nothing but calm

Winnifred 2022-11-28 05:08:58

Gus Van Sant's The Elephant in 2003 is my favorite movie outside of LOTR and trainspotting. Gus Van Sant's films have always been things that are loved and hated. And this film continues Gus Van Sant's low-key style after turning to independent film. The whole film has no big stars, and it was shot without a script, using only one camera. The actors are mostly local high school students in Portland. If I had to say what the film was about, I would say that the film was about school shootings in the United States.
But when you start watching it, you will find that the film contains not only shootings, or that the film does not use shootings as a theme, but depicts life a little bit, and depicts characters one by one. There was a little bit of turbulence after that, and then it returned to calm.
At the beginning of the film, everything is quiet in the school, except for the occasional lonely sound of Beethoven's piano music, the picture is a blue sky, unpredictable clouds, and below the blue sky is their peaceful campus life: the campus is homework, Soccer, gossip and more. That photographer, who took pictures of everything he saw and loved, and then immersed himself in his film to find something... The blond boy with pale skin said hello to people who came and went, and then walked alone The empty and lonely corridor... The girl who looked a little autistic stopped on the playground, looked at the sky, didn't know what she remembered, and suddenly smiled... The girls were talking by the school window. The prince in their mind, and he happened to pass by, their laughter echoed in the corridor... The two boys who later entered the school with guns and swept all the way started their first kiss gently in the bathroom...
The first four of the film In ten minutes, few people figure out what the film is about.
Everything seems so calm, but under the calm picture, everyone has their own turbulent undercurrent, but no one can really understand the feelings of the other person. We will never know the real reason for the smile and sadness at that moment. . So here is the sound of gunshots, two teenagers paced into the school, raised their guns, killed their classmates, killed their teachers...until the two of them were left in the school, and they met in the school cafeteria as agreed each other, after which one kills the other. This is the end of the story.
At the end of the film, the camera went back to the outside of the school, and the people who came saw the school, which was no different from the title. The camera turned to the sky, and everything returned to calm. In the sky in the picture, there are constantly changing clouds, do you still remember the school at the beginning?
It is also the sky, with constantly changing clouds.
Nothing seems to have happened...

View more about Elephant reviews

Extended Reading

Elephant quotes

  • Alex: [after Eric gets into the shower with him] Well this is it. We're gonna die today. I've never even kissed anyone before, have you?

    [Alex and Eric start kissing each other]

  • John McFarland: Excuse me sir, don't go in there!