Elephant (2003)

Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.

Director:

Gus Van Sant

Writer:

Gus Van Sant

Stars:

Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson

6 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alex Frost	...	Alex
Eric Deulen	...	Eric
John Robinson	...	John McFarland
Elias McConnell	...	Elias
Jordan Taylor	...	Jordan
Carrie Finklea	...	Carrie
Nicole George	...	Nicole
Brittany Mountain	...	Brittany
Alicia Miles	...	Acadia
Kristen Hicks	...	Michelle
Bennie Dixon	...	Benny
Nathan Tyson	...	Nathan
Timothy Bottoms	...	Mr. McFarland
Matt Malloy	...	Mr. Luce
Ellis Williams	...	GSA Teacher (as Ellis E. Williams)

Storyline

A day in the lives of a group of average teenage high school students. The film follows every character and shows their daily routines. However two of the students plan to do something that the student body won't forget.

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Plot Keywords:

student | high school | delivery man | bully | school shooting | 

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Taglines:

An ordinary high school day. Except that it's not.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for disturbing violent content, language, brief sexuality and drug use - all involving teens

Details

Official Sites:

Fine Line Features [us] Official site [fr]

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

3 October 2003 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Elefante

Filming Locations:

Whitaker Middle School, 5700 NE 39th, Portland, Oregon, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,229,210 (France) (24 October 2003)

Gross:

$1,227,000 (USA) (26 December 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

HBO Films, Fine Line Features, Meno Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Most of the shots in the movie are very long and Steadicam-based. The shot of the three girls walking through the cafeteria is 5 minutes and 19 seconds long.

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Goofs

When Nathan and Carrie are signing out, Nathan says 'excuse me miss,' once, then when it cuts to the black screen the same audio plays again.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mr. McFarland: What? Hey! Where are you going? Come here.
John McFarland: Oh, my God, Dad.
Mr. McFarland: Get in the car. You're gonna be late for school. Come on.
John McFarland: Mom's gonna kill you.

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Connections

References A Clockwork Orange (1971)

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Soundtracks

"Meeting of International Conference of Techological Psychiatry"
Written and Performed by William S. Burroughs
Courtesy of The William S. Burroughs Trust

User Reviews

I don't know

Few films are able to emotionally disturb me, but Elephant managed to do that and then some. Rarely am I this unsettled by a film. Elephant takes place at a high school and follows a collection of different students as they go about their day to day activities. However, two of the students are planning something much more sinister in the wings, and I'm sure you can already guess what that might be.

Elephant is an incredibly unique film that takes a lot of artistic risks. The first hour of the film watches students walk through the halls of their school, following behind them with a steady cam. It's boring, it's tedious, and it's frustratingly pointless, but then again, so is high school. For the first hour of the film I really didn't enjoy it and I found it pretentious and a total drag. Yet then the film climaxes with more intensity, more brutality, and more disturbing sincerity than you could ever imagine.

I wouldn't say I enjoyed the last twenty minutes of the film either. The events that play out in this film hit a little too close to home and they feel way too real. Elephant was just not fun to watch, and I was really against it after it ended. I wanted to curl up in a ball and die. But then I thought about it. The film's purpose was to just show you the day to day workings of a high school, and this is what we saw. Then, in the end, it aims to cause as much emotional turmoil within you as possible. It most certainly did this. So, with that in mind, I suppose Elephant accomplished what it was trying to do, and if a film does that you can't exactly call it a bad film, can you? I'm split on Elephant. There's some experimental artistic brilliance deep within the film and, even though it wasn't fun to watch, it does what it was trying to do. Maybe I should watch it again if I can bring myself to do so. I'm not entirely sure. It's been a long time since I've been so conflicted about a film. Consider this rating a placeholder before I really make up my mind.