Review: Elephant (2003)
Quite possibly one of the most multifaceted movies I’ve ever seen, Gus Van Sant’s Elephant is simultaneously an allegorical tapestry of high school life, an eerily mysterious portrait of gun violence, and an unrelentingly peculiar formal exercise.Of course, this only works with the right synthesis, and for me the blending of these artistic and semi-political ideas results in a film of contradictory beauty and ugliness, of indifference and tragedy. Whatever its supposed intentions or meanings, one gets the sense that what’s on screen is exactly what Van Sant wanted to show, and if nothing else, this degree of auteurism in the hands of someone so capable is riveting to watch.
While Elephant was conceived as a literal depiction of the Columbine shooting, its evolution into a merely similar concept affords it a level of artistic freedom and emotional ambiguity that for whatever reason incited controversy among some people. Looking at the film as any kind of expository, revelatory account of any single mass shooting — or even gun violence in general — presupposes an obligation that I frankly don’t feel that any film has, especially not one which does not purport to be “based on a true story.”
The motives and underlying causes of these horrific events are worth speculation, but Elephant smartly remains in this realm of uncertainty, understanding that placing blame on any single factor is usually inaccurate and almost always, in the case of art, dull in its political simplicity and preaching. Barring the kinds of psychosocial red flags that usually land people in mental institutions, it’s naïve to think that a shooting like this could be prevented by simply weeding out a few bad apples, or by cutting one simple problematic root.
By treating the narrative of the shooters in the same distanced, observant manner as those of their classmates and victims, Van Sant conveys an almost horrific degree of similarity. We are quietly exposed to a plethora of common high school maladies and possible provokers of violence (eating disorders, bullying, violent video games, LGBT unacceptance, negligent/unfit parents, etc.) and while some of these are unique to either the shooters or the other students, there is never the sense that the shooters experience these kinds of issues to a more severe or noticeable extent.
Look at the character of Michelle, who experiences at least the same degree of bullying as the shooters but without the companionship of a friend. For me, it’s not irresponsible or lazy to write a narrative that so decidedly avoids causal explanation, nor is it a case of the sort of “artsy”, cold, vague sensibilities of numerous independent films that are often criticized as meaningless or pretentiously confusing. I think it’s both artistically and politically brave to admit that some of the most horrifying of humanity’s faults can’t be predicted or succinctly explained, and in the way that it pointedly supplies food for thought without any answers, Elephant offers more insight than anything more contrived likely could.
Beyond its status as a film overtly about a school shooting, Elephant codifies and distorts the experience of being an adolescent, employing the violence aspect as something metaphorical without for a second reducing its literal impact. The space-time continuum of Van Sant’s film is nonlinear and cavernous, hardly the kind of well-lit classrooms and orderly structure that typically defines high school onscreen. The camera constantly follows its subjects from behind as they meander through a series of long, nondescript interlocking hallways like lost souls in a maze. It’s school as a place of transience and navigation through an ever-changing environment, and while there are a few class-time scenes to be found, the film mostly observes the students as they socialize or in their more introspective moments, whether it’s trekking through empty spaces or working hands-on (developing film, shelving books) in more comfortably confined areas.
Some people criticize the performances and dialogue herein, claiming that it lacks believability or accuracy, but for me, along with the unrealistic frequency at which these students just sort of roam around the school’s campus and the constant time jumps and replaying of scenes from new angles, this is just an example of Van Sant’s adherence to film as an expressive and inherently unreal medium, which is better at showing representations of things than the things themselves. The characters and space of the film both function as depictions of adolescence, in its retroactively comical way of speech and dress, the constant sense of repetition and alienation, and even the way that pent-up angst and aggression can manifest itself as something harmful. The film’s shooting is said manifestation, an explosion of discontentment and a shocking disruption of the stagnant façade of American high school.
Van Sant does all of this with such seriousness and aesthetic precision, which is not to say that it’s always such a serious and somber film, but that it truly treats its subject matter as something significant. The funny moments are exchanges of dialogue and scenarios between characters that never distract from the otherwise quiet, cold world of the film, more like natural extensions of these characters than some sort of obligatory comic relief. The use of somber, iconic classical music is boldly artistic, signifying the depth of emotional distress lingering beneath the film’s muted, almost documentarian visual style, and reminding the viewer that this is, in fact, a work of art and not reality.
Beyond the non-diegetic scoring, there’s some surreal sound design at points during the film (especially the shooting) that sounds almost like an ambient nature sounds recording, and what exactly this means I have no idea, but somehow it works, which is enough for me. One of the only other aspects of the film that truly deviates from direct narrative propulsion are the occasional insert shots of a sky in conflict.
The puffy clouds and neutral blue gradually give way to a brewing storm, which is an occasional inevitability in nature. That’s just the way it is. But what about mass shootings? Elephant certainly never argues that these are acceptable and unpreventable, but just as the accumulation of a thunderstorm is a gradual and complex process, so too is school violence.
