Movies At Random: Elephant

Today’s random movie is Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (HU DVD 790). This 2003 film was briefly blamed for a school shooting, but otherwise was highly regarded. According to Wikipedia, the film starred mostly new or non-professional actors, which entailed much of the improvisation that gives the film its feel.

Here’s our summary:

Elephant takes us inside an American high school on one, single ordinary day that very rapidly turns tragic. The story unfolds, filled with classwork, football, gossip and socializing. It’s an ordinary high school day. Except that it’s not.
Depicts students at a Portland, Oregon high school before and during a tragic school shooting. Follows a young boy who takes over the wheel from his drunken dad while returning from lunch. Then follows another student who crosses paths with the first, then the other of the two boys in camouflage gear, carrying heavy bags, who arrive inside the school and begin shooting. No explanation for the shooting is given, it simply places the audience in the interminable window of adolescence when life is both trivial and painfully important all at the same time.

And here’s the trailer:

Happy viewing!

Posted in Home Use, Movies at Random.