With this film, Gus van Sant depicts the Columbine High School massacre in his death trilogy beginning with Gerry and ending with Last Days. The disclaimer at the end of the film is, if to be taken literally, untrue. Names are changed but the teenagers in the film are non-professional actors portraying the victims or survivors of the incident to a point.

Elephant works beautifully as a reflection on teenage insecurity, without indulging in infringing the privacy of those involved. We follow the students as they do whatever they like, they get bullied, they meet their friends and argue or laugh. It is an insight into the high school and gives us no answers as to why the slaughter occurs towards the end of the film. Who is morally good, who is amoral? Who has more of a disregard for others, the bullies or the bullied? The director generously gives us the film and lets us decide, it is our personal piece to reflect upon. It is everybody’s piece to reflect on. Discussion can be provoked from what is filmed because there is no bias, the murder is shown realistically and not exploitatively. We view impending death and it haunts us.

Elephant mirrors the 1989 Alan Clarke short film of the same name, the camera following (I want to say elegantly) teens as they cross eachother in school. It is an exciting way of filmmaking, but it is terrifying because we know what will happen and we know it cannot be prevented. Can things like this really be avoided?

The fact that the media blamed ‘goth culture’ and ‘violent video games’ disturbs me more than how ‘disturbed’ the killers were. When the film fades to a shot of the clouds above , I thought rather sentimentally: ‘what is most important is love.’