Gus Van Sant’s “ELEPHANT”

Disturbing is an understatement.
Christina and I had gone to a Directors event that Frameline was holding for Gus Van Sant a few months ago…
Gus talked about his films, and showed clips of his new projects, one of which was “Elephant”. He told of how the people in this film are actual high school students, who have never acted before…then, merely stating that the film was “about high school students”, showed a clip. The clip shown was the opening scene in the film, which shows a teenager being “driven” to school by his alcoholic parent, and how this kid deals with the situation. This was the premise of the film I thought. I figured this film would revolve around this family and how this teenager has to take on the responsibility of a grown-up because his parents hadn’t.
My assumption was FAR from correct.
I had NO idea what the basis of this film was really going to be.
NO IDEA

This is one of those films which presents the perspective of many of the characters. The amazing aspect is how he manages to film overlapping scenes from three different perspectives.

This film doesn’t really end, and therefore stays with the viewer so that they may formulate their own….ending…