Review by Abi Brownell

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Reviews | Send mail to The Voice 'Elephant' portrays real-life evil in Columbine For those who like dramatic, based-on-a-true-story type films, "Elephant" meets that criteria as it depicts the infamous Columbine shooting, and the film does so well enough to have won the Gold Award at the Cannes Film Festival. However, for people who prefer action flicks with special effects and rubber costumes, this film may not satisfy. But deep thinkers will appreciate the raw, gritty paintbrush that director Gus Van Sant used to color this picture. Had the director so desired, he could have condensed the entire film into 15 minutes. The movie contains two main parts: observation of the students' daily activities and a few closing minutes of violent assault. Watching the teen-agers live their daily activities requires about 80 percent of the movie's length, but this ratio is necessary for the realistic feel Van Sant has created. "Elephant" manages to be both beautiful and disturbing because it is so realistic. There are no cliches here. No predictable love interests, no stale catch phrases, no breathless heroics. Van Sant refuses to moralize with his art, unlike many directors of glossy motion pictures. The violence he constructs in "Elephant" feels remarkably natural, oddly easy. The movie has no climax, no plot, no telling revelation to discover -- no one even rises victorious against all odds. These risks set "Elephant" apart. Today, the more violent the film, the more dazzling and glamorous it is likely to be. Why is that? Is it because plain old horror fails to shock us anymore? Perhaps the problem is that movies generally do not portray evil in a realistic, digestible format. In reality, one guy with one gun cannot conquer 20 men with 20 guns. Dental floss will not deliver you from angry sea bass, and pianos rarely fall off rooftops onto people's heads. Viewers have no reason to leave such scenes feeling shaken. This film frightens because the event is real. "Elephant" shows evil in its natural habitat: the everyday world in which we live. The killers are not revealed in dramatic, slow motion sequences; they walk around naturally. The frailty of the killers' disturbed spirits is obvious, yet these characters never seem much different from the students they chose to butcher. The source of their desperation remains a mystery. You will appreciate "Elephant's" ability to make you aware of how vulnerable humanity can be. Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Reviews | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2004 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.