Gus Van Sants Elephant - 1070 Words

Van Sant’s film represents the reality of high school, focusing on the look of its beauty, characters, while also ignoring the basic grime inherent on most campuses. Van Sant takes pride in portraying a valuable image. What’s in the room really touches you if it is closely examined. The hallways and the fields of the school are in pristine condition, staying abnormally clean, almost too clean for a school. Despite this seeming glorification of the building, the hallways are kept as a constant secondary to the sharply focused characters the camera constantly follows. This really takes the focus away from the bare walls and empty hallways and places it directly on the students. The film isn’t about the location that it occurred, but more about the people that it happened to. The focus is on the students of the film, both figuratively and literally. The camera appears to look like it’s never stop moving. It does halt for brief pauses that seem to rela x the viewer. There is some frustration upon watching because you can’t collect all the data you need to deconstruct the film. However the scenes do go go back and forth with each other sometimes. At one point you may notice that you’re following a student and it will cut into the perspective of another student whom will pass by the student that was originally being followed. This sort of filming can cause confusion but employs a nice twist to the film. The plot doesn’t post the events in chronological order. When aShow MoreRelatedThe Film, Elephant, Directed by by Gus Van Sant was Inspired by Real Life Events659 Words   |  3 Pages‘Elephant’ is a film directed and written by Gus Van Sant and was inspired by a real incident that took place in 1999. The term â€Å"elephant† here is taken from the phrase â€Å"Elephant in the room† which means a significant issue that people overlook or do not resolve. The issue (elephant) here is high school shootings in America. Elephant is a serene, yet haunting experience that leaves viewers with a â€Å"spirit-crushing ennui† that images American culture (Zwick 2004). The movie tracks a handful of studentsRead More Elephant the movie Essay1540 Words   |  7 Pages Gus Van Sant’s Elephant was at once critically praised and denounced by both film reviewers and filmgoers alike. The cinematography takes you on a waltz throughout a seemingly typical day at an unnamed high school, stopping through the journey to focus on the stereotypes of school. The jock, the quirky artist, the cliqued girls, the skateboarder, they are all represented and representative of his film. Van Sant created a film, seemingly without a staunch opinion on the horrors of the Columbine shootingsRead MoreElephant, a Film Analysis Essay examples633 Words   |  3 PagesThe Tragedy of Columbine was caused by the social injustices inflicted upon two students; Alex Frost and Eric Deulen. This is the message Gus Van Sant portrays in his movie `Elephant. These two characters are not part of the `in crowd and are picked upon in school to the point that they come to school with guns. Present day schools are treating this issue incorrectly by not trying to relinquish the social injustices of high school. Many schools today now completely cut off the school from