Elephant (2003 film)

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Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox film

Elephant is a 2003 American psychological drama film written, directed and edited by Gus Van Sant. Heavily inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, the film chronicles the events surrounding a school shooting in Portland, Oregon. The narrative begins a short time before the shooting occurs, following the lives of several characters both in and out of school, who are unaware of what is about to unfold. The film stars mostly unknown or newcomer actors, including John Robinson, Alex Frost, and Eric Deulen.

Elephant is the second film in Van Sant's "Death Trilogy"—the first is Gerry (2002) and the third Last Days (2005)—all three of which are based on actual events.

Although Elephant was controversial for its subject matter and allegations of influence on the Red Lake shootings, it was generally praised by critics and received the Palme d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Columbine High School massacre

Plot

An ordinary day at a high school in Portland, Oregon, is shown through the perspective of several students. Among them are John, who struggles with dealing with his alcoholic father; Elias, a photography student who is building a portfolio of other students; Michelle, an outcast who struggles with her body issues; Nicole, Brittany, and Jordan, three bulimic teens who gripe about their parents; popular athlete and lifeguard Nathan and his girlfriend, Carrie; and Acadia, a close friend of John's who attends a gay–straight alliance meeting.

Unbeknownst to anyone, two other students, Alex and Eric, are preparing to carry out a mass shooting and bomb attack at their school. Their motives are vague and inconclusive, with several scenes showing them being bullied and exposed to violent media. Flashbacks throughout the film show them preparing for the massacre by ordering weapons online and formulating an attack plan, which is to detonate bombs in the cafeteria during lunch hour and shoot people as they try to escape.

On the day of the shooting, the pair makes their way to school in Alex's car, armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol. John encounters them outside the school and is told by Alex to leave. Realizing what is about to happen, John tries to warn students and teachers outside, then goes looking for his father after finding his car still outside the school from when they arrived earlier that morning.

Inside the school, the bombs that Alex and Eric had planted fail to go off, so they decide to start shooting indiscriminately. The pair heads to the library and opens fire on the students there, killing Elias (who photographed them right before they started shooting) and Michelle. Other students and teachers in the building hear the gunfire and begin to evacuate.

The gunmen then split up and head to opposite ends of the school. Alex enters the girls' bathroom where he surprises Nicole, Brittany, and Jordan, presumably shooting all three. Acadia becomes frozen in fear after witnessing a student being shot dead in the corridor before she is rescued by Benny, a student athlete who helps her out a window before deciding to find the gunmen. Outside the school, John finds his now-sober father, who tries to comfort him as they observe the ongoing attack.

In the corridor, Eric encounters Mr. Luce, the principal, whom he chastises for treating kids like him and Alex poorly. Benny encounters the two and is shot dead, before Eric seemingly lets Mr. Luce go, only to kill him moments later.

Alex and Eric reunite in the cafeteria, now strewn with overturned chairs, backpacks, several dead bodies, and numerous abandoned half-eaten lunches. The pair have a brief conversation about who they've shot while Alex casually drinks from a cup, which ends when he suddenly shoots Eric mid-sentence. Alex leaves the cafeteria, showing no emotion over killing Eric, and discovers Carrie and Nathan hiding in a freezer. He tauntingly recites "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" to them to decide whom he should kill first, though the film ends before he makes his decision.

Cast

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Production

Illustration of six people touching different parts of an elephant
The title was inspired by the parable of the blind men and an elephant.

The film began as a documentary that Van Sant had intended to make about the Columbine High School massacre; the idea of a factual account was dropped.<ref name="Crean">Template:Cite news</ref>

Elephant was filmed in Van Sant's hometown, Portland, Oregon, in late 2002, on the former campus of Whitaker Middle School (previously Adams High School).

There was no initial script before the filming started. The script was "written" to its final form during shooting, with cast members improvising freely and collaborating in the direction of scenes. It was shot over 20 days.<ref name="Crean"/>

JT LeRoy (a pen name for author Laura Albert) is credited as an associate producer for the film.

Title

The title Elephant is a tribute to the 1989 BBC short film of the same name, directed by Alan Clarke.<ref name="Crean"/> Van Sant originally believed Clarke's title referred to the parable of the blind men and an elephant, in which several blind men try to describe an elephant, and each draws different conclusions based on which body part they touched, and Van Sant's film uses that interpretation, as the same general timeline is shown multiple times from multiple viewpoints.Template:Sfn Later, Van Sant discovered Clarke's film referred to the phrase "elephant in the room" (the collective denial of some obvious problem).Template:Sfn

Also, Gus Van Sant named Chantal Akerman's film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) as an inspiration.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Clarke's film Elephant reflects on sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. Van Sant's minimalist style and use of tracking shots mirrors Clarke's film.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Reception and legacy

Elephant received mainly positive reviews from critics and has a score of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 163 reviews with an average rating of 7.10/10. The critical consensus states "The movie's spare and unconventional style will divide viewers."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film also has a score of 70 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 37 critics indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Roger Ebert praised the film and gave it four out of four stars writing "Gus Van Sant's Elephant is a violent movie in the sense that many innocent people are shot dead. But it isn't violent in the way it presents those deaths. There is no pumped-up style, no lingering, no release, no climax. Just implacable, poker-faced, flat, uninflected death. Truffaut said it was hard to make an anti-war film because war was exciting even if you were against it. Van Sant has made an anti-violence film by draining violence of energy, purpose, glamor, reward and social context. It just happens. I doubt that Elephant will ever inspire anyone to copy what they see on the screen. Much more than the insipid message movies shown in social studies classes, it might inspire useful discussion and soul-searching among high school students."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Template:Abbr
Bodil Awards February 27, 2005 Best American Film Gus Van Sant Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Cannes Film Festival May 14–25, 2003 Palme d'Or Template:Won <ref name="festival-cannes">Template:Cite web</ref>
Best Director Template:Won
Cinema Prize of the French National Education System Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
César Awards February 21, 2004 Best Foreign Film Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
French Syndicate of Cinema Critics January 15, 2004 Best Foreign Film Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Independent Spirit Awards February 28, 2004 Best Director Template:Nom <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Best Cinematography Harris Savides Template:Nom
Los Angeles Film Critics Association January 7, 2004 Best Cinematography Template:Draw <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
National Society of Film Critics January 3, 2004 Best Cinematography Template:Draw <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
New York Film Critics Circle December 15, 2003 Best Cinematography Template:Won <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Shooting controversies

Rafael Solich, the perpetrator of the 2004 Carmen de Patagones school shooting, had watched the film days prior to the shooting.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Red Lake shootings that occurred in 2005 were briefly blamed on the film, as it was viewed by gunman Jeff Weise 17 days prior to the event.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A friend of Weise said that he brought the film over to a friend's house and skipped ahead to parts that showed two students planning and carrying out a school massacre. Although they talked about the film afterwards, Weise said and did nothing to make anyone suspect what he was planning.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

During the Suzano school shooting that occurred in 2019, both perpetrators were seen wearing clothing that resembled that of the main characters of Elephant.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

References

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Works cited

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