Movie Review: Elephant

[Ulysses]

Directed by Gus van Sant. About a school shooting like Columbine.

I'm not sure if I totally got it. It was very interesting to watch and certain parts are somewhat chilling. Overall, an interesting movie. I'm not quite sure how much I liked it.

[SmileyEH]

This is the same guy that directed the movie about the final hours of Kurt Kobain's death? I was thinking about watching it in ireland, but I saw Primer instead. The way it was described it hardly seemed like a movie at all; just following Kobain around his house for 2 hours with no dialogue. . . was elephant similar?

-SmileyEH

[istewart]

What was your opinion of the pre-death-rampage gay sex romp in the shower?

Also, I think Van Sant's thing of having long camera shots of him walking down the hall, etc. got really tiresome. But, the movie was only like 70 freaking minutes.

Yes, Elephant was very similar, and very terrible. An hour and a half of walking behind kids in a high school with guns. I don't recommend.

[Ulysses]

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What was your opinion of the pre-death-rampage gay sex romp in the shower?

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Seemed very random.

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Also, I think Van Sant's thing of having long camera shots of him walking down the hall, etc. got really tiresome.

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I kinda liked that as a device to tie together the different character studies (or whatever you want to call them).

[captZEEbo1]

I thought this movie was excellent. It was very intense and I was always eager see what was going to happen next.

here's an Roger Ebert review which explains more of what I like about it. Here's a quote from the review:
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Van Sant seems to believe there are no reasons for Columbine and no remedies to prevent senseless violence from happening again. Many viewers will leave this film as unsatisfied and angry as Variety's Todd McCarthy, who wrote after it won the Golden Palm at Cannes 2003 that it was "pointless at best and irresponsible at worst." I think its responsibility comes precisely in its refusal to provide a point.


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[GuyOnTilt]

I liked it enough to buy it.

GoT

[Sightless]

Ill give it 5.5/10

It just tries way too hard, has way too many characters and doesnt go in depth on them at all.

It's like:
Oh hey Im really unpopular girl in school, Bam im dead.
Hey im black athlete, Bam Im dead.
Hi we are three girls which throw up the food that we eat, bam we are dead.

It's not that this movie didn't give any answers, it just seemed that it didn't ask any questions either.

[Ulysses]

The football dude's girlfriend is really hot.

Lots of interesting stuff here;

Elephant

I didn't know that these were real high-schoolers and most of the dialogue was improvised.

[Peter666]

SPOILER ALERT

The gay sex romp does not make sense because he blew his "friend" away in the end. There seems to have been no emotional connection between those two which I find unlikely because of the planning that went into the operation.

Also, the black guy walking back into the school like a zombie and getting blown away was funny. I mean, why would anybody just walk back into the school? Again, no human qualities are exhibited.

People always have reasons for their actions. Their reasoning might be crazy or bizarre, but something is motivating them. This film did not portray that.

Interesting directing technique, but that is all what Gus Van Sant seems to offer.