Elephant: A Film By Gus Van Sant
by Gus Van Sant
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alex Frost, Elias McConnell, Eric Deulen, John Robinson, Jordan TaylorDirector: Gus Van Sant
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Harris Savides
Writer: Gus Van Sant
Producer: Bill Robinson
Producer: Dany Wolf
Producer: Diane Keaton
Producer: J.T. LeRoy
Producer: Jay Hernandez
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.37:1
Running Time: 81 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-04
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Movie Reviews of Elephant: A Film By Gus Van Sant
Movie Review: No Characterization and Flawed
Summary: 1 Stars
This is why I think this movie is trash (sorry, I am usually very reserved).
1. Pretentious
2. No characterization
3. Lack of psychological insight
I rented this movie based on Gus Van Sant's reputation and the synopsis attracts me. I do not rate this movie one star because it couldn't live up to its promise, but because everything is done wrong.
The direction is what you'd call an art house movie. But an "art" ought to get someone to think, and this one doesn't. The movie is a juxtaposition of various pretty pictures without some coherent meaning.
Maybe I just don't get it. Example, when John slapped his butt for a photo shoot, it was ingenious the first time, but after the third time, it gets old. In poetry, if a message is repeated, it must mean something or to reinforce some idea. But I'm sorry, I don't get how John slapped his own butt is a symbol of anything. Bottom line: cut the crap out in the editing room.
Whoever did the music design ought to be guillotined. Why Moonlight Sonata? How does it enhance the mood of the movie? But none of that really matter as long as it does not overrides the background ambiance, which brilliantly brings out the atmosphere of the school, whereas the music score falls short on it. Discordance, yes, but why do it when John entered the school. Was he the villain who disrupts the school? Incorrect usage of motif. F for music design.
Given Gus Van Sant's reputation is built on gay coming of age story, I don't blame him for choosing some nice looking boys in his movies (though I think it's a little exploitative a la Andy Warhol). But what is their purpose in the movie if their characters are not developed? Was John a hero? Were Eric and Alex villains or anti-heroes? No clear sense of direction.... What's Eric's and Alex's motive to go on a rampage? Were they bullied? I didn't see that in the movie, but I get the cue maybe John was and was misunderstood by the principal. Why didn't he go on a rampage? Erm..., maybe because people don't snap like that easily? Why Columbine and other school massacres happened? Did production team discuss any of the possibilities why Alex and Eric would want to kill people like that? Did they ask the young actors who played the roles? This is not a pretty picture with no substance, is it? (sorry, that's a rhetorical question)
The characterization is as vague as the question, are Alex and Eric gay? You get to see them kiss, but you don't know if they are gay or not. Maybe it's just a goodbye kiss, or maybe they're just emos without the makeup. If they were lovers, how could Alex kill Eric like that? If they were bullied in school and depend on each other to cope with the situation, how COULD they do that? Characterization: F minus.
A movie like this should offer possible explanation that'll get people to think about the issue, and this one merely feeds the public with preexisting stereotype. It contains no psychological insight as to why bad things happened. This is NOT art. This is pretension.
Summary of Elephant: A Film By Gus Van Sant
Winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Director prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Gus Van Sant's (Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester) Elephant takes us inside an American high school on one, single ordinary day that very rapidly turns tragic. Elephant demonstrates that high school life is a complex landscape where the vitality and beauty of young lives can shift from light to darkness with surreal speed. It's an ordinary high school day. Except that it's not.DVD Features:
Featurette:On the Set of Elephant: "Rolling Through Time"
Full Screen Version
TV Spot:HBO Films Spot
Theatrical Trailer
Elephant, the elegant and unsettling movie from Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting), depicts students at a high school before and during a harrowing, Columbine-style shooting. The movie follows one young boy who takes over the wheel from his drunken dad while returning from lunch, then loops back in time and follows another student who crosses paths with the first, then loops back and follows another--all captured in long, unedited tracking shots that are serene and unhurried, even when two boys in camouflage gear, carrying heavy bags, arrive at the school and begin shooting. Elephant doesn't attempt to explain their behavior; it simply places the audience back in the brief yet interminable window of adolescence, when life is trivial and painfully important at the same time. Your reaction to Elephant will depend as much on your life experiences as anything in the movie itself. --Bret Fetzer
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