Elephant

Victims, we all are, wisely says the Crow. It is easy to recognize us in them: Who were they? How did they live? What they left behind? John deals with his alcoholic father, Elias dreams of a photograph of him in a cover of a magazine, Nathan is popular, Michelle does not feel good about her body, Benny plays basketball, Jordan vomits after eating, Alex plays the piano, Eric is alone.

Society discriminates and distributes us grants as premature roles to which we stick to avoid being mercilessly dragged away by the flow. Foolish, everyone, victims, we obey and let go, it's easy, we want to belong, don’t you? However, there are days when things are turned upside down and the stream loses its meaning. This is one of those days.

When dealing with issues that so straightforward deal with themes like massacres, serial murders or terrorist attacks, it is easy to fall into the desire to polarize and to take part, and point out who is good or evil. At the same time, it is also frequent to try to look for who to blame and to find reasons. Pointing fingers, "it was him, this thing happened" and deeply carving into the chains of facts that led Alex and Eric to take a gun and shoot against some school mates against the walls of their school is what this movie could have been about.

Director Gus Van Sant refuses to follow this approach and presents a harsh film that tells the facts without judgment or blame. We walked behind the characters; we hear them breathing and speaking, expressing what they feel. We let them pass by us and, at least for a while, we release them of the indifference that surrounds them daily, we give up our blindness, we allow them to be.

"Bowling for Columbine" is aggressive and irresponsible: exploiting the tragic event to denounce, it manipulates images to make the viewer see what the director wants to see and it tries to convince by knockout. "Elephant" is more discreet and above all responsible. It talks about the same issue from a different perspective and leaves to the judgment of the viewer the accusations and convictions.

In that sense it is wiser. Cinematically is very well done: the shoots that follow the characters provide an interesting perspective, the story is not complicated, the application for returning again and again over the same moment gives a sense of being dreaming, and the colors and lights are chosen to strike: despite the dark theme, it is a brilliant film.

Additionally, the natural choice of actors for the leading roles was successful. I like the choppy dialogues and the detailed shots of completely routinely moments.

The judgment of this film will depend critically on how each and every one has different perspectives to address these issues.

Director: Gus Van Sant

Writer: Gus Van Sant

Stars: Elias McConnell, Alex Frost and Eric Deulen