Disturbingly realistic and a controversial topic to tackle. Certainly through the first half, it was very mundane and I found it difficult to keep watching, but of course in hindsight it?s certainly worth staying with to feel the impact of the finish.
Filmed in a sort of Docu...( read more)
Alex Frost, Carrie Finklea, Elias McConnell
A tale about high school violence that unfolds on an ordinary school day, inside an American high school, filled with schoolwork, football, gossip and socializing. For each of the students we meet, hi...( read more
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DVD Release Date: May 4, 2004
Stats: 3,976 reviews
Flixster Reviews (3,976)
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August 19, 2009
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June 7, 2009
Unforgettable. Dealing with a high school shoot out, the film has uncommon insight in the lives and minds of the teenage killers. Brilliant. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival. The second installment in Gus Van Saint's Death series.
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March 31, 2009
Gus Van Sant must be taleneted because he made what is essentially an hour and ten minutes of kids walking around a high school given this whole other depth - a lot like paranoid park.
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September 25, 2008
"I came to realize since I had no need to make a lot of money, I should make films I find interesting, regardless of their outcome and audience."
This is a quote from director Gus Van Sant, who, after achieving success from directing Good Will Hunting, has mostly (especially aft...( read more) -
November 8, 2009
Nice cinematography but the plot fails to impress as it actually did not really focusing on the 2 school shooters.
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October 27, 2009
Such a shocking, evil, dark film, but honest and brilliant in that it provides no answers.
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October 21, 2009
The movie is not original just the fact somebody was brave enough to tackle such a controversial movie. I thought it was realistic in every sense and I didn't mind the extremely long regular scenes. I felt a big relativity to it though in the people, not the scenario at the end...( read more)
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September 12, 2009
Van Sant tries the American art-filmmaking type and succeeds. Contrary to popular opinion, I believe this little film is absolutely great and terrifying just because of its realism, but not boring (although it may be slow, but it was intended) nor pointless. The rhythm of the fil...( read more)
Critic Reviews
It simply looks at the day as it unfolds, and that is a brave and radical act; it refuses to supply reasons and assign cures, so that we can close the case and move on. full review
Elephant hurts you in ways you don't see coming; its combination of the orchestrated and the raw gets past your defenses. full review
Comments
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July 25, 2008Its just walkin....walkin walkin walkin...kill kill kill. I didnt like it, especially the extremely open end!
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January 9, 2008i think that is a very nice film from gus van sant...you know...that minimal style from van sant's camera(36mm i think!don't shoot me!).it's a trilogy elephant-gerry-last days. and i thought that gus van sant was a "queer"director but...he did his best work on that films...which (he named them) the circle of death.
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March 30, 2007It was really great and it portrayed something that could really happen and that was great. The thing that bugged me was that when the shooting was going on everyone seemed so calm "oh no! He's been shot. Lets all smile and not try and find the quickest was out of the school" Other than that it was a flippin good movie!
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March 2, 2007This movie gave me the creeps! It scared the holy heeby jeebies out of me..... I would never let my children watch such a movie! I can't believe so many people like this movie. I gave it 2.5 stars for the effect that it left me with but, not the story line. This movie is probably very painful to a lot of people! Crazy movie, that's for sure.
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June 2, 2006Achingly dull garbage that ploddingly meanders through 80 mins of sheer boredom with no character insight or anything of interest. It raises no new issues but instead chooses to ape tired stereotypes about these kind of shootings. It gets lost up it's own arse.
Plus, everyone in the school is a grade A moron.
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