Elephant (movie)
Elephant (2003) is a film by director Gus Van Sant, a fictional account of a shooting in an American high school, filmed in Portland, Oregon. Van Sant was awarded Best Director and also the Palme d'Or prize at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival for this film.
The title
The title is a tribute to the Alan Clarke, 1989 film for BBC, also called Elephant, which reflected on sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. Van Sant similarly portrays school violence as something unfathomable, not unlike many other disturbing things in the lives of teenagers, which invite convenient explanations but ultimately frustrate analysis.
Van Sant has explained the "elephant" idea in several ways, besides the direct reference to Clarke's earlier work. It is an allusion to the proverbial "elephant in the living room", a large problem that no one talks about but everyone must find their way around as they go about their daily lives. It also invokes the Indian parable about the blind wise men who, unable to grasp the whole, interpret the elephant only in terms of the part they can comprehend: "An elephant is a tree", said the blind man who grasped the leg; "An elephant is a snake", said the one who touched the trunk; etc. Finally, during the press conference at Cannes, Van Sant mentioned that the creative staff had also experimented with allusions to certain policies and attitudes represented by the Republican Party, whose party symbol is an elephant.
North American premier and release
Elephant premiered in North America at a benefit for a youth shelter held at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, October 4, 2003. The film was released for incremental distribution by HBO, in 100 theaters in the United States, beginning October 24.
Prior to its distribution, the film generated considerable controversy and divided reviews following the Cannes debut, particularly in the gay community. The two male killers kiss one another in the shower, before they dispassionately commence their Columbine-like frenzy of murder.
Unconventional method
Van Sant originally intended to make a film for television, about the Columbine massacre, shortly after the event; but, the idea of a factual account was eventually dropped. The approach chosen is described by reviewers as "poetic" and "dreamlike", and by Van Sant himself as a rejection of conventional narrative, building on what he learned from work on Gerry. The script was "written" to its final form during shooting, with cast members improvising freely and collaborating in the direction of scenes.
Characters
The teen actors were chosen for the parts based on interviews and their ability to improvise before the camera. Some of the characters were developed from details selected from the interviews.
- John McFarland - Managing his alcoholic father, he has trouble at school
- Mr. Luce - Principal of the school
- Gay Straight Alliance - Various students grasp for the giveaway clues that someone is gay
- Nathan and Carrie - Popular football player and his girlfriend, toying with sex
- Elias - Photography student building his portfolio with portraits of other students.
- Michelle - Painfully ashamed of her body, the film follows her through the locker room and into the library where she assists
- Brittany, Jordan, and Nicole - Three bulimic "teenyboppers" who talk incessantly, gripe about parents, and squabble with one another
- Benny - Completely fearless
- Alex - Loner harassed by jocks, accomplished but frustrated pianist and sketch artist. His advice to Erik: "Have fun".
- Erik - Ignorant loser, Alex's best friend, the other killer.
See also
External links
Referenced By
2000s in film | 2000s movies | 2003 film | 2003 in film | Cannes Festival | Cannes Film Festival | Dylan Bennett Klebold | Dylan Klebold | ElephanT | Elephantidae | Elephants | Eric David Harris | Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennett Klebold | Eric Harris | Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold | Festival International du Film | Gus Van Sant | List of 2000s movies | May 2003 | The Brown Bunny
|
