POST 14: Elephant, a Gus Van Sant movie (2003)

Elephant : 




                                     

   
1) What struck you most in the film?

- What struck me is the fact  that teenagers of our age can commit such a crime and be passive as if it was a game.

2) What also impressed you?

- What is also impressed si that both  are not at all check or control and can buy weapons on the Internet without  any check or concerns from their parents.

3) Did you find anything more particularly upsetting?

- I find more particulary upsetting when the deliverer delivered weapons to the house and that the parents or relatives do not appear in all the movie. They are delivered to themselfes.

4) What did you find very disturbing?

- I find very disturbing the idea of killing people in general. In addition to this, both have a great deal of luck and they lead a quiet life.

5) What was most shocking?

- I think that the most shocking is the insecurity and the unconsciousness. They returned into their
high school armed and nobody intervened.

6) What does the film  suggest about the two school shooters?

- The film sugests that  they are not known  compared with other characters and that they have no friends or experience. They live in their world.
However, it does not mean that they have a bad

7) What's more, what does the film director make clear about the two killers?
- The film director shows us that they do not feel at ease in their own life, they are a little lost and that is why they kiss each other. Furthermore, they undergo many mockeries by them classmates.

8) What kind of approach to the school shooting itself did Gus Van Sant opt for?

- Gus Van Sant did a very poetic but also realistic approach of the school shooting. The figure of Benny is very poetic he is like a real angel, his steps, his figure,everything in him is not real. However he shows persons with real problems, like the three girls with bulimia or the guys in the meeting to talk about gay people, that makes the shooting very real.

9) Moreover, what's the main consequence of the realistic treatment he uses? What about the 'poetic' touches he instills throughout the film

- This realistic treatment, we immerce in this mood of serenity and then, horror, fear and mutilation. In the middle of the higher tension scene, we can see a sky with some clouds on it that can give calm and serenity. The piano scene, can give a poetic vision of one of the killers.

10) As a conclusion, what must we admit about the way in which the killing and the killers are perceived by the film viewers? 

- As a conclusion we must admit that the killers are shown as victims of the society , surffering bullying because of high school Young guys , and actually they really need help, they can't being forget and marginalize by the others because this can create a tragedy. Maybe his aim wasn't to denounce the act of the killers, but to criticize the fact that in the United States, it is too easy to get yourself some weapons. But anyways their act is inconceivable.