Elephant (2003)
A day in the lives of a group of average teenage high school students. The film follows every character and shows their daily routines. Things go extreme when two students arrive with violent intentions.
1971, Costa Mesa, California, USA
10 January 1985, Beaverton, Oregon, USA
30 June 1959, Berkeley, California, USA
30 December 1984, Portland, Oregon, USA
27 March 1977, Portland, Oregon, USA
20 April 1889, Braunau am Inn, Upper Austria, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
17 July 1986, Vancouver, Washington, USA
October 18, 2008
One of the most stimulating and provocative films of the year.
April 01, 2006
Van Sant's least 'show-offy', most personal, best picture in years (maybe ever), and an honourable attempt at respectfully considering the unbearable.
October 18, 2005
A failure to communicate
August 03, 2012
Director Gus Van Sant takes a powerful approach to this material, without being heavy-handed.
April 24, 2013
The approach is oddly riveting, though, because the tension builds slowly, and you know what's going to happen at the end of the day.
May 14, 2014
Watching it, one is left with the cold realization that a story like this had to be made for the screen, and it had to be done so exactly with this level of intensity.
January 26, 2006
The film doesn't try to explain, but to put us in a subjective time and space, a place where it's impossible not to feel the abject horror of random violence.
April 24, 2013
What I'll remember most vividly about Gus Van Sant's extraordinary "Elephant" is not the violent climax but the state of grace that precedes it.
April 29, 2009
One of the most disturbing films I've ever seen, one that gave me a rush of emotions of sadness, horror, disbelief, shock, and anguish.
April 24, 2013
Elephant creates gorgeous, wide-open spaces that allow viewers the freedom to reflect without having a point-of-view imposed on them.
August 07, 2004
Elephant is a lurid tease posing as an art film.
April 24, 2013
Gus Van Sant's fascinating, mysterious, semidocumentary meditation on the Columbine massacre is not very satisfying, but it's still something to see.
