My brother walked in on me watching this movie. He asked why I was watching it. I was caught off guard. All I could say was weird, jumbled up, unorganized answers. He said it was messed up and that I “shouldn’t be watching this.” He was right, I didn’t have to watch it. Why was I watching it? Why was I voluntarily watching a movie where high school students and teachers get killed in a mass shooting. However, as a film major, you watch a lot of movies you would never think you would ever watch. In classes, you watch the sick, the disturbing, the slow, and the artistic. You often get recommendations from not only your peers but your professors as well for the same types of films. Both suggested Elephant to me.
Movies like Elephant are not entertainment, they are art. They are sick, disturbing, beautiful, and thought-provoking art. They are meant to speak to you in ways you aren't used to being spoken to. They show you characters and scenarios that are more real than you want them to be. They give you messages that you didn’t want to hear but are the truth.
As the regular movie viewer, you don’t have to see these films. However, for my case and the case for many of my friends and teachers who love and study film, we have to watch these films. We don’t have to watch it to learn how to produce long tracking shots or to perfect nonlinear storytelling. We have to watch these films to learn real human conditions. We watch them to learn how much of an impact art needs to ensue. In Elephant, the impact, the characters, the scenarios, and the message are clear to the viewer. However, whatever you take from it is up to you.
What have I gotten from it? Well, here’s how I see it. The two killers in the film, Alex, and Eric, become so passionate in their planes to ensue a disturbing act of violence on their school. This is because they are bullied. They feel mistreated, betrayed, and left out from the experiences they feel are entitled to. They’re under a dark delusion that they only way to make things right is to kill, and no one seems to notice anything, not even their parents. This is because many of their classmates aren’t trying to hurt them. They’re just going through their daily lives as teenagers. Many of whom are dealing with issues of their own. Even their parents are blind because it must be tough to see how troubled your own flesh and blood is quickly becoming. However, Alex and Eric don’t see this and they decide to go through with their plan.
So who suffers the most in Elephant and who causes the most pain. Well, in my view, for each question the answer is nobody and everybody. High school is tough, and everybody who has endured it has suffered from some kind of turmoil from it. It’s no doubt that many teens struggle with depression and anxieties during their high school careers. There’s no need to make it worse. In the long run, if we don’t talk to one another, listen to one another, or understand each other we won’t go anywhere. Things will only get worse and we will be stuck in this chaotic and violent state. That’s what I see when I look at art like Elephant. What do you see?
