Elephant (Mini Review)

This is easily the most provocative film I've seen that is doing so by not being provocative at all.

A common criticism of Schindler's List is that it dramatised an event like the Holocaust. Elephant would surely have to fall on the opposite of the spectrum then. As you may or may not know this film is influenced by the Columbine school shooting in 1999. Instead of fabricating compelling character arcs and events Van Sant decides to show us the banality of the lead up to the events. The result is representative of the characters not knowing what is about to happen.

About 2/3 of the way through the film the shooters watch a doco on Nazi Germany. Anyone could watch that doco and walk away with his or her own views on Nazis, both good and bad. Even if bias is present towards one side the sceptic would still believe in what they believe to be true. The lack of any plot or drama gives us the impression that the only thing Van Sant wanted to show was the absurdity of it all by stripping away as much bias as possible.

The actors in the film are all non-professional and this helps create the atmosphere. Often we follow actors around who are showing little to no expressive insights into their characters. I can't imagine someone revealing a lot on his or her faces as he or she walks through a high school corridor. It offers realism without the bravo or the grandiose a professional actor, who is 10 years older than a high school student would bring to the role.

The order of events doesn’t even matter here. At first, it seems like everything is happening in chronological order but we soon learn otherwise. Van Sant is focused on making presenting the mundane and cinema is an art form that can offer this like none other. If you rearranged the film in chronological order would we gain anything? Probably not. The title of the film is inspired after a Hindu proverb that goes like this…

“a group of blind men, who have never come across an elephant before and who learn and conceptualize what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant body, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then describe the elephant based on their partial experience and their descriptions are in complete disagreement on what an elephant is.”

Each narrative thread in Elephant is a blind man. Except where the blind men in the proverb are ignorant towards the truth. The students experience their truth. They have no way of living the day of another person. Except truths or perceptions can overlap as we often revisit the same moment several times throughout the film. The elephant in this film is the film itself, the whole yet it is also the parts.

Our thoughts often linger in the moment but they still move forward just like the Steadicam work of the film. This film was never meant to be sentimental but investing yourself in it could prove emotional.

Overall Score: 9/10

What do you think of this film?