Elephant
June 2004 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

The opening shot of this seemingly simple film is unsettling. From above, we see a car speeding down a residential street. It strikes another car on the right, taking off its rear-view mirror, then careens to a stop at an intersection, just in time to avoid hitting a pedestrian. Ensuing scenes reveal a drunken father is driving the car as he takes his son to school. The son orders his dad out of the car and takes the wheel, telephoning for help when he reaches the school office.

Everything then becomes normal. In a long series of tracking shots, we are shown high school students going through the motions of school. They meet in the halls and say hello; the dating ones hold hands. Everything seems as normal as apple pie. But somehow, the viewer cannot get that unsettling opening sequence out of his mind. Then, as the same boy who was involved in that first scene is leaving the school building and crossing the grounds, he encounters two camouflaged students who urge him to get out and not come back. Then back to normal. But it soon becomes apparent that this school is Columbine under another name.

Director Gus Van Sant, getting amazing performances out students who are not professional actors, plants these tiny seeds of doubt to prove that even the most normal scene might not be that at all if we dig underneath. His film is dispassionate. His handheld and Steadicam shots merely observe what is going on without any comment. He makes everything appear so normal that it seems it really could be happening anywhere, perhaps next door to the viewer.

The video on the DVD is good. The film is shot to look like a home movie, and that effect registers well on the disc. The movie is offered in both widescreen and fullscreen formats. An onscreen note says that the latter is the preferred aspect ratio. The audio is largely front and center. There was only one use of surround that I could discern, which the director saves for a special effect. Its use is quite arresting.

The DVD offers no enlightening commentary, and for once, I think that is good. This movie needs to speak for itself. It does provide a 12-minute documentary, On the Set of Elephant: Rolling Through Time, which shows some of the filming and has a few comments on violence from the cast members. There is also a theatrical trailer.

When I first saw this movie, five days ago, it didn’t register a hit. But in the days since then, its images have haunted both my waking and sleeping moments. Its power is deceptive. It sneaks up on the viewer just like that proverbial elephant in the living room. It’s like the alcoholic all families want to ignore until he crashes into a crowd with his car and kills and maims a few people. Van Sant is not presumptuous enough to tell his audience why these social pachyderms exist; he just lets us know that they are there. And that is more chilling than any amount of preaching could be.

• Go Back