Watch Elephant For Free

Waste of time

How sad is this?

An action-packed slog

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

What was supposed to be serious movie showing us the reality of a school shooting (presumably Columbine) ended up being mostly very boring and repetitive with some sequences even being unintentionally hilarious (the shower scene especially). Parts of it are very cheesy E.g. the scene where Alex plays the piano, the kiss scene, the three bulimic girls and the fact that the main characters room has a picture of and elephant both on the wall and the bed throw.The acting is terrible, the ways the director tries to immerse us into the story are very obvious and obviously not working. You could walk in an hour into the movie and not miss any important information. The movie, aside from trying to tackle the problem of school shooting and general violence, also takes n numerous problems of young people, including eating disorders, low self- esteem, parent's alcoholism and teenage pregnancy. The intent is very noble and i get what he was trying to do but i find the execution very disappointing, especially for a film tackling such an important topic.

The premise, interesting. The timing,poignant. The execution (probably not the appropriate word) horrid. If you like your films pretentious,pointlessly artsy and most of all feel the need to like such films that every art critic under the sun adores then this will be a nice way to waste an hour and twenty minutes. I cannot fathom spending a day with anyone who really truly liked this film. At one point it felt as though the film may go somewhere, the lack of dialogue may help to emphatise with characters and we may see some understanding as to why this happened and how it would effect the students we followed from the start. I felt no empathy towards any character. I feel empathy for the viewer and I beg of you if you have any common sense do not waste your time. I wasted my time writing a review but i do it for the people who detest films like this, stay away

A film that lacks the depth and tact to handle its very sensitive subject matter with the sort of respect it deserves. It fails to offer a fresh take on the incident and feels like it is simply using its high profile to create shock for shock's sake. Furthermore, the gross simplification of the idea that media and art can create violent tendencies in young people (an idea that was heavily debated at the time) is presented with possibly the single worst fake- video-game-in-a-film I have ever seen. In a scene where one of the shooters is playing a fake first-person-shooter game that looks like it was made in less than 20 minutes using MS Paint and the most basic 3D animating tool and is never expanded upon. This theme of media influence comes up once more throughout the film, where the shooters are seen watching and being seemingly engrossed by a documentary about Adolf Hitler and the power of propaganda in Nazi Germany. I can only assume this scene was intended to show that the school shooters were obsessed with Hitler and the Nazis, presumably meant to be shocking but in a way that came off as "oh, these kids are interested in the Nazis? Well, no wonder they would be capable of a thing like this".I'm generally a fan of Gus Van Sant's films but Elephant filled me with disgust and disappointment. I expected a more tactfully-considered and respectfully handled piece from a director whose work I typically find to be unique and thought-provoking. Instead I got voyeuristic and ill- conceived trash with forced shock value and an undeserved weight garnered only by the notoriety of the Columbine school-shooting.

Directed by Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting, Milk), and produced by Diane Keaton, I had heard the title of this film probably once in the past, and with it featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die I was always going to watch. The title is a tribute to the BBC drama of the same name directed by Alan Clarke, and refers to the phrase "elephant in the room" (the collective denial of some obvious problem), not what Van Sant originally assumed was based on the parable of the blind men and elephant (several blind men trying describe an elephant from parts of its body touched). Basically the film take place in a suburb of Portland in a high school, it is simply an ordinary day in the lives of a group of several average teenage students going through their daily routines. Specifically focused are high school students and close friends Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen), they are seemingly ordinary and a part of the fabric of the high school and its array of student actions, in fact it's hard to distinguish them. Alex plays classical piano and Eric plays video games, they calmly watch Nazi programmes on television, and have purchased firearms over the Internet, appearing ordinary and interesting as any of the others students, they are actually drawing up plans for a merciless killing spree. They seem to have enough ammunition and bombs to last the last of the afternoon, they simply walk through the corridors and classrooms killing several of their school peers, and there is no rescue from the authorities or emergency services. Also starring John Robinson as John McFarland, Elias McConnell as Elias, Jordan Taylor as Jordan, Carrie Finklea as Carrie, Nicole George as Nicole, Brittany Mountain as Brittany, Alicia Miles as Acadia, Kristen Hicks as Michelle, Timothy Bottoms as Mr. McFarland and Matt Malloy as Mr. Luce. The cast of characters are real students using their actual names, all conversations are improvised, the elaborate plan by the two antagonists to kill everyone in the high school is the most memorable scene of the entire film, the senseless massacre is a near mimic of the Columbine high school massacre, and the ending of the film has no resolution, so there are questions unanswered and it all experimental, but that is the point, so all in all it does make for an entertaining drama. Worth watching!