Rating: 
Summary: "ELEPHANT" Gus van Sant ... Pure human sensibility.....
Review: This, film is one of the bests, Films about, The Mind Of the adolescents.Bethoven, is the new Ultraviolence. The silence, and just the camera, follow the actors. convert this film, in A extremly deep experience, the movie touch the soul, of millions of others teens, in the world.I recomend this Film, just for , mature people and sense of respet, Its maby, "2001...a space oddesey" of the young people.. Suffer of depres and Pain...........Its One of the bests movies this the year. Human Senses... to the most high levels.
Rating:
Summary: You either love it or you hate it
Review: I saw this movie for the first time while in Ireland for a study abroad semester. I actually went to see it on a whim, thinking it would be a good, thought-provoking movie. I don't think I have ever been more right. I was sitting in the theater, awed and quiet by what I had seen on the screen. I did end up crying... just because Gus Van Sant did such an amazing job with all elements of this movie. All the actors were casted from a local high school, there was pretty much no soundtrack (most of it is just talking or silence), and all the lighting he uses is natural (mostly window lighting). More impressively, there was no script at all. He casted kids from their own personal experiences in high school and had them go through their day as they normally would. I enjoyed the movie so much because it was so real. It wasn't a sugar-coated version of the truth like so many other movies are these days. When the movie ended, and the credits began to roll, no one in the entire theater moved a muscle. It was dead silent and people were just shocked into immobility. Which was really cool; I was afraid that Irish people would get a really crappy impression of Americans because of the situation that was portrayed in the film; and no one leaving the theater was saying anything like that. To tell the truth, most of the people I know didn't appreciate how great this movie is. So if you have some intellect at all, you'll love it... but if you're a mainstream movie lover/Britney Spears wannabe, you don't hold the mental capacity to appreciate this movie... don't bother.
Rating:
Summary: gorgeous, stunning, masterful
Review: an elegantly understated, poignant slice-of-life rendering of the Columbine shootings. Van Sant refuses to play to the crowd: there is no heavy-handed moralizing, no MTV-ish emotional manipulation, no neat easy "answers"...it's a marvel that this film was even MADE in this day and age! The floating camera work provides both a beautiful dreaminess and an irresistibly in-your-face realism throughout. Definitely worth repeated viewings!
Rating:
Summary: Watch it and form your own opinion...
Review: This movie is nothing short of amazing.
Rating: 
Summary: high school is dehumanizing
Review: This film could have been great. It could have delved into the process of dehumanization that is an inherent design of all public schools. It could have revealed how cumpulsory shooling deliberately sets up children for failure, ridicule, and victimization. It could have exposed the true purpose of public education, which is to strip children of their creativity and imagination and indoctrinate them into a lifetime of consumption and obedience. These are the real reasons why some kids "snap" and kill as the boys in Columbine did. But this film does not show any of this. The film is technically sound. It is huanting and the long, tedious tracking shots do a good job of making the point that high school is long and tedious. But that is as far as it goes. There is nothing here that questions high school or cumpulsory schooling. The film refuses to provide any meaningful understanding as to why a student would shoot up his school then commit suicide. Instead, it takes cheap shots at the Internet, video games, and Hitler.
Rating:
Summary: nice film
Review: When I first saw this in a theater I didn't know what I thought about it. I wasn't sure if I liked it or not but I couldn't get it out of my mind. I guess that's what a powerful movie is all about, whether you like it or not. Well now I do like it. A lot! If you're into just pure boxoffice entertainment then don't get this. But if you're open to viewing films as something more than entertainment, you might want to check it out. I sort of think of this film as a painting or a piece of music, because it's visually spectacular and very lyrical. The slow moving tracking shots along with the Beethoven pieces give it a dream-like quality that's very relaxing, oddly, since it's a very tense build up. It's like I was calm and tense at the same when watching it. The slow pace of the film actually heightens what's about to come because you know what's coming and you feel uneasy about how quiet it is. I think this was brilliant and the lack of explanation of the characters' motives was a good idea. I think everyone would do themselves a favor by watching this film because it's a film that lets you decide what to think, rather than telling you what to think. For this reason alone it's refreshing. I applaud Van Sant's courage in making this film. It's not going to please the masses but I think it's an important film. By the way, why is this film offered in widescreen? I have the DVD and it says the original version was in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Why would you want to watch it in widescreen? The widescreen just cuts off the top and bottom of the film. It makes no sense to have a widescreen version of the film when the original version is in fullscreen. Look at the DVD screen. It shows two frames and shows the fullscreen version, which says original version, and widescreen, which you can see has the top and bottom cut off. This makes no sense!
Rating: 
Summary: Typical American Fear
Review: This is not a film that explores tortured adolescence. It is an abstract exploration of the fear that exists in an adult mind. The film follows slowly and painfully the last moments of a few students who will later lose their lives (except for the black student, who remains a mute cipher with no past or future). While the filmaker takes some risks in forcing you to endure long shots, the metaphor is well constructed and comes accross. However, it misses the most important part of this story, which is what kind of life does a person have to live to do such horrible things. The only answer Mr.Van Sant gives is a few spitballs; a pathetic and feeble attempt at portraying the torture of adolescence, especially for two kids who will kill several people and then themselves. This is a film made for people who want to be afraid of their children, not who want to understand them. This is an artistic horror movie. This is a big fat gimmick. As long as people are stuck on the horror of effect and ignore the root causes, things like this will continue to happen, and bad, manipulative neo realist movies will continue to be made.
Rating: 
Summary: Chilling, Haunting and Beautifully Made
Review: The first hour of "Elephant" is almost unbearably suspenseful; the sense of impending violence is palpable, and with each student we meet, there's the realization that every one of them might not be alive by the time the film is over. Gus Van Sant is smart to avoid turning this into a heavily plotted film, full of interweaving story lines. He's also careful to avoid trying to direct our emotions in any overt way. He approaches the material with the coldness of a documentary film maker, which is the right approach for this kind of material. Over sentimentilizing the material or focusing too much on the sensational aspects would have dumbed down material that needs to be handled intelligently and objectively if it is to have any impact. And boy, does this film have impact. The cinematography is beautiful, full of tracking shots that would make Stanley Kubrick proud. The incredible amount of time spent traversing the school building and grounds has the effect of making the school itself a character. And since the cafeteria, library, gym, playground and halls of this school will never look the same to the children who survive, how appropriate that the school itself is given a life of its own. "Elephant" is a strange film to be sure. But it's also an important one. Of course, the movie preaches to the choir, like most important films do--probably the only people who will see this are those who least need to, but I'm certainly glad I did. Grade: A
Rating:
Summary: An unforgettable bittersweet dramatization of a tragedy
Review: I saw this movie in the theatres as an afternoon out and I've never been so taken "back to what it was like to be a teenager in high school" since Brian depalma's "Carrie".
The film "Elephant" is based on a true incident {The Columbine School murders}
Such fine direction with beautiful cinematography. The movie actually takes you back to this particularly "tragic" day in history. Such a miraculous transformation for a filmmaker to achieve.
Gus blew my mind with "Psycho" with its {frame to frame take}. Once again "Elephant", does it with mood of characters and cinematographic choreographic atmosphere. The actors are beautiful and "Right On".
The awards it recieved were well deserved.
Watch it alone or with someone you love.
You will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: The worst 2 hours of my life
Review: This was, without a doubt, the worst one and a half hours of my life. The acting was horrible for every single character bar none. There was no script and it sounds like 5 year olds improved all the dialog. You will spend most of your time wincing from the awkward performances (or lack thereof) of the actors. The cinematography was nice, but not worth seeing the movie for.
Furthermore every character in the movie is a horrible cliché. From the three bulimic popular girls who vomit in unison, to the dorky girl with thick glasses who gets made fun of in gym class. The movie is repulsive in EVERY sense of the word. Any person who enjoys this movie needs to have their head examined.
As if the movie wasn't bad enough, the movie goes on to basically blame Columbine on gay people, video games, and documentaries on Hitler. The History channel is turning Beaver Cleaver into a killing machine!
I would rather have full-armed rectal exam then watch another ten minutes of this pseudo-intellectual waste of plastic. If we lived in any kind of civilized society the makers of this movie (barring the cinematographer) would be publicly executed as an example. The only good thing about this movie is that it makes "Waterworld" look like "Citizen Kane."
|
