Review: Elephant

Lately Gus Van Sant’s films have been focusing on the reality of things instead of providing answers. Elephant was his first film of this type before making Last Days (loosely based on the death of Kurt Cobain) and Gerry (about two men traveling in the desert with no food or water). After watching Elephant I think you’ll recognize how different, and dare I say innovative, his movies have become since Finding Forrester and Good Will Hunting.

The basic plot of Elephant is based on the Columbine shootings that took place in 1999. I don’t know the gritty details of Columbine but to the untrained eye Elephant could resemble any school shooting that has taken place lately, too. It follows the lives of several characters as they live out what looks like the average school day. Even though the film is roughly an hour and twenty minutes long it only spans the several minutes leading up to the shooting itself excluding a few scenes. Each character has their own niche in school, whether that is good or bad. There is the school photographer, the nerdy girl who is self conscious about how she looks, a group of purging girls, and so on.

The story begins with John driving to school with his father who is intoxicated at the time. This ends up getting John in trouble for getting to school late. For the most part, that is where his story ends. You then learn more about the characters that come into contact with John or are killed later on in the movie. He becomes the constant as the movie progresses. I personally found myself at ease when the camera was following John because I had more of an idea of his timeframe during the events that I did with the other characters.

Van Sant didn’t try to analyze why people find the urge to shoot up a school or be a hero. That’s exactly what the media attempted to do right after Columbine and failed miserably at. Neither killer listens to heavy metal or dresses like a “goth,” completely debunking theories that killers must listen to Marilyn Manson — at least in this world. Instead, Alex (one of the shooters) enjoys playing the piano which resonates as background music leading up to the shooting. This is the main reason why Elephant is so appealing.

Often times people feel that so-called indie films feel pretentious but Elephant is the complete opposite. It doesn’t attempt to explain why these things happen and that makes it even more engaging. It does leave you with one lasting message: Don’t always believe what the media tells you. That ends up being a better lasting message than any made up conclusion someone could come up with.