Elephant, a Gus Van Sant movie (2003)

Elephant poster

1) What struck you most in the film?

The thing that strucked me in the film, was the fact that violence is very normaliced. I mean, in this film it's undeniable that the kids who shooted the school had no emotions when they were doing it, execpt happiness. I don't manage to understand how somebody could feel happiness hurting, or even killing other people in this case, it's like when somebody has fun making suffering animals.

2) What also impressed you?

I was a little bit impressed by the fact that there was no security in the school. These boys were showing their weapons to everyone and no one was scared about it. I know that it is a film but actually this was impressing me because, I'm quite sure that, as these guys did, the real shooters did it as well, and no one said anything either.

Elephant scene

3) Did you find anything more particularly upsetting?

I think, that what upsets me the most is the fact that we could have stoped this event with the necessary help to these students. I think that one thing that this director wants to show is a critic of the schools' system. The shooters were victims of bullying at school, and no one did nothing to help them, I think that, if somebody had show any kind of interest on their problems, they could have found their problem and solve it or just anticipate this kind of events.

4) What did you find very disturbing?

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In my personal opinion, I don't understand either what the black "angel" was thinking when he was walking with a calm path in the corridors. Instead of jumping through the window with the other people, he decides to go and "investigate". I could understand this decission if he just have seen the blond shooter pointing the director, but actually he was alone. This kill, does show that even "angels" are threatened by this kind of acts.

5) What was most shocking?

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3 Elephant scenes

When they shooted the geek girl, I suppose that's what shocked me the most. This poor girl who ran to her own death because she was late, was the first victim of these monsters. I don't understand why they did kill her if she was in their same situation. At the beginning of the movie they call her looser and other insults, she is suffering bullying as well, I don't think she bullyied them so I was very shocked and angry about the fact that they shoot her. It's maybe because they don't want to see other people suffering what they were suffering, but if their targets were the jocks, I see no sense in killing other people... And this is horrible.

6) What does the film  suggest about the two school shooters?

It looks the film wants to show a revenge from both bullyied geeks, but above everything, a filmed version of a documentary about what happenned in Columbine High School in 1999 for people to sensitice more about what happenned there and see why this kind of events could happen.

7) What's more, what does the film director make clear about the two killers?

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We can see both aspects of hate with the two killers, the one who is full of rage and acts with out no conscience about his acts' consequences, and the one who's calm and can face problems with a cold blood that would scare lots of people. This last option shows an intelligence higher than the normal people and then very dangerous for the society if it gets angry. Something that I love about this film is that we are thinking there's one domineering killer, the blond one, and that the other one follows instructions but these roles change instantly when the chestnut-colored one shoots the blond and this one dies. He has been manipulating him during the whole film and no one has noticed it, that shows a very manipulative mind and an incredible good plot because no viewer noticed it.

8) What kind of approach to the school shooting itself did Gus Van Sant opt for?

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The school, in the film, is calm, serene, peaceful, monotonous, boring, as every school in the world, except some, the most disturbing thing is arriving late, laughing at somebody... Otherwise, everything looks realistic, the classes teachers are teaching are the common ones in a high school, one thing that could impress the viewer could the "homophobia dicussion" because we can't see lots of these discussion in high school, wether it is important to talk about it, I think that's why the director filmed it.

9) Moreover, what's the main consequence of the realistic treatment he uses? What about the 'poetic' touches he instills throughout the film?

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This realistic treatment, we immerce in this mood of serenity and then, horror, fear and mutilation. In the middle of the higher tension scene, we can see a sky with some clouds on it that can give calm and serenity. The piano scene, can give a poetic vision of one of the killers.




10) As a conclusion, what must we admit about the way in which the killing and the killers are perceived by the film viewers?

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Elephant scene

Elephant scene

As we have already said, the killing in this film is something very cold, like something that could happen in the institute. Killing people from the back, shooting a person you just kissed, planning a terrifying plan to kill lots of people who did nothing to you... Viewers might get confused because of this, so now, to put it in a nutshell and to sum up, we can see, in Elephant, very hard events shown with a very normalized point of view.

Elephant scene