| Elephant | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Gus Van Sant |
| Written by | Gus Van Sant |
| Produced by | Dany Wolf |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Harris Savides |
| Edited by | Gus Van Sant |
Production company | Meno Film Company |
| Distributed by | |
Release dates |
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Running time | 81 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3 million[1] |
| Box office | $10 million[2] |
Elephant is a 2003 Americanpsychological drama film written, directed and edited byGus Van Sant. Heavily inspired by the 1999Columbine High School massacre, the film chronicles the events surrounding aschool shooting inPortland, 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, includingJohn Robinson,Alex Frost, and Eric Deulen.
Elephant is the second film in Van Sant's "Death Trilogy"—the first isGerry (2002) and the thirdLast Days (2005)—all three of which are based on actual events.
AlthoughElephant was controversial for its subject matter and allegations of influence on theRed Lake shootings, it was generally praised by critics and received thePalme d'Or at the2003 Cannes Film Festival.[3]
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An ordinary day at a high school inPortland, Oregon, is shown through the perspective of several students. Among them are John, who has a strained relationship with hisalcoholic 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, threebulimic teens who gripe about their parents; popular athlete and lifeguard Nathan and his girlfriend, Carrie; and Acadia, a close friend of John and a member of the school'sgay–straight alliance (GSA).
Unbeknownst to anyone, two other students, Alex and Eric, are preparing to carry out amass shooting andbomb 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 arifle, ashotgun, and severalpistols. 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 outside the school.
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 photographs them right before they start shooting), Michelle, and others. 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. While attending a GSA meeting, Acadia witnesses a student being shot dead in the corridor and becomes frozen in fear before being 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, and chastises him for treating children like himself and Alex poorly. Benny encounters the two and is shot dead. Eric then 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, which ends when Alex suddenly shoots Eric mid-sentence. Showing no emotion over killing Eric, Alex heads to the kitchen 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 screen cuts to black before he makes his decision.
The film began as adocumentary that Van Sant had intended to make about theColumbine High School massacre; the idea of afactual account was dropped.[4]
Elephant was filmed in Van Sant's hometown,Portland, Oregon, in late 2002, on the former campus of Whitaker Middle School (previouslyAdams High School).
There was no initial script before the filming started. The script was "written" to its final form during shooting, with cast membersimprovising freely and collaborating in the direction of scenes. It was shot over 20 days.[4]
JT LeRoy (a pen name for authorLaura Albert) is credited as an associate producer for the film.
The titleElephant is a tribute to the 1989BBCshort filmof the same name, directed byAlan Clarke.[4] Van Sant originally believed Clarke's title referred to the parable of theblind 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.[5] Later, Van Sant discovered Clarke's film referred to the phrase "elephant in the room" (the collective denial of some obvious problem).[6]
Also,Gus Van Sant namedChantal Akerman's filmJeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) as an inspiration.[7]
Clarke's filmElephant reflects onsectarian violence inNorthern Ireland. Van Sant'sminimalist style and use oftracking shots mirrors Clarke's film.[8]
Elephant received mainly positive reviews from critics and has a score of 74% onRotten 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."[9] The film also has a score of 70 out of 100 onMetacritic based on 37 critics indicating "generally favorable reviews".[10]
Roger Ebert praised the film and gave it four out of four stars writing "Gus Van Sant'sElephant 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 thatElephant 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."[11]
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bodil Awards | February 27, 2005 | Best American Film | Gus Van Sant | Nominated | [12] |
| Cannes Film Festival | May 14–25, 2003 | Palme d'Or | Won | [13] | |
| Best Director | Won | ||||
| Cinema Prize of the French National Education System | Won | [14] | |||
| César Awards | February 21, 2004 | Best Foreign Film | Nominated | [15] | |
| French Syndicate of Cinema Critics | January 15, 2004 | Best Foreign Film | Won | [16] | |
| Independent Spirit Awards | February 28, 2004 | Best Director | Nominated | [17] | |
| Best Cinematography | Harris Savides | Nominated | |||
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association | January 7, 2004 | Best Cinematography | Runner-up | [18] | |
| National Society of Film Critics | January 3, 2004 | Best Cinematography | 3rd place | [19] | |
| New York Film Critics Circle | December 15, 2003 | Best Cinematography | Won | [20] |
Rafael Solich, the perpetrator of the 2004Carmen de Patagones school shooting, had watched the film days prior to the shooting.[21]
TheRed Lake shootings that occurred in 2005 were briefly blamed on the film, as it was viewed by gunmanJeff Weise 17 days prior to the event.[22] 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.[23]
During theSuzano school shooting that occurred in 2019, both perpetrators were seen wearing clothing that resembled that of the main characters ofElephant.[24]
