Elephant is a 2003 American psychological drama film written, directed and edited by Gus Van Sant. It takes place in Watt High School, in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, and chronicles the events surrounding a school shooting, heavily inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. The film begins a short time before the shooting occurs, following the lives of several characters both in and out of school, who are unaware of what is about to unfold. The film stars mostly new actors, including John Robinson, Alex Frost, and Eric Deulen.
Elephant is the second film in Van Sant's "Death Trilogy"—the first is Gerry (2002) and the third Last Days (2005)—all three of which are based on actual events.
An ordinary day at a high school in Portland, Oregon, is shown through the perspective of several students. Among them are John, who struggles with dealing with his alcoholic father; Elias, a photography student who is building a portfolio of other students; Michelle, an outcast who struggles with her body issues; Nicole, Brittany, and Jordan, three bulimic teens who gripe about their parents; popular athlete and lifeguard Nathan and his girlfriend, Carrie; and Acadia, a close friend of John's who attends a gay–straight alliance meeting.
Unbeknownst to anyone, two other students, Alex and Eric, are preparing to carry out a mass shooting and bomb attack at their school. Their motives are vague and inconclusive, with several scenes showing them being bullied and exposed to violent media. Flashbacks throughout the film show them preparing for the massacre by ordering weapons online and formulating an attack plan, which is to detonate bombs in the cafeteria during lunch hour and shoot people as they try to escape.
On the day of the shooting, the pair makes their way to school in Alex's car, armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol. John encounters them outside the school and is told by Alex to leave. Realizing what is about to happen, John tries to warn students and teachers outside, then goes looking for his father after finding his car still outside the school from when they arrived earlier that morning.
Inside the school, the bombs that Alex and Eric had planted fail to go off, so they decide to start shooting indiscriminately. The pair heads to the library and opens fire on the students there, killing Elias (who photographed them right before they started shooting) and Michelle. Other students and teachers in the building hear the gunfire and begin to evacuate.
The gunmen then split up and head to opposite ends of the school. Alex enters the girls' bathroom where he surprises Nicole, Brittany, and Jordan, presumably shooting all three. Acadia becomes frozen in fear after witnessing a student being shot dead in the corridor before she is rescued by Benny, an African-American student athlete who helps her out a window before deciding to find the gunmen. Outside the school, John finds his now-sober father, who tries to comfort him as they observe the ongoing attack.
In the corridor, Eric encounters Mr. Luce, the principal, whom he chastises for treating kids like him and Alex poorly. Benny encounters the two and is shot dead, before Eric seemingly lets Mr. Luce go, only to kill him moments later.
Alex and Eric reunite in the cafeteria, now strewn with overturned chairs, backpacks, several dead bodies, and numerous abandoned half-eaten lunches. The pair have a brief conversation about who they've shot while Alex casually drinks from a cup, which ends when he suddenly shoots Eric mid-sentence. Alex leaves the cafeteria, showing no emotion over killing Eric, and discovers Carrie and Nathan hiding in a freezer. He tauntingly recites "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" to them to decide whom he should kill first, though the film ends before he makes his decision.
Cast
Alex Frost as Alex, the more intelligent of the two killers, implied to be the one in charge. He is an accomplished but frustrated pianist and sketch artist.
Eric Deulen as Eric, a slacker, Alex's friend, and the other killer. He is less intelligent than Alex, and Alex is obviously aware of this. He is shot in the chest by Alex near the end of the film, while talking about whom he had killed earlier.
John Robinson as John McFarland, Alex's friend who has trouble at school while managing his alcoholic father. Alex warns him and a few other people to stay away from the massacre.
Kristen Hicks as Michelle, a nerdy girl ashamed of her body. The film follows her through the locker room and into the library where she assists, and it is there that she is the first to die in the massacre.
Brittany Mountain, Jordan Taylor, and Nicole George as Brittany, Jordan, and Nicole, three bulimic girls who talk incessantly, gripe about parents, and squabble with one another.
Bennie Dixon as Benny, an athletic student who helps Acadia escape out of a window before approaching Eric. He is shot and presumed dead.
Alicia Miles as Acadia, a close friend of John and a member of the Gay-Straight Alliance. During the shooting, Benny discovers her standing still in a classroom and helps her escape from the school and the shooters.
Elephant was filmed in Van Sant's hometown, Portland, Oregon, in late 2002, on the former campus of Whitaker Middle School (previously Adams High School).
There was no initial script before the filming started. The script was "written" to its final form during shooting, with cast members improvising freely and collaborating in the direction of scenes. It was shot over 20 days.[4]
JT LeRoy (a pen name for author Laura Albert) is credited as an associate producer for the film.
Title
The title Elephant is a tribute to the 1989 BBCshort filmof the same name, directed by Alan Clarke.[4] Van Sant originally believed Clarke's title referred to the parable of the blind men and an elephant, in which several blind men try to describe an elephant, and each draws different conclusions based on which body part they touched, and Van Sant's film uses that interpretation, as the same general timeline is shown multiple times from multiple viewpoints.[5] Later, Van Sant discovered Clarke's film referred to the phrase "elephant in the room" (the collective denial of some obvious problem).[6] Also, Gus Van Sant named Chantal Akerman's film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) as an inspiration.[7]
Elephant received mainly positive reviews from critics and has a score of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 164 reviews with an average rating of 7.10/10. The critical consensus states "The movie's spare and unconventional style will divide viewers."[9] The film also has a score of 70 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 37 critics indicating "generally favourable reviews".[10]
Roger Ebert praised the film and gave it 4 out of 4 stars writing "Gus Van Sant's Elephant is a violent movie in the sense that many innocent people are shot dead. But it isn't violent in the way it presents those deaths. There is no pumped-up style, no lingering, no release, no climax. Just implacable, poker-faced, flat, uninflected death. Truffaut said it was hard to make an anti-war film because war was exciting even if you were against it. Van Sant has made an anti-violence film by draining violence of energy, purpose, glamor, reward and social context. It just happens. I doubt that Elephant will ever inspire anyone to copy what they see on the screen. Much more than the insipid message movies shown in social studies classes, it might inspire useful discussion and soul-searching among high school students."[11]
The Red Lake shootings that occurred in 2005 were briefly blamed on the film, as it was viewed by gunman Jeff Weise 17 days prior to the event.[22] A friend of Weise said that he brought the film over to a friend's house and skipped ahead to parts that showed two students planning and carrying out a school massacre. Although they talked about the film afterwards, Weise said and did nothing to make anyone suspect what he was planning.[23]
During the Suzano school shooting that occurred in 2019, both perpetrators were seen wearing clothing that resembled that of the main characters of Elephant.[24]
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