Elephant: A Film By Gus Van Sant

Theatrical Release Date: 2003 10 24 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 026359222924

Studio: HBO Home Video

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Graphic Violence, Not For Children, Profanity, Watch With Your Teen]

Summary: Director Gus Van Sant returned to the low-key style of his early independent efforts with this semi-improvised exploration of how violence makes its way into a typical American high school. Eric (Eric Deulen) and Alex (Alex Frost) are two close friends who are students in a well-to-do suburb of Portland, OR. Eric and Alex are at once ordinary and misfits; while they seem to be confined to the edges of the clique-oriented social strata of high school, little about their behavior draws attention to itself. Or at least not during a typical school day; on their own time, the two boys are fascinated by Nazi iconography, enjoy violent video games, tentatively explore homoerotic desires, and coolly begin to make plans for an armed ambush of the school, drawing up working diagrams of the lunch room during study hall and buying rifles over the Internet. Drawing an expected degree of controversy, Elephant had its world premiere when it was screened in competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, where it won both Best Director for Van Sant and the Golden Palm award. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Cinematography (Runner-up) – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Director – Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or – Cannes Film Festival Best Director – Independent Spirit Awards Best Cinematography – Independent Spirit Awards Best Cinematography – New York Film Critics Circle Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival

Features: cc"On the Set of Elephant, Rolling Through Time" (12 minutes)
Widescreen and full-screen presentation of the film
Theatrical trailer

Elephant: A Film By Gus Van Sant

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 05/04/2004

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono, DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo, DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS Digital Theater Systems, DD Dolby Digital

Runtime: 80 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 -- Pan and Scan
1. Parental Guidance [1:25]
2. Signing Out [6:39]
3. Compassion [3:08]
4. Too Young [3:01]
5. Unseen or Ignored [4:43]
6. Alone, in a Darkroom [1:02]
7. Never Good Enough [2:55]
8. Mixed Signals [2:20]
9. Influence [9:13]
10. Final Details [4:29]
11. Ruthless [6:48]
12. Wake-Up Call [3:09]
13. No Way Out [4:36]

Perry Seibert

In Elephant, Gus Van Sant takes the lessons in minimalism he learned while making Gerry and uses them to achieve socially relevant art. Van Sant utilizes very long takes that often involve slow, intricate, and complicated Steadicam work. The style serves the film's goals, not the filmmakers' egos. The viewer gets the sense that what is transpiring onscreen has not been painstakingly choreographed, but has simply been recorded on the fly. The unknown teenagers cast in all of the roles underscore the verisimilitude. While the film could easily slip into sensationalism and horror clich?s, Van Sant keeps everything even-handed. He never wallows in gore and terror, but he still manages to show the attack in such a way that recognizes the horror without emotionally hijacking the viewer. One gets the sense that the director has cried all he can for the victims and now wants to figure out why this happened. Van Sant has said that the title of the film references the classic "elephant in the room" -- the thing affecting everybody that nobody wants to talk about. Van Sant does not appear to take a stand on why his characters commit these terrible acts -- he offers up no answers. But what he does offer, with the help of Harris Savides' observant camerawork, is a documentary-like presentation of two days in a place that experiences a school massacre. Great art often asks questions. With Elephant, Van Sant has created art that provides a reasoned, non-judgmental starting point for an important conversation about our culture. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Diane Keaton  Executive Producer 
Gus Van Sant  Director 
Gus Van Sant  Screenwriter 
Dany Wolf  Producer 
Bill Robinson  Executive Producer 
Alex Frost  Actor 
Eric Deulen  Actor 
John Robinson  Actor 
Elias McConnell  Actor 
Jordan Taylor  Actor 
Carrie Finklea  Actor 
Nicole George  Actor 
Brittany Mountain  Actor 
Alicia Miles  Actor 
Kristen Hicks  Actor 
Bennie Dixon  Actor 
Nathan Tyson  Actor 
Timothy Bottoms  Actor 
Matt Malloy  Actor 
Ellis Williams  Actor 

Country: USA