ELEPHANT A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2003 David N. Butterworth
*** (out of ****)
For much of "Elephant"'s scant 81 minutes, Gus Van Sant's camera simply observes. There are tracking shots down endless high school corridors as our personable teenage protagonists (excellently played by non-actors) go about their high school business--the strikingly blonde Jack, whose inebriated father returns him late from lunch again; aspiring photography major Elias, who snaps a happy couple strolling across campus; the ugly duckling Michelle, who stacks the library's shelves. "Elephant," shot from the vantage point of an unseen onlooker, has a documentary edge to it as we witness the students' mundane comings and goings. The film is choreographed with such precise detail that at times you wonder if what you just saw was, in fact, one continuous take (until you're distracted away from the resolution by the very fluidity of the piece including some engaging uses of sound and slow motion by the writer/director). Soon enough paths cross again and a little spark of recognition goes off--we're seeing the same actors, the same characters, from different angles, differing approaches. It's that whole "Rashômon" thing contemporized--diverse interpretations of the same data. And so it goes, kinetic, ever moving, shot on film not video giving the situations a vibrancy and vitality they don't really deserve. Into this setting hurry Alex and Eric, two purposeful teens bedecked in military garb, each carrying large duffle bags. One indicates to John, who's leaving a school building as they enter, that he doesn't want to stick around. Something bad is going down. Inspired by (or exploiting, depending on your viewpoint) the Columbine high school killings, "Elephant" climaxes in a raging torrent of gunfire. With such a deliberate, almost pastoral build-up, the shooting spree seems hurried and oddly truncated. I wanted to know more about what tipped the killers' hand (or is it simply, as Van Sant presents, the fact that they're gay, bullied, and Hitler fanatics?). That's "Elephant"'s ultimate cop-out, offering too little meaningful information and asking us to make sense out of it all. For senseless, random acts of violence never make sense, especially in a film that supposedly "never forgets."
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
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