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| Elephant: A Film By Gus Van Sant | 
 enlarge | Director: Gus Van Sant
Actors: Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson (ix), Elias Mcconnell, Jordan Taylor (ii)
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $4.40
You Save: $10.58 (71%)
New (58) Used (37) from $1.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  315 reviews
Sales Rank: 5952
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 80
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D92229D
ISBN: 078312791X
UPC: 026359222924
EAN: 9780783127910
ASIN: B0001EFUFK
Theatrical Release Date: 2003
Release Date: May 4, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New! Factory sealed, in stock and ready to ship!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Elephant, the elegant and unsettling movie from Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting), depicts students at a high school before and during a harrowing, Columbine-style shooting. The movie follows one young boy who takes over the wheel from his drunken dad while returning from lunch, then loops back in time and follows another student who crosses paths with the first, then loops back and follows another--all captured in long, unedited tracking shots that are serene and unhurried, even when two boys in camouflage gear, carrying heavy bags, arrive at the school and begin shooting. Elephant doesn't attempt to explain their behavior; it simply places the audience back in the brief yet interminable window of adolescence, when life is trivial and painfully important at the same time. Your reaction to Elephant will depend as much on your life experiences as anything in the movie itself. --Bret Fetzer
Product Description
Winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Director prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival Gus Van Sant's (Good Will Hunting Finding Forrester) Elephant takes us inside an American high school on one single ordinary day that very rapidly turns tragic. Elephant demonstrates that high school life is a complex landscape where the vitality and beauty of young lives can shift from light to darkness with surreal speed. It's an ordinary high school day. Except that it's not.Running Time: 81 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 026359222924
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| Customer Reviews: Read 310 more reviews...
 Indie heaven. August 15, 2008
Wow, where do I start? I have to say, with other Gus Van Sant masterpieces like Good Will Hunting and Gerry, this is by far my favorite film he's ever directed. Not only did it show various students in different cliques in high school, but he let we, the viewers, relate to them in our own way. We get the notion that today is a typical day in high school, but as soon as the two students in black arrive, our hearts sink, and we know it's going to be chaotic. The thing I love most about this film is the rare talent shown by Alex Frost; he was subtle enough to keep me involved and afraid of him, and fragile enough to let me sympathize with him. Right on, Van Sant. Here's to tons more.
If you liked Bubble, you'll like this. If you liked My Fat Greek Wedding, probably not July 28, 2008
The tone and feel of this film is similar to Bubble, and like that amazing film, it uses non-actors who are often improvising within scenes. This gives the film an almost documentary feel as you follow the characters through what starts as just another day at high school. You'll recognize all the usual high school archetypes, and see them interacting as the day progresses and then backtracks so you can see the same scenes from another character's point of view. This goes on for quite a while until we pick up the threads of the story that will create the violent climax of the film.
This is a stunning film that will haunt you long after it's over. More than anything, the ways in which people fail to connect, or the awkward ways in which they try to connect, create a web that the film explores over and over. It becomes an unsolved riddle of human interaction.
 Powerfully Pointless July 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
To all those who have vomited forth gushing reviews about the "poignant" snapshot of modern adolescence: Get out more. Visit your local high school and observe. You may learn something about real life.
Something labeled "indie" does not automatically have artistic value.
Thanks to movie and tv content if not real life experience, children of high-school age know what gunshots sound like.
Most individuals of any age would have enough sense to put their head down, run away, or hide.
I do not believe that the average high-schooler is as stupid as this film portrays them to be.
At no time would the killers under U.S. law have been able to obtain firearms in the manner that is depicted.
I am surprised that of nearly 300 reviews only one other reviewer has pointed this out. This demonstrates the ignorance of the general public regarding firearm ownership.
This is an excellent example of a director who really wants to make a statement - i.e., "i don't like guns".
The problem is, there is no substance to this film. Factual evidence? There is none. Plot? Nope. Art? Are you kidding me? In short, it is a blase propaganda piece; and a terribly unmoving one.
A Triumph in Modern Cinema and an Ode to American Youth. July 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As everybody knows, this film was inspired by the Columbine High School Massacre that took place in Columbine, Colorado, 1999.
The film does not have a classic plot. It simply follows the last minutes of a group of high school kids before two of them enter the school "armed to the teeth" and start shooting anything that moves. Some of them get killed. Some will survive.
Simple as that.
But the film is more than JUST that.
FIRST, it is a very inventive narrative exercise as we follow several characters' point of view whose path crosses other characters' paths we previously have seen. At one time, you'll get the idea the screenplay is constructing a big puzzle that will only be complete when the shooting begins - which it does.
SECOND, I found those characters fascinating. Even without a plot, Gus Van Sant is able to touch us with the unique experience of some characters. The first five minutes or so, when John (played by the beautiful John Robinson), a kid whose father seems to be an alcoholic, cries without knowing why is very eloquent and clear about the unseen inside of those characters.
THIRD, there is an ambiance of... it's hard to describe... loneliness, isolation, inner disorder... that we only find in the best horror/thriller films. And strangely enough we find it here, in a film like this (not horror nor a thriller). In fact, I believe anyone interested such genres, should take a look at this film and be amazed.
FOURTH: the film really gets your attention in the end, when the whole thing happens... randomly, unexpectedly...
In retrospect, I think this is one the most important works of the decade and, in a certain way, it says a lot about today's youth in America: beautiful when it's beautiful and really monstrous when it goes downhill.
As a non-American (I'm in Europe), two scenes stuck me like lightning (for obvious reasons): the one when the three girls go vomit after lunch (I wasn't expecting that one! - laughs) and the one where two boys order a fire weapon by mail and get their kicks from shooting chopped wood in a garage.
That scene alone should make America rethink its attitude about guns... or some day such attitude might rethink America.
 Eenie meeni miny mo. July 1, 2008
Two students walk through a schoolyard with military fatigues, zipped-up rifle bags and death on their minds. Before them, a wide range of students eat lunch, gossip about social outings, and read library books, all completely unaware of what is about to transpire.
Then, the first shot rings out, echoing down the school corridors and causing all to pause as the unthinkable becomes a reality.
Elephant is a film that is ruthless and overwhelmingly hard to stomach. We are drawn into the world of a number of teens and watch them as they carry on their daily activities, all with the knowledge that at some point in this day, we, the audience, will encounter the gunmen face-to-face along with these students. Amidst the faces are a number of teens which include:
* a outcast female intellectual
* a popular prep and his girlfriend
* an introspective student photographer
* a middle of the pack underclassman
* the two gunmen
It is from their view that we witness the events that surround this suburban school on what could have been just another normal.
In light of the recent shootings around America (one of which took place at my college a few months ago), the subject matter is extremely painful to watch. I cannot recommend this film to everyone, but for those wanting to see another view as to how these things transpire and why, Elephant offers a bit more into that realm. Most of all, Elephant helps show the dichotomy of class structure within US schools and it is here, where we witness the haves and the have-nots, that we begin to find the root of what these acts take place.
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