Elephant

“Uh, this? It’s my plan.” ”For what?” ”Oh, you’ll see.” Gus Van Sant’s Elephant is a beautifully constructed film that lulls the audience into the exact same unsuspecting sense of security as the characters it presents, all before the raw gut punch of its plot twist that slowly unravels into a tragedy that unfortunately reflects the very reality we live in today, addressing the elephant in the room of American society. We follow the lives of various high school students throughout the film in a slow paced fashion, in which nothing particularly dramatic or unusual occurs. Van Sant does not paint any of his characters in a particular light — no pumped up “good guys” or “bad guys” as you’d see in a typical thriller, just average students with their own personalities getting on with their day. This choice aims to remind us that such events can happen anywhere at any time, pulling away from fictional concepts usually associated with violence. When the shooting does happen, Van Sant does not whatsoever glorify the actions of his characters. The lack of typical dramatic effect continues into the “climax”, with no amped up portrayal of the moments in which the characters we have grown to know are killed, not even Eric, one of the two shooters. We ourselves feel like bystanders as we watch the scene unfold, tying the film together as a realistic anti-violence masterpiece.