The elephant in the room..
Gus Van Sant also directed one of the very best
films of the year in 2003. That film was called
'Gerry', and it starred Matt Damon and Casey
Affleck as two hikers wandering the desert,
utterly lost and hopeless. 'Elephant' also deals
with lost and hopeless souls, but this time set
in the lonely wilderness of American
high-school.
The movie tracks several students as they drift
in and out of classes and conversations on an
ordinary day. Van Sant employs long steadicam
tracking shots to follow these kids from
football & cheerleader practice to lunch time in
the cafeteria to the photographic lab to the
principal's office to the library. It all seems
so mundane and blisteringly normal as the
minutes wane away toward their impending doom.
The director's camera overlaps and retraces its
own steps as we see the minutes leading up to
the inevitable tragedy through various sets of
eyes. He allows us to see the interconnectedness
of some students and the distance and loneliness
of others. Van Sant also gives us insight into
the shocking calmness of the two would-be
killers on the morning of the event. They waste
away the morning playing games and practicing
the piano while they wait for an express mail
delivery. That delivery is their final piece of
the puzzle in their plan... a semi-automatic
rifle.
'Elephant' is a cold and unflinching film that
does not purport to have any answers. It merely
shows the event in a matter-of-fact manner, a
tactic that is more chilling than any attempted
explanation would have allowed.
The title refers to Alan Clarke's 35-minute BBC
film from 1989 about the violence of Northern
Ireland, which compared the chaos in the region
to a “metaphorical elephant in the room that no
one wanted to recognize.”
Although 'Elephant' is not particularly exciting
or funny or interesting, it is an important
film... one that should be seen by all incoming
high-school freshmen and all high-school
teachers. It is a sad reminder to all of us that
ignoring a problem will not make it go away. It
also suggests that ignoring a person will not
make them go away, nor will belittling them.
©
Written by TC Candler
Richard
Propes' Comment
Van Sant has
been stunning in the past five years or so, with
films such as this one, "Gerry" and "Last Days."
It is interesting to watch this film alongside
Uwe Boll's similarly themed "Heart of America"
from the same year. Doing so will make you
realize the absolute brilliance of this film. A
cast unknowns directed by a man whose integrity
has made him a leading voice in independent
cinema. "Elephant" is quietly haunting,
disturbing and, yet, sadly feels like just
another day in high school.
Jacob
Hall's Comment
N/A
