User reviews

This movie is a fictional story, but it is essentially a retelling of the Columbine High massacre. It only spans maybe an hour in time, but it coves the points of view of a lot of people, from victims to bystanders to the murderers themselves.

It's a particularly important piece because of its storytelling style. Van Sant has the camera follow one character at a time, on the day of the murders, and lets the story tell itself. It is about as neutral as one can get, really. Van Sant doesn't use foreshadowing, he doesn't frame any character up as a particular archetype, he doesn't play ominous music, and the dialogue is about as inane and high school-ish as you can get, very realistic actually. There are no jokes, and relatively few scenes designed for maximum shock effect. That's the whole point: the situation was a normal high school day, and the very events, regardless of how you paint them, should be as shocking as anything. All the while you're asking yourself, "How can this possibly lead to a massacre? These are all normal kids," which faithfully recreates the tone of morning leading up the unexpected real life events.

If you're looking for a conventional movie with a clear beginning, middle, end, good and bad guys, glorified heroism and demonized violence, you won't like this movie, it's not a made for TV special, it's closer to an art film.

Some people have expressed anger at the movie, accusing it of some sort of liberal Michael Moore anti-2nd amendment sympathies or heavy handed preaching. Having seen it I can't possibly understand what they're talking about. My suspicion is that they're seeing what they want to see. And that leads me to wonder just what a good movie about Columbine would look like, in their opinions. To me, this is it.

"Safety is a big disguise that hides among the other lies" (Hüsker Dü, Divide and Conquer, Flip Your Wig, 1985).

Generally I don't go much into Gus Van Sant's stuff. I have only a vague recollection of "My Own Private Idaho" (1991). "Will Hunting" (1997) was highly overrated while "Psycho" (1998) was a waste of time and money. That said, "To Die For" (1994) had a staggering Nicole Kidman and some critics may have slated Van Sant's most recent effort "Last Days" (2005), it stands out as a palatable and even, valuable piece of work. "Elephant" (2003) which deservedly pocketed the Golden Palm at the Cannes festival in 2003 is perhaps the finest hour in all his career.

In 2002, Michael Moore, one of the most eloquent prototypes of the committed director had shot a documentary, "Bowling for Columbine" with a thorny and prickly topic since it dealt with the selling of guns in America and their consequences. Moore went beyond his subject to construe the problem of violence linked with guns in America. I read in a French newspaper pieces of information which sent shivers down my spine: at least 100 000 teenagers go to school with a gun and between 1997 and 1999, the USA knew a dozen of deadly slaughters in high schools. Van Sant's flick is a perfect illustration of both Moore's documentary and one of the major American plagues revolving around guns although "Columbine" is never explicitly mentioned in the film. It also offers a deeply pessimistic view of a vulnerable American youth.

Van Sant's film hits its stride from the first minutes. The introduction presents John who goes to his high school with his alcoholic father (acted by Timothy Bottoms who thirty years ago acted Johnny in Dalton Trumbo's excruciating "Johnny Got His Gun", 1971). The fact that John's father is alcoholic speaks volume about the delicate stance American youth finds herself. Then, as soon as John arrives in the high school, Van Sant's directing works wonders. The pace of the movie is haunting and hypnotic. To stay back and modesty are his formula keys. He opposes majestic travelings with static shots. The first device is favored for several functions: Van Sant's camera follows several high school students from behind them (a little like Stanley Kubrick follows his astronauts in certain sequences in "2001: a Space Odyssey", 1968 even if one can deem the comparison as far-fetched!) like a benevolent angel but also to make the audience share that impending tragedy waits around the corner. One could also argue that these travelings help to underscore how much these days are ordinary, humdrum, even empty. They also bestow a familiar place with a eerie side with these long corridors dimly lighted. As for static shots, they help to capture his young interprets' thoughts and how they feel in the high school. It's either blossoming like for Elias, keen on photography or either traumatic for Michelle: she nearly doesn't say a word but her silence speaks louder than words. Besides, dialogs don't have much importance, these high school students speak about all and nothing. Especially, senses express themselves. Then, to give more weight to the fact that each teenager has its own perception in this high school, Van Sant chose a bunch of teenagers he follows individually. It doesn't matter if we see a sequence again a couple of times, the standpoint is different according to the followed young person. Ultimately, Van Sant's directorial style has something aerial coupled with a documentary side which pervades a major part of the film.

But today, tragedy dangerously lurks. Alex and Eric go to the high school to shoot down several of their classmates. The murders are shot with a certain remoteness behind the killers' backs and in some moments, Van Sant prefers the off-camera illustrating Alfred "Hitch" Hitchcock's golden rule: "horror is more heinous when it's suggested". Facts are here, causes aren't. At this level, Van Sant only skims over them and raises the inklings about what may have urged the two boys to act. It can be social or academic problems. The first apparition of Alex places him in a chemistry lesson and he's a little apart from the other students whom some laugh at him. Alex, a scapegoat? Then, just before Eric kills one teacher, he says facts to him that give ideas about the relationship he may have with him. But also, their parents are often absent, they play violent video games, they watch a documentary about Nazism... Up to the viewer to try to decipher the slayers' motives.

Symbols are also Van Sant's forte: recurring images of a cloudy sky and when Michelle is killed, blood spreads on the books. Guns at my school, indeed.

More than acted, it's nearly lived by these non-professional actors whose roles fit them like a glove. Van Sant had fostered improvisation among them, it paid off well.

The depiction of a vulnerable American youth in prey to the major plagues of her country, especially violence linked with guns, the fearless "Elephant" is this and more. See it any costs!

(Caution: this is one of those movies that its best not to read about before you see it. Not because there are major plot points to spoil or twists, but because you'll be more impressed by it if you discover it for yourself. So much as i'd love for you to read what i have to say about it, please come back afterwards!)

This film unfolds with the delicate beauty of a flower. Van Sant has made so much commercial rubbish of recent years (Finding Forrester, Psycho, Good Will Hunting), that you forget what a surprising, original artist he can be. The second most original project Van Sant has made, My Own Private Idaho, pales in comparison to the significance of Elephant. I haven't seen a movie in a long time where i've thought "this is an important film." This, at last, is an important subject for cinema.

You know you've seen an incredible film when while you're watching it you forget all the other movies you've ever seen, and say to yourself "ah, so THIS is cinema, i never knew!" And three days later you can't think about anything else.

The school in this film becomes a live universe. We follow one character around, spend some time with them, so we feel that what happens to them is happening to us, and we switch to someone else and spend some time with them. They all have names, they are all living breathing people. Through suggestion, Van Sant creates an atmosphere where we feel that this school is a living, breathing environment, a world unto itself, and we feel the separate humanity of each member of it. We feel Van Sant could just as well have chosen to follow any of the other thousand members of the school.

Twenty minutes into the film, one character heads out of the school and sees two boys with army gear on carrying big loaded bags. He asks them what they're doing, and one of them tells him: "Get the f**k out of here and don't come back. Some s**t's going down."

I've never seen such an original treatment of structure and style that serves the story. We follow each of these characters around the school in real time, so certain portions of each of their stories are given to us piece by piece. I won't say any more, and i don't want to spoil my memory of this beautiful film by putting it into any more words. Go out and see it. You'll never forget it.

I have been waiting for Elephant to hit theaters near Philadelphia and New Jersey for a good two months now. It finally arrived this past weekend in Philadelphia so I decided to make a day out of it and see Elephant along with some other Indies.

Elephant is basically a slow paced film, which follows many students in a day at their High School before a school shooting. Each character is followed in the film and is an average student you would find at a high school for example, the jock and the cheerleader girlfriend, the nerdy girl, the troublemaker, the dork who everyone picks on, etc. The movie seems extremely real as though this is your local high school and these are students that attend the school.

The director and writer of this film Gus Van Sant did a great job. The camera angles are the expertly shot. Gus Van Sant did a great job of following the characters in the film and building some characteristics of each character. The film for the most part is silent and this makes the film more effective. The movie rewinds many times to focus on its different characters.

The acting was great especially since everyone in this movie is a nobody and looks like the actors and actresses all just came out of high school. It made the film even more powerful that we did not see big teen cast in this film but just a bunch of nobodies.

The movie's ending is not a pleasant one and ends abruptly. The film has a very powerful ending and is very creepy. It makes you really think. I really liked it.

The film is marketed as a movie about a school shooting but I think it's more than just that. Its a very true life film that makes you question the people you attend school with. It is a film that very few will see but is one powerful film. Its ending alone being not a happy one is worth the price of admission alone. If you get a chance to see Elephant, I highly recommended it. My final rating is for Elephant is an 8/10

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.

In a school day in an American high-school, two deranged teenagers bring a couple of bags full of weapons and start shooting and killing the students and teachers. This tale of alienation and violence was visibly inspired in the shooting in Columbine, recently explored by Michael Moore in his awarded "Bowling for Columbine". However, on the contrary of the foregoing director that looks for guilts, reasons and motives for such an insane act, Gus Van Saint uses a hypothetical American high-school, with fictional characters, and two apparently normal teenagers to present this awesome low budget movie. He just shows how easy is to buy a weapon in USA. The unknown cast is magnificent, and the filming technique, with long sequences and traveling with the camera, is outstanding, giving the sensation of a documentary to the viewer. One point that I liked very much is that in most part of the movie, the viewer does not know who will be the responsible for the massacre, and many characters might be the future killer. For example, there is a girl very rejected by the class; there is a boy with a drunken father and unfairly punished by the principal; there are many other students with common problems of the adolescence. Gus Van Saint selects two of them to slaughter the others. Just for the records, another massacre has happened this week in a high-school in Bemidji, Minnesota. Considering that their country is constantly in war against others nations, being very explored by the media through powerful images on TV, and weapons are so easily achieved, I think that these might be two of the main causes for such behavior of a few problematic kids. I can not imagine how the parents of the victims of these two recent massacres in high-schools might feel watching this movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Elefante" ("Elephant")

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.

Lives that get entwined. Like in the everyday world. A pending tragedy, that of course, we all know it's going to happen. We become witnesses of all that.

ELEPHANT takes us closer to what ‘it would have been like' if we had been given the chance of being in Columbine just minutes before the tragedy. Long minutes, enough to get, somehow, to know better some of those involved. I think that's the reason for the long shots. We are able to accompany some of the students as they walk through the campus. ‘We' are with ‘them' for a while, but long enough to care about what's going to happen to them. That's without the need of lots of information (which anyway is absent from every character), but just because of the fact that we don't see them as strangers anymore.

And then we have also long shots of the landscape, that appear during the movie from time to time. The sky, the clouds, the campus…scenes sometimes beautiful, most of the times peaceful, without a care, as a remainder of a peace that is destined to be broken at any moment.

ELEPHANT is not exactly about ‘what happened' in Columbine (it doesn't pretend to portray actual events or characters) but it's about the same tragedy.The movie is not perfect, and it demands a lot of patience from the viewer, not only because it's slow, but because it doesn't pretend to explain or justify anything. It just wants you to be in contact with the students (even the killers) and let you see what happened and leave you with your own conclusions. The reactions could be mixed. I admit some people may find this movie pointless, even exploitive. But it worked for me, and somehow it put a face to those that we, indifferently, had come to know only with the generic name of ‘victims', in an event that, sadly, really happened.

9 out of 10.

The concept is known. Show everyday life and everyday people and let the violence erupt among them. It can be made more or less talented. In Gus van Sant's movie it's definitely talented.

You get confused for other reasons too, because the "Pulp Fiction"-manner is used, making you see the plot from different angles both regarding time and room. The tension is slowly growing. You are fully aware of what will happen and who's gonna die and who is gonna kill them, but still you feel very uneasy.

Great young American actors and the fact is, still is, that USA are making the best movies, commercial AND non-commercial.

The first hour of "Elephant" is almost unbearably suspenseful; the sense of impending violence is palpable, and with each student we meet, there's the realization that every one of them might not be alive by the time the film is over. Gus Van Sant is smart to avoid turning this into a heavily plotted film, full of interweaving story lines. He's also careful to avoid trying to direct our emotions in any overt way. He approaches the material with the coldness of a documentary film maker, which is the right approach for this kind of material. Over sentimentalizing the material or focusing too much on the sensational aspects would have dumbed down material that needs to be handled intelligently and objectively if it is to have any impact. And boy, does this film have impact.

The cinematography is beautiful, full of tracking shots that would make Stanley Kubrick proud. The incredible amount of time spent traversing the school building and grounds has the effect of making the school itself a character. And since the cafeteria, library, gym, playground and halls of this school will never look the same to the children who survive, how appropriate that the school itself is given a life of its own.

"Elephant" is a strange film to be sure. But it's also an important one. Of course, the movie preaches to the choir, like most important films do--probably the only people who will see this are those who least need to, but I'm certainly glad I did.

Grade: A

This is one of the most disturbing and sad movies I have ever seen. 90% of the 81 minutes run time are used, so you get to know the kids in their everyday school life. After you got to know them, in the last few minutes of the film happens what you know will happen. Since this film, while it's school and characters are fictional, is based on the real life events of the1999 Columbine High School massacre.

Still, it felt like an unexpected punch into the stomach, like actual physical pain since you got to know these children so well throughout the movie, and you know that this really happened. Time and time again, actually over time. In many different schools, to many different murdered children, while the pain of the traumatized families and incomprehensibility of such events is always the same. Their deaths of these movie characters feel real, and the disturbing feeling that this experience leaves you behind with might accompany you for several days.

It is a very well-made film that makes you strongly emphasize with the murdered children and their families. I encourage everyone to see it, and I never want to see it again.

It's a good movie, Great even. It doesn't do what most (or any) of the movies inspired/based off columbine do; show how bystanders of the future shooters were doing/what they did. I've seen majority of the movies inspired off columbine and the closest thing to what Elephant did was Duck! But even then it didn't fully go on in the "see how these people are" area. I've rewatched this movie over and over just to see how much thought was put into a movie like this.

Though yes theres tons of walking scenes it doesn't take away from the fact that Elephant was the movie to show what others were doing, the walking scenes were most likely purposely long.

And going into this movie already knowing the outcome of it makes it even more interesting, seeing how people are interacting with the future perpetrators, not knowing what they will do does show why students at Columbine were slightly shocked because "oh i just talked to him yesterday! He seemed fine!". Seeing how Alex and Eric didn't stick out too much and blended into the crowd is just a bit terrifying.

Elephant isn't my most favourite movie but in showing the accuracy of presenting how shooters blend into crowds without others knowing whats in their mind its number 1.

A well made and interesting movie that every should watch because its a important exercise

It tackles an heavy subject for all of us and its a hard one to experience that close, Gus is a genius and this is a well deserved winner of the palm de oro in Cannnes in 2003

That year was difficult for a lot of us, its post 9/11 and it hurts to experience sad but real histories like this one

Overall is well acted and a very hard to enjoy movie that you need to watch only one time and that's all, its well made and a serious subject and n the society that we lived in right now guys ok, interesting and well made.

There are movies which bring your emotions up -and there are movies, which you just have to watch as they are and admire the beauty of them.

This was the first film by Van Sant I saw and after seeing it, I watched all of his movies. Gerry (9/10) and Good Will Hunting (9/10 also) are excellent, fantastic movies, so to speak, but the rest of them are nothing compared to these.

Elephant is even much more. It's cinematography is beautiful, it just blew my consciousness up. Van Sant's long shots, when he just lets the camera move around carelessly, are pure genius. Basically the whole film consists of these long shots.

The reality Van Sant creates is realistic -and it is not. It's like a one beautiful day middle of ordinary order -and it is not. In the morning sun rises and the sky is beautiful. In the evening sun goes down and sky is still beautiful. Nothing has changed -except that it has.

Thank you Van Sant. Thank you for making definitely the best film of 21st century and one of the best ones ever made. Thank you for making me this masterpiece. 10/10.

Thank You.

Elephant is made by Gus Van Sant, in 2003. The film is based on an actual shooting rampage, Columbine High School massacre. There is no clear lead character, and the film depicts the shooting rampage from a variety of perspectives. More than half of the film consists of everyday parts.

I was shocked when I watched this film. There are three reasons.

First, the structure of film is interesting. The daily life part is very calm and realistic, and I can't believe that the incident happens after this. In fact, I felt sleepy during the daily life part. However, there is always a disquieting atmosphere in the part. The part of shooting rampage is tense. I think that the contrast is interesting. Second, the acting is very natural. The students being killed at their mercy against guns is so realistic that it is heartbreaking. The acting is also realistic in the everyday parts of their lives, where they enjoy, worry about, and live their lives. Third, the video making is also great. Its video is always dim. I think that it helps making the film disquieting.

This film makes me very bitter. However, I would like to see this film seen by many different people.

Great story and acting but was a little slow at times.

"Elefante" is an intimate, artistic and authorial film that portrays the columbine massacre, the feature film directed by Gus Van Sant uses contemplation and beauty to create a dichotomy with decadence, horror and the merciless.

The long, short, with little text, which mixes narrative lines has an exemplary neutral function of portraying what happened, without judging or glorifying, is a crude and metaphorical account of youth, their comings and goings. Showing how youth is a period that creates broken and confused minds and the consequences of the period, from the most banal to the most dangerous.

It is difficult to judge the performances of the film since we do not have professional actors, which helps to compose the feeling of truthfulness and fear throughout the film, its direction is very good, with a blue photograph, with beautiful sequential shots and using the camera as a character within the work.

"Elefante" is a great film, with a cruel and simple portrait that goes far beyond just exposing the massacre, the work seeks to transit in the conscience of all individuals. NOTE 8/10

What impressed me the most about this movie was it's uniqueness, unbiased nature, and simplicity. It depicts an extraordinary afternoon at one high-school, and brings this true story to life.

Going into it, I had no idea what this movie would be about, as the title is quite ambiguous. All I knew was that it came highly recommended. That being said, I am now left with a feeling of shock and awe as to what I've just seen.

The dialog flows extremely well, and the conversations that take place are generally what you could expect coming out of the mouths of ordinary high-school teenagers. Adding to the realism of this movie are the facial expressions from most of the actors, which was surprisingly well done.

Though some people may disagree, I enjoyed how the camera followed different students through their daily routine. It was a refreshing new take on character development. However, I do admit that some of these scenes dragged on for a bit longer than necessary.

Overall, this movie is an experience to remember, and because it's only a movie, you shouldn't feel to bad about watching it. Enjoy.