Elephant

I thought that Elephant was a very different film compared to the previous films that I’ve seen before. Elephant is a film based on the Columbine school shooting. There are many perspectives shot from this film. Many of the scenes were repeated over and over again, however, the perspective of each scene was different. I felt that the dialogues of each characters were very simple and in a way unrealistic. However, I think that having a more complex and realistic dialogue was not the main focus for this film.
Gus Van Sant shows us the danger of adult negligence. Alex and Eric are both teenagers who face problems in school. By having no guidance from the grown ups, both these troubled teenagers turn to violence as a way of solving their problems. In one scene, while Alex and Eric were both eating breakfast, the image of the parent’s face were not shown. Instead the only thing visible was their body. This represented the fact that these parents were ignorant of their kid’s problems.
Overall Elephant is seen to be a very controversial film; however, I think that the message of school violence is pretty strong here. It’s a film that teaches us the negative effects of adult negligence.