the perpetrators go about in preparing and then executing their hideous act with the support of a society in which mail order guns are a normality. Probably nobody goes unprepared into a sitting of this film since otherwise it would be difficult to understand why we would need to follow a bunch of high school kids going about their chores in a typical, if not mediocre high school setting with the cliques, weirdo's and good kids that have become the cliche's of American high school cinema. Of course that all changes when the shooting starts. For dramatic effect all kids that we had just gotten to accept for their juvenile awkwardness are popped off like rats in an abandoned house basement with a BB gun. Except it was an AR-15, which was then and since the tool of choice for instant infamy. Anger wells in this reviewer when considering the reason for inclusion of a dose of 'German weirdness' in the form of old Hitler footage and Beethoven sonata's as a hint of foreign influence to such atrocities instead of the innate sickness of American society. Nevertheless Gus van Sant could have followed the simple rule that movies that include the Moonlight Serenade are statistically more likely to attract higher review scores. Casting a final verdict on the movie should include the consideration if we learned anything, is it food for thought? When thinking about the fact the impact of the movie doesn't allow for a quick and snappy soundbite that the answer must be yes, it's highly disturbing, if this is how it is, it is terrible.

I rarely review films. But this time I'm going to do that. The film is bad, really bad. I can hardly call it a film at all. Those who give praises and high ratings to this film should be put in that school as a sacrifice for wasting our time. There is absolutely nothing watchable, nothing happens until the last 10 minutes of the film. Believe me, what you are going to watch is just a first- or third-person walk along the corridors of the school. Camera on a shoulder of an operator follows one person walking from behind for 5 minutes, then another person for 5 minutes. Most of the time these persons are silent, sometimes they give comments, sometimes they meet someone and the camera switches to someone else. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens. Why there are so positive reviews, what people like in this film is beyond my comprehension. After 10 minutes of this torture, I've already wanted to switch it off, but then I thought may be there will be something else, may be the characters will start acting or at least talking, it couldn't be that people give 7.2 rating for nothing! Another 10 minutes of walking along the corridors of the school, now the same scenes and same walking but with different people, scenes started to repeat themselves. I've started feeling like someone was fooling me into watching this camera play. Another 10 minutes of walking the same corridors again and again made me angry. I've eventually fast forwarded to the last 15 minutes to see what's all this fuss about. After suffering 5 minutes of the same walking, two students bought guns and armour on-line, received them by post, kissed each other in a shower, dressed like rembos and went shooting everyone in that school, just for fun, as they said to each other. I couldn't understand their motives, because the creators of this "film" did not care about any plot and about making the characters to talk. So, do you want to tell me that just because of the last 10 minutes of heartless shooting everyone in the school this film is worse 7.2 rating???

This movie... I probably shouldn't write this review, because I'm in English and I'm not ready to fully process what I just saw. This movie is not going to make you taller, it will not give you an A in all of your classes, it probably won't change your outlook on life, but in light of the world we live in now, with constant terrorist attacks and brutal violence between religions, beliefs, worldviews, etc. this is quite an interesting look at it... even 15 years later. Many people will swear that this movie says nothing and does nothing, but in all honesty, I think that's the point. It doesn't seem like anyone was trying to put a message in here, but it was more of an event. Think of it like someone just standing and saying, "Hello, I'm standing here." It does not try to justify what it does or what is shown and it does not try to condemn what is shown either. It's just THERE. Take it or leave it. The violence is disturbing, and I'm one of those people that watches gore and violence as much as possible for fun. I think it's because it seems real, more real than real life would present it, because just like the movie, it's just there. It's hard to say much about a movie that doesn't say much itself, but anyone that watches this will have one of two reactions, they'll love it or hate it. I happened to love it, and I hope anyone reading this does too.

A film that lacks the depth and tact to handle its very sensitive subject matter with the sort of respect it deserves. It fails to offer a fresh take on the incident and feels like it is simply using its high profile to create shock for shock's sake. Furthermore, the gross simplification of the idea that media and art can create violent tendencies in young people (an idea that was heavily debated at the time) is presented with possibly the single worst fake- video-game-in-a-film I have ever seen. In a scene where one of the shooters is playing a fake first-person-shooter game that looks like it was made in less than 20 minutes using MS Paint and the most basic 3D animating tool and is never expanded upon. This theme of media influence comes up once more throughout the film, where the shooters are seen watching and being seemingly engrossed by a documentary about Adolf Hitler and the power of propaganda in Nazi Germany. I can only assume this scene was intended to show that the school shooters were obsessed with Hitler and the Nazis, presumably meant to be shocking but in a way that came off as "oh, these kids are interested in the Nazis? Well, no wonder they would be capable of a thing like this".I'm generally a fan of Gus Van Sant's films but Elephant filled me with disgust and disappointment. I expected a more tactfully-considered and respectfully handled piece from a director whose work I typically find to be unique and thought-provoking. Instead I got voyeuristic and ill- conceived trash with forced shock value and an undeserved weight garnered only by the notoriety of the Columbine school-shooting.