elephant

[El Duderino]

from the Rolling Stone review:
"The title, borrowed from Alan Clarke's 1989 BBC film about violence in Northern Ireland, refers to something metaphorically huge that we all see and we all choose to ignore."

[Sleuth]

Well they're wrong; many of us saw Van Sant say it himself when he was on Charlie Rose not to mention several print interviews or printerviews as the kids say

[Finn]

Just watched this last night. Great movie! Very disturbing, cold and empty...but I admired it's reasons for all those things.

[Pubrick]

jesus christ, don't bother actually looking up the other pages or anything, this is the explanation for u lazy fucks..

these are from page 4..

so why is this movie called Elephant?
i think i have an idea...

The only thing I can think of is the expression "the elephant in the room."  No clue, though.  Definitely an intriguing title.

That's why.

It's that, plus the old tale of the blind men feeling parts of an elephant and trying to describe the whole thing. The point is, they're trying to describe the entire object by just touching the tusk, per se. So there's so many factors to events like school shootings that to pick one motivation or one explanation is futile and naive in the scheme of the whole.

page 5..

Los Angeles Times article:

Shooting without answers
Director Gus Van Sant's 'Elephant' examines -- but doesn't explain -- a Columbine-like shooting. He says the film is more like a poem than a detective story.

Van Sant asked "Gummo" director Harmony Korine, who had told Van Sant that [Alan] Clarke's "Elephant" was his favorite film, to write a script, but Korine became focused on other work and never finished a draft.

Clarke's "Elephant" was titled after the proverbial elephant in the living room, but when Van Sant decided to name his film after Clarke's, he thought the title referred to the Buddhist parable about a group of blind men who each touch a different part of an elephant, each concluding it's something different since none sees the whole. It was an apt metaphor for the way our society tends to look for a single answer to a problem, Van Sant says.

go there to read the whole thing if u really give a shit.

[NEON MERCURY]

spoilerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs


i liked-

the sound, the score/music, the 'gerry' videogame, the long tracking shots of following the kids around(espicailly the guy in red hoody), the derunk dad, the cinematography in general, the way this film feels like 'gerry' and a new direction gus is going through, the way high schoolers interact and talk was captureed well, benny s scenario, the self-puking trio, the opening title sequence,  and lastly the (for the dramatic 'shock') the nerd girl exodus....very unerving in the best way...click!...boom!!!.... .......... ....p.o.w.e.r.f.u.l........


i didn t like-

the generic white trash eminem wannabe character...(the other guy was totally convincing)..........

[El Duderino]

the generic white trash eminem wannabe character...(the other guy was totally convincing)..........

which? the sidekick? if so, agreed.

[NEON MERCURY]

the generic white trash eminem wannabe character...(the other guy was totally convincing)..........

which? the sidekick? if so, agreed.

...the kid who doesn t play the piano..

[El Duderino]

the generic white trash eminem wannabe character...(the other guy was totally convincing)..........

which? the sidekick? if so, agreed.

...the kid who doesn t play the piano..

the sidekick

[Chest Rockwell]

Well, no offense P, but no, I obviously did not read the earlier posts. I personally don't like to go through ever single page, so I just read the first page and the last page when I'm joining a thread, unless it's really interesting or unless the last page is continuing a certain topic of note from an earlier page. Otherwise, I'm probably not going to see it.

"That's why it's called a quip, not a slooooooowp."

[mutinyco]

Watching it on DVD, it still holds up. Still the best film of last year.

[cine]

Watching it on DVD, it still holds up. Still the best film of last year.

Phew, good. I was worried for a second.

[mutinyco]

What had you worried? I wrote it multiple times on MovieNavigator.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I was actually worried too. But not anymore.

By the way, excellent movie, probably the most important of last year, maybe the best.

We should all modify our lists.

[mutinyco]

No revision necessary...

http://movienavigator.org/2003take.htm
http://movienavigator.org/day7.htm

[cine]

That's twice tonight that you plugged your site. Was this pre-planned? Just wondering..