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Elephant (2003)
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All reviews for Elephant
When A Video Game Movie Isn’t
by
SpoutBlog
in
SpoutBlog on spout.com
hasn't rated it.
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"Every week or so you’ll hear about a video game being adapted for the big screen, especially with the gaming industry raking it in hand over fist these days. In the past year alone studios have touted the announcements of deals for game-based movies like World of Warcraft, Halo, and Metal Gear Solid. But what about the movies that already seem like video games? There are a fair share of flicks that feature everything from gimmicky camera styles to plotlines that seem like they were ripped right out of the latest console bestseller and plunked into multiplexes. Check out the list below and watch these video game movies that aren’t video game movies. 1. Elephant (2003): This Gus Van Sant film was inspired by the Columbine school shooters, who were in turn supposedly inspired by video games Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. The movie is made up of extremely long tracking shots, filmed just behind the character the story is currently following. By design, this makes the film look like a thirdp ... "
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ELEPHANT
by
achance42
in
Weasel Words on Film
liked it.
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"I really can't find the right words to describe how I felt after seeing Gus Van Sant's Elephant. "Violated" isn't quite right, nor is "manipulated," which I think has a negative connotation. It's a disturbing film, which has left many of its viewers feeling violated and/or manipulated but those adjectives are much too superficial to explain how it made me feel. Without a doubt, this anatomy of a school shooting, loosely based on the Columbine tragedy, is one of the most bold and brilliant American films made this decade. But I can't say that I liked it. I think it's well-made and I recommend it highly. It's just wrong to say that you like a film like this.The title of the film itself is as much a topic of discussion as its content. The official answer is that Elephant was the title of a short about killings in Ireland and Van Sant named his film after that. That original short took its name from the adage, "the elephant in ... "
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don't watch this if you want to ...
by
ohkthnks
in
ohkthnks Blog
is neutral about it.
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"this movie can be looked at in two ways, in my opinion.if you look at this for some sort of entertainment, you will, without doubt, hate it. it's very slow paced and drags on. it likes to showcase the really boring parts of a person's life like walking alone down a long hallway of a school. if you look at it from an artistic point of view, it's beautiful in that it tries to capture real life under abnormal circumstances. anyway ... all the while i was watching it, i kept thinking to myself: i paid 4 bucks for this, so just sit through it. and what's on the DVD cover is true. this movie is unforgettable ... whether that be in a negative or positive sense of the word. "
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"Keep your eyes open and y ...
by
BigJeffLebowski
in
BigJeffLebowski Blog
loved it.
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"As far as sex symbols go, few are willing to plumb the depths of depravity as fully and as frequently as Asia Argento. This is significant not only in that it opens her to a world of film roles at which other actress would likely scoff, but also because her magnetism infuses even her most deplorable characters with an intrinsic, unquantifiable duende that makes other characters’ attractions to them a little more explicable. No film I’ve seen of hers demonstrates this more definitively than The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, which she also co-wrote and directed from the faux autobiographical works of JT LeRoy. It is important that the film’s -- and the stories’ -- lack of authenticity be addressed in any critical assessment of the work. Argento begins her film with a close-up of what is presumably her personal copy of “The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things,” complete with marginalia and annotations. The audience is immediately aw ... "
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Elephant
by
MovieBabe
in
MovieBabe Blog
hasn't rated it.
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"By Tricia Olszewski Gus Van Sant's Elephant isn't the proverbial one in the living room. Rather, the director titled his fictionalized account of a Columbine-style high-school shooting after the parable in which a group of blind men each feel a different part of a pachyderm—trunk, ear, leg, etc. Each, of course, becomes convinced that he has the correct sense of the animal as a whole. Indeed, Van Sant does offer various fractured perspectives on his subject matter. But he also refrains from judgment completely—which seems more akin to an obvious, hulking problem of the living-room persuasion. After a lingering shot of a clear autumn sky, the film follows several students going about their day in a Portland, Ore., high school: John (John Robinson), who gets in trouble for being tardy when he spends the morning looking after his drunk dad; Eli (Elias McConnell), a polite photographer who scours the campus for candid shots; Nate (Nathan Tyson) and his girlfriend, Carrie ... "
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Could've been better
by
RyantheFATE
in
RyantheFATE Blog
lost interest.
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"I first checked out Elephant by Gus Van Sant because a friend loved it. Although the story was strong and had a lot of potential, this was an overall, weak film. I understand that Van Sant just picked these kids off of the streets of Portland but he could've at least yelled "CUT!" a few times during the filming due to poor acting. The movie tries to create realism by using abnormally long shots and following students from point a to point b. I was alright with that as well. What I didn't like was that he could never allow any character to have anything that would distinct them from other students emotionally-wise. What I mean by this is that when the students die, I couldn't really feel anything for them. "
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Re: Starring You
by
paul
in
PulpFiction1975
loved it.
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"My childhood pretty much took place in The Apostle. Junior High was eerily reminiscent of Welcome to the Dollhouse. My ideal image of High School is The Breakfast Club, but the reality was more like Elephant (before the killing starts). I think my college years were reminiscent of All the Real Girls. I know, none of those guys were in college but—when you consider how much time I spent with my girlfriend—neither was I. I'd say I currently feel most at home in a film I just saw, The Talent Given Us.But what I'd really like to be is a companion white-guy to Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves. Not that I want to spend time with Costner, but I love how Kicking Bird describes his journey as "the path to be an authentic human." "
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