Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Elephant (2003) - Van Sant's masterpiece about an unbearable crime

3/11/2017

Elephant (2003) - Van Sant's masterpiece about an unbearable crime

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best High School Movie of the Year + Best Societal Critique of the Year + Best True-Crime Movie of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year + Most Deserved Hit of the Year

A Korean poster for Gus Van Sant's Elephant, which combines youth's exciting promise of romance with the depths of despair as outlined in a school corridor with a target shooting plate superimposed

Elephant examines the lives of the teenagers in an average American high school, where two students are about to carry out a massacre.

Inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, in which two students killed 12 other students and a teacher and injured 21 others before committing suicide, Elephant breaks the taboo of depicting teen mayhem not by swimming in blood and anguish but with an intimately observed and very quiet, but no less stirring portrayal. This makes it an ideal film in trying to focus on the devastation and piece together some kind of understanding of the similar, grisly tragedies that have regrettably taken place several times since as well.
The title is a tribute to the same-titled 1989 BBC short film by Alan Clarke, which tells of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland in a similar style, and is also an allusion to the parable of the blind men and the elephant, in which each blind man describes the being and draws different conclusions based on which part of the animal he touched.
Kentuckian master writer-director Gus Van Sant (Milk (2008)) has made a sensitive and provocative film here, brilliantly thought-provoking, at times beautiful and at other times grim. Definitely not one to be missed!

Related post:

Gus Van Sant: Promised Land (2012) or, Let's Get Your Small Town A-fracka-lackin'!

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

John Robinson (Looking (2014), TV-series) in Gus Van Sant's Elephant

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 3 mil. $
Box office: 10 mil. $
= Box office success
[Elephant premiered 18 May (Cannes) and runs 81 minutes. It is the middle film in Van Sant's Death trilogy, which also comprises Gerry (2002) and Last Days (2005). Van Sant first thought he would make a factual TV movie of the Columbine High massacre, but was later inspired to make something not so directly factual. Shooting took place in Portland, Oregon with the mostly amateur actors improvising extensively. The film opened #36 in 6 theaters to 93k $ and peaked at #26 and in 38 theaters (different weeks) in North America, where it grossed 1.2 mil. $ (12 % of the total gross). The biggest market was France with 4.4 mil. $ (44 %), and the third biggest Italy with 1 mil. $ (10 %). The film won 3 Cannes awards, including the Palm d'Or and the Best Director award. It was also nominated for a César award (France's Oscar) and two Independent Spirit Awards. Roger Ebert agreed with Film Excess and awarded it 4/4 stars. The 2005 Red Lake shootings in Minnesota had a connection with Elephant in that the 16 year-old shooter, who killed 9 and injured 5 people before committing suicide, had watched the film 17 days prior to his misdeeds. Elephant is fresh at 72 % with a 7.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

3/11/2017

Elephant (2003) - Van Sant's masterpiece about an unbearable crime

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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