Written by: Gus Van Sant
Starring: Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson, Elias McConnell, Jordan Taylor, Carrie Finklea
Rating: [4/5]
The shooting at Columbine created such a shift in this country as it brought forth an epidemic that we still have not been able to quell. Truly one of the most horrific forms of violence imaginable, where children head to their institutions of learning and have to worry that one of their classmates will enter the school with the aim to harm them through the use of firearms. Elephant presents how this transpires on a particular day in such a harrowing manner that makes for a unique viewing experience.
On a particular day at school, various students arrive for another day of education. John (John Robinson) arrives concerned about his father, who’s battling with alcoholism. Other students also arrive with their own baggage they contend with, but all of it changes when two of their classmates arrive with guns and begin shooting indiscriminately.
Truly no other film like it, Elephant presents the details of a school shooting with a matter-of-factness that truly took me aback at times. The camera follows these characters but does so not in a way where we see much of their characterizations, but rather just perspectives of random students who are about to have their lives changed forever. We see the drama they have going on in their lives, but all of it will feel minuscule based on what will happen soon enough.
A purposeful repetitiveness occurs throughout the narrative as different events transpire that we see on multiple occasions, just through the eyes of a different student. It serves as a way to see how the different headspace of these individuals interpret what they just witnessed. Definitely something that can lead to the detriment of the film if not done well, but Gus Van Sant remains assured in this tactic, and it certainly worked. All of this continually builds until the film shifts from a relatively intriguing documentation of high school life to capturing the horrors that will occur.
Just as the camera follows regular students throughout the halls, this film opts to capture the moments leading up to this event through the eyes of Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen), the shooters. We don’t receive a distinct motive or the conversations that have led them down this terrible path, but just how they prepare and then in the final act as they carry out their vision and the tragedy that ensues because of it. This puts the audience along for the ride with them, which will certainly cause discomfort for anyone watching. Especially when we get to the scene where the camera literally follows Alex and Eric through their tirade, it would be understandable if anyone would choose to turn off the screen, but it sure did have a stranglehold on my attention.
A fascinating approach by Gus Van Sant, where he utilized the Columbine Shooting as an example, even setting this film in 1999, the same year the terrible massacre happened. Capturing all of this not through some character-focused dramatization in implying what caused this, he displays the film firmly through the perspective of how the day was just a normal day of school for these children. They entered with their own issues, hopes, and dreams of what they have ahead of them, but through no fault of their own, their lives were put at risk, and some of them perish. The film does not even utilize a score or anything to help further dramatize the moment and add extra emotion to the tragedy of what transpires. All of it happens just as the students experience it through their perspective.
Nothing about Elephant can be described as pleasant to watch. Some may contend with the repetitiveness of its filmmaking, as multiple scenes play out the same way but through the eyes of different students. Others may object to how we’re forced to actually watch Alex and Eric go through with their terrible plan, but all of it comes in service of the overall vision Gus Van Sant offers through this story. It does not seek to explain or emphasize certain moments as a way to give this overarching message about what happened. Instead, the film serves as an entryway to watch how these horrors would transpire within a school and the true terror involved. This film kept me locked in and had me feeling a whole gauntlet of emotions, from feeling sick to my stomach to sad for the lives of these students cut short. Truly a unique viewing experience yet one I never want to watch again.
