Elephant
Review by Cathy Edsey Collins for Reel Movie Critic
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Cast
Timothy Bottoms	Mr. McFarland
Alex Frost	Alex
Eric Deulen	Eric
John Robinson	John McFarland
Directed by Gus Van Sant. Drama. Rated R (for disturbing violence, language, brief sexuality, drug use-all involving teens). HBO Films. Running time: 81 minutes.

Winner of the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Gus Van Sant, the respected Oscar-winner of "Good Will Hunting" and artsy fare like "My Own Private Idaho," this film's sobering subject matter echoes the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

One almost feels pressured into lauding praise on this film sight unseen. Expectations run high but once the gravity of the film's concluding scenes wears off, I have that "Emperor's New Clothes" reaction ¾ big hoopla but nothing's really there.

"Elephant" begins with an ordinary school day. Even John McFarland's episode with his drunken father seems routine; "Dad's drunk again," John wearily reports over the phone to his brother. A student photographer snaps candids; a trio of bulimic sorority types anguish over stomach flab; a nerdy library aide is mocked in the locker room. Students say "hi" and complain about their parents. Jocks ridicule outsiders with spitballs. The lackluster ennui of the unending, locker bound hallways coupled with the angst of adolescence paints a familiar portrait of life in a U.S. high school. And then the shooting begins.

Cast primarily with non-actors (with the exception of a few familiar faces in adult roles), "Elephant" relies heavily on improvisation, even having the students use their real first names and encouraging them to draw on their own personalities. At a slim 81 minutes in length there is little time to flesh out any characterizations, so "Elephant" streamlines the students' population with teen stereotypes. Van Sant does not use his film to ponder the why of these tragic shootings. He merely records the events of the day dispassionately. Only hints of possible reasons are shown, never editorialized: Alex playing a violent video game, the absence of Eric's parents, the duo's homosexual relationship, the scorn and spitballs of fellow students.

The dialogue is as sparse as the unending shots of students walking down hallways are. Indeed, an inordinate amount of time is devoted to filming the back of a student as he/she walks down the hall. Is this symbolic of something deeply meaningful? Or is this simply lazy filmmaking?

"Elephant" suffers from the "Titanic" syndrome: we know the violent end of this story and we are nervously impatient to get to this deadly conclusion. What could have been a well-constructed, fully developed probe of school violence has been reduced to the bare skeleton of a script, offering no thoughtful attempt to put an opinion on this sobering subject.

Perhaps Van Sant wanted to render only an impressionistic portrait of this sad event, leaving the audience to sift through the rubble. But the speedy shoot-only 20 days- of "Elephant" makes me suspect that much thought went into this production.