Dir. Gus Van Sant , US , 2003, 88 mins
Cast:
Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson, Elias McConnell, Jordan Taylor, Carrie Finklea, Nicole George, Brittany Mountain , Kristen Hicks, Matt Malloy
Gus Van Sant's much publicised return to his indie roots has acquired quite a history already. Last year Elephant won the Palme D'Or at Cannes and was subsequently panned by critics. And no wonder - it's a controversial film. Inspired by the spate of high school killing sprees in the States in recent years, it spends eighty minutes building up an authentic picture of contemporary high school life, and ten minutes shooting it down. Literally.
Van Sant's aim, in Executive Producer Diane Keaton's words, is to "look at the violence in schools in a different way". He does this by creating a film shot from multiple perspectives. By using real high school students in the main roles, Van Sant adds an authenticity to the build up of events and the terrible denouement.
The film refuses to offer a linear narrative, but an obscure reference to a Buddhist parable provides some explanation. Some blind men describe an elephant; each has a different understanding of what it is, for none can see the whole. Van Sant finds this apt for his subject, for he says "it is a problem that was hard to identify, because of the different ways of looking at it". High ideals indeed - and a fiver for anyone who would have got that reference without reading it here or in an interview. But what of the result - the film itself, without the background explanation?
The build up is interesting enough; a day at high school told in intimate detail from various perspectives that occasionally meet before moving away again. There's the jock and his pretty girlfriend, the beautiful but troubled kid with an alcoholic dad, the three girls bitching about mothers and calories (there's an inspired moment in the loos when, after eating a couple of lettuce leaves, they move as one into the cubicles and throw up), the budding photographer and the loner girl who's working in the library during breaks. The docu-drama style of the camera and the improvised approach to the acting heighten the atmosphere of reality while the constant confluence and intercutting with the soon-to-be killers' stories help build the tension. However, as most sitting in the cinema know the outcome anyway, it becomes an earnest but stultifying wait for the inevitable.
The over-use of music is completely at odds with the otherwise simplistic beauty of the sound design: It's 'musique concrete' - a form of music based on natural sounds. There are some truly sublime moments such as the sound of music practise drifting out into the hall as the camera snakes past, creating a real sense of tension. But that's then completely overridden by the portentous use of pieces like the Moonlight Sonata and Für Elise, so heavy on the sentiment, that these moments are more readily associated with pastiche than tragedy.
Alex (Frost) and Eric (Deulen), convincingly and chillingly played by two 'normal' high school students, are clearly outsiders - barely seen at school and only then to be bullied. They're seen mainly at Alex's home, playing violent computer games, taking delivery of Fed Ex-ed guns and doing shooting practise in the garage, while parents are only seen briefly as headless torsos leaving the house.
Further, the film references various parties who claim that such activities may be behind the increase in violence in schools: a culture of bullying, violent computer games and access to guns to name a few. But with the filmmakers refusal to offer answers, what conclusion are we expected to draw?
There's something rotten in the United States of America and its high schools, an unspeakable 'thing' that everyone seems afraid to deal with in any depth - including, ultimately, Van Sant. At best, Elephant is a reconstruction, at worst, it's an insensitive, confused experiment with the power of filmmaking. Nothing of the film's successes stands up to the bleakness of its final word - and certainly not the final, twee shot of the sky, which frankly left a bad taste in my mouth.
Kerry McLeod
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