Post by StevePulaski on Jun 20, 2012 22:16:07 GMT -5
Rating: ★★★½
Elephant is coldly honest in its response and depiction to school shootings. Writer/director Gus Van Sant makes a bold and subtle statement saying that even if we follow the lives of various students and show a "typical" day-in-the-life story, there are still no answers, no catalysts, or any justification to why the events took place. By the end, after following the two shooters for a while, and on their operation, and listening to their plan of action, we are just as confused and as deprived of answers at the parents who heard the news that their son or daughter has been killed.
Gus Van Sant's little impressionistic gem of a movie captured the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival - the highest honor a film can receive at that respected festival. It paints a brutal picture of a high school in Portland, Oregon enduring another seemingly normal day, jammed with seemingly normal students, and a seemingly normal goal joined by all of them and their faculty; make it to the end of the day. It is cringe-inducing to say that many didn't.
Sant executes a deep, unbiased examination of teens at this high school, some of them kids dealing with the poor hand they've been dealt, some participating in school activities, some spoiled bulimic brats, some ostracized geeks, and many others. The two main kids in focus are Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen), two slackers who have encountered nothing but depression, boredom, and unfulfillable urgent desires since the day they entered high school. Their plan? Take a load of weaponry into the school and have a field day. Alex utters the coldest line in the picture before they begin the operation; "remember, just have fun."
What is powerful about the film is it paints school shootings like they are a recurring problem with no clear solution. These kids are just deeply troubled and they are scarred and hopelessly lost in their own little world. The confinement of the school walls are tedious, mundane, and very, very sickening to the soul, especially if inside those walls you are tormented and thrown aside. I'm not saying their actions were justified, but saying what the film is not.
Scenes in Elephant are mainly long, endless tracking shots in the third person view of a student, wandering the echoing halls of the school until reaching their desired destination or until the camera cuts to another angle or an entirely different location. This illustrates monotony in a fine way. As an upperclassman in high school, it truly showcases redundancy better, in ways words wouldn't be totally sufficient - a comment I rarely make, seeing as how I am a purist when it comes to cinematic dialog. Not to mention, as someone who usually comments on character development, or lack thereof, some will question why I don't nitpick Elephant for not having a lot. I believe this brings me full circle to the idea of impressionism. The purpose is to show us portraits, paintings, stills, or sequences and have us try and discuss them to figure out what they all mean. In order for this method of filmmaking to work, the director and writer must have an idea of direction. Showing us disjointed clips with bleeding naturalism, with an appalling lack of coherency and cohesion, much like in Jean-Luc Godard's Film Socialisme, one of the few films I openly despise, is a displeasing example of utilizing the method because it leaves all the weight to the viewer to try and piece the impossible puzzle together. It's clear that Gus Van Sant has a direction, a plan, and a significant style and knows how to apply it.
The title "Elephant" can stem from one of two things, or perhaps both. My immediate thought was the obligatory, "elephant in the room" saying, and that there is something bigger going on that no one has addressed yet. It's big, yet for some reason, has gone tragically unnoticed. Intense Googling has got me to another possible explanation; "an elephant never forgets." Maybe like how Alex and Eric never forgot the torment they received in school? Maybe Sant finds both meanings fitting? Or perhaps simple cliches like that don't even scratch the surface to certify the film's real meaning?
Starring: Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, and John Robinson. Directed by: Gus Van Sant.
Elephant is coldly honest in its response and depiction to school shootings. Writer/director Gus Van Sant makes a bold and subtle statement saying that even if we follow the lives of various students and show a "typical" day-in-the-life story, there are still no answers, no catalysts, or any justification to why the events took place. By the end, after following the two shooters for a while, and on their operation, and listening to their plan of action, we are just as confused and as deprived of answers at the parents who heard the news that their son or daughter has been killed.
Gus Van Sant's little impressionistic gem of a movie captured the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival - the highest honor a film can receive at that respected festival. It paints a brutal picture of a high school in Portland, Oregon enduring another seemingly normal day, jammed with seemingly normal students, and a seemingly normal goal joined by all of them and their faculty; make it to the end of the day. It is cringe-inducing to say that many didn't.
Sant executes a deep, unbiased examination of teens at this high school, some of them kids dealing with the poor hand they've been dealt, some participating in school activities, some spoiled bulimic brats, some ostracized geeks, and many others. The two main kids in focus are Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen), two slackers who have encountered nothing but depression, boredom, and unfulfillable urgent desires since the day they entered high school. Their plan? Take a load of weaponry into the school and have a field day. Alex utters the coldest line in the picture before they begin the operation; "remember, just have fun."
What is powerful about the film is it paints school shootings like they are a recurring problem with no clear solution. These kids are just deeply troubled and they are scarred and hopelessly lost in their own little world. The confinement of the school walls are tedious, mundane, and very, very sickening to the soul, especially if inside those walls you are tormented and thrown aside. I'm not saying their actions were justified, but saying what the film is not.
Scenes in Elephant are mainly long, endless tracking shots in the third person view of a student, wandering the echoing halls of the school until reaching their desired destination or until the camera cuts to another angle or an entirely different location. This illustrates monotony in a fine way. As an upperclassman in high school, it truly showcases redundancy better, in ways words wouldn't be totally sufficient - a comment I rarely make, seeing as how I am a purist when it comes to cinematic dialog. Not to mention, as someone who usually comments on character development, or lack thereof, some will question why I don't nitpick Elephant for not having a lot. I believe this brings me full circle to the idea of impressionism. The purpose is to show us portraits, paintings, stills, or sequences and have us try and discuss them to figure out what they all mean. In order for this method of filmmaking to work, the director and writer must have an idea of direction. Showing us disjointed clips with bleeding naturalism, with an appalling lack of coherency and cohesion, much like in Jean-Luc Godard's Film Socialisme, one of the few films I openly despise, is a displeasing example of utilizing the method because it leaves all the weight to the viewer to try and piece the impossible puzzle together. It's clear that Gus Van Sant has a direction, a plan, and a significant style and knows how to apply it.
The title "Elephant" can stem from one of two things, or perhaps both. My immediate thought was the obligatory, "elephant in the room" saying, and that there is something bigger going on that no one has addressed yet. It's big, yet for some reason, has gone tragically unnoticed. Intense Googling has got me to another possible explanation; "an elephant never forgets." Maybe like how Alex and Eric never forgot the torment they received in school? Maybe Sant finds both meanings fitting? Or perhaps simple cliches like that don't even scratch the surface to certify the film's real meaning?
Starring: Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, and John Robinson. Directed by: Gus Van Sant.