Elephant 2003 | Boys in movies [BiM]

Elephant 2003

Elephant 2003
| 1h 21min | Crime, Drama, Thriller | 18 May 2003 (France)

Storyline:

A day in the lives of a group of average teenage high school students. The film follows every character and shows their daily routines. However two of the students plan to do something that the student body won’t forget.

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated R for disturbing violent content, language, brief sexuality and drug use – all involving teens.

User review:

I have been waiting for Elephant to hit theaters near Philadelphia and New Jersey for a good two months now. It finally arrived this past weekend in Philadelphia so I decided to make a day out of it and see Elephant along with some other Indies.

Elephant is basically a slow paced film, which follows many students in a day at their High School before a school shooting. Each character is followed in the film and is an average student you would find at a high school for example, the jock and the cheerleader girlfriend, the nerdy girl, the troublemaker, the dork who everyone picks on, etc. The movie seems extremely real as though this is your local high school and these are students that attend the school.

The director and writer of this film Gus Van Sant did a great job. The camera angles are the expertly shot. Gus Van Sant did a great job of following the characters in the film and building some characteristics of each character. The film for the most part is silent and this makes the film more effective. The movie rewinds many times to focus on its different characters.

The acting was great especially since everyone in this movie is a nobody and looks like the actors and actresses all just came out of high school. It made the film even more powerful that we did not see big teen cast in this film but just a bunch of nobodies.

The movie’s ending is not a pleasant one and ends abruptly. The film has a very powerful ending and is very creepy. It makes you really think. I really liked it.

The film is marketed as a movie about a school shooting but I think it’s more than just that. It’s a very true life film that makes you question the people you attend school with. It is a film that very few will see but is one powerful film. Its ending alone being not a happy one is worth the price of admission alone. If you get a chance to see Elephant, I highly recommended it.

Director: Gus Van Sant
Writer: Gus Van Sant
Stars: Elias McConnell, Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson
Country: USA
Language: English | German
Release Date: 14 November 2003 (USA)
Filming Locations: Whitaker Middle School, 5700 NE 39th, Portland, Oregon, USA

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363589/