Analysis of Elephant, by Gus Van Sant

1881 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Film as art form

In today’s society many different forms of art constantly surround us. The music blaring through your headphones, the advertisements we come across, and even the buildings peering high above the New York skyline can all be considered art. One of the most popular mediums of art in present time is filmmaking. Film uses moving photographs to narrate a story, express emotions and convey ideas. The unique aspect of the art of film is that it allows the viewer to become its subject or characters and experience their situations as they are occurring. Gus Van Sant uses this characteristic to his advantage in the 2003 film “Elephant”. Elephant tries to capture the actual and unseen events of the tragic Columbine Massacre in attempts to make sense of a senseless act, while at the same time being true to its senselessness. (Edelstein)
On April 20th, 1999, two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, launched a deadly assault on Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado. Armed with a rifle, shotguns, and numerous explosives they wreaked havoc on their school. In the end twenty-four people were injured and fifteen, including the shooters, were dead. It was a tragedy that echoed around the country and will be remembered as the worst school shooting in American history. Gus Van Sant took this incident and decided to interpret it in his own artistic vision. Elephant is not a drama; it is not a documentary. It is just a free-floating meditation on the tragedy. The film puts you right in the moment, in real time, with the victims and the killers while doubling back on itself, making chronological jumps and repeating its narrative from different perspectives. It is purposely made to be vague so as to leave the viewer perplexed but, at the same ...

... middle of paper ...

...ve with guns. (Bradshaw) Van Sant's Elephant is a compelling response to this dreadful event and is the most disturbing film Gus Van Sant has made so far. It is not a drama; it is not a documentary. It is just a free-floating meditation on a tragedy.
Works Cited
Bradshaw, Peter. "Elephant." The Guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media Limited, 30 Jan. 2004. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.
Edelstein, David. "The Kids in the Hall." Slate Magazine. The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company, 24 Oct. 2003. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.
Elephant. Dir. Gus Van Sant. Perf. Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, and John Robinson. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2003. DVD.
Hattenstone, Simon. "All the World's an Art School." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 23 Jan. 2004. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.
"Jefferson County Sheriff's Report." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.

Show More
Related

  • Shooting An Elephant Cultural Analysis

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” is a short story that not only shows cultural divides and how they affect our actions, but also how that cultural prejudice may also affect other parties, even if, in this story, that other party may only be an elephant. Orwell shows the play for power between the Burmese and the narrator, a white British police-officer. It shows the severe prejudice between the British who had claimed Burma, and the Burmese who held a deep resentment of the British occupation. Three messages, or three themes, from Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” are prejudice, cultural divide, and power.

    Read More

  • African Elephants and Human-Elephant Interactions: Implications for Conservations by P.C. Lee and M.D. Graham

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Elephant is something to marvel at there is no animal quite like them. Between its shear size (the largest terrestrial mammal alive today), the familiar emotions they share with humans such as mourning for their dead, or their unique features like their large trunks, tusks, and ears, there is nothing that compares. These are some reasons why this large beautiful animal should not be taken for granted in today’s society. Unfortunately they have been between the illegal poaching for ivory, human elephant conflict regarding land usage, and environmental factors; they have become endangered.

    Read More

  • 'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives :' Reflection?

    1452 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the beginning, film has been identified by the presence of its narrative structure and the use of cinematic elements such as dialogue, props and sequence of events. In contrast, video art is known to be more experimental and its emphasis leans towards the portrayal of time, space and form. In Bill Viola’s “Reflection”, a 6-minute sequence portrays ideas of rebirth and baptism whereas Apichatpong Warasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” narrates a story about reincarnation. Both works do a great job at baffling viewers at first glance. However, by digging deeper, one can extract the message that both artists are trying to convey which revolves around the human condition, especially the cycle of life, reincarnation

    Read More

  • Compression, Evil And Confliction In George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    In George Orwell’s story, “Shooting an Elephant,” he goes through numerous emotions. It is a very thought provoking work that takes the reader inside his mind. He goes through many emotions throughout the text, he experienced humiliation, evil, and confliction.

    Read More

  • Adam Lanza And The Sandy Hook Shooting

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first thing people cling to in the wake of such terrible tragedies is a simple question: why? Why did the murderer do what he did? When did they develop the mindset that made them commit such a heinous crime? How could any healthy, functioning, moral human being perpetrate perhaps the greatest ordeal of death our society has ever known? They look for action, for reason, for some concrete absolute that can somehow lift the shroud of sorrow that has overtaken their lives in such an awfully tremendous — and yet, however simple this question may be, the answer is never clear, and it is never enough. In the absence of a grounded conclusion as to why school shootings occur — or homicide of any kind for that matter — many people seek answers in what is known — in the few things we can take away from all the innocent deaths, and the person who caused them.

    Read More

  • Shooting an Elephant

    422 Words  | 1 Pages

    A police officer in the British Raj, the supposedly 'unbreakable'; ruling force, was afraid. With his gun aimed at a elephant's head, he was faced with the decision to pull the trigger. That officer was George Orwell, and he writes about his experience in his short story, 'Shooting an Elephant';. To save face, he shrugged it off as his desire to 'avoid looking the fool'; (George Orwell, 283). In truth, the atmosphere of fear and pressure overwhelmed him. His inner struggle over the guilt of being involved in the subjugation of a people added to this strain, and he made a decision he would later regret enough to write this story.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of 'Shooting An Elephant'

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the many essays and articles I’ve read in class, “Shooting An Elephant” happened to be the most intriguing. The beginning of the essay may have lead me to believe that the story would simply be the author telling the story of how he shot an elephant in a foreign country. However, as I read more the issue became apparent. It’s basically as if the issue was shadowed by the author’s own story and to fully understand the issue you would have to actually pay attention to the author’s tone and emotions as well as the way in which he describes his actions. To elaborate, the main point to be taken away from this particular essay revolved around the art of proper decision making. To realize this I had to take note of how the author described

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Harris Vs Klebold

    1239 Words  | 3 Pages

    April twentieth, 1999 was just another Tuesday for many people. But for the students attending Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado it was the day that two of their classmates opened fire on them. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, seniors at Columbine High School, murdered twelve students and one teacher and injured twenty-four others. After executing their plan, the two committed suicide. These two teenagers conducted, “the deadliest high school shooting in US history.”

    Read More

  • Shooting An Elephant Analysis

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Help Stop Rogue Wildlife-killing Agency." Help Stop Rogue Wildlife-killing Agency. Centre for Biological Diversity, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • Sound and Editing Analysis

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.

    Read More

  • Violence, Aggression, Addiction Equals Violent Video Games

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold emerged with a massacre in Columbine High School in Denver. They killed thirteen innocent victims and injured twenty-three people by scattering thirty-one explosive devices. Later t...

    Read More

  • Essay On Columbine Shooting

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dylan Klebold would have been disappointed to learn that his plan (formulated with his buddy, Eric Harris) to blow up his school – an attempt to one up the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 – was a bust. In fact, it would likely enrage the two gunmen to know that the Columbine massacre is regarded as a “school shooting”. However, Dylan was right about one thing: he and Eric Harris have, alarmingly, garnered a following since they executed the bloodiest high school shooting in America’s history.

    Read More

  • David Fincher Analysis

    1235 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine, some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything’s okay. I don’t make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything’s not okay.” - David Fincher. David Fincher is the director that I am choosing to homage for a number of reasons. I personally find his movies to be some of the deepest, most well made, and beautiful films in recent memory. However it is Fincher’s take on story telling and filmmaking in general that causes me to admire his films so much. This quote exemplifies that, and is something that I whole-heartedly agree with. I am and have always been extremely opinionated and open about my views on the world and I believe that artists have a responsibility to do what they can with their art to help improve the culture that they are helping to create. In this paper I will try to outline exactly how Fincher creates the masterpieces that he does and what I can take from that and apply to my films.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis of Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell

    848 Words  | 2 Pages

    Morally, I think this story clearly states that people would do anything to avoid being embarrassed. From my understanding, I think that this story teaches us that we should be open to hear people?s opinions but we should follow our instincts. We should not allow others to make the decisions for us. The police officers just shoot the elephant because people wanted him to do so. This essay is trying to help us to see that we should look at the pros and cons of an issue rather than making a quick decision that can affect someone. I cannot condemn the author for shooting the elephant, though he knew it was wrong. Nor can I condemn him for giving in to the natives and not sticking to his guns. He does not want to appear foolish to others like all of us do.

    Read More

  • Elephant Conservation Essay

    1357 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recently over the years elephant populations have drastically declined. This is due to human encroachment on their habit and poaching. Demand for ivory has increased the number of poaching kills in Africa. In 1988 congress passed the elephant African Elephant Conservation Act which placed a ban against illegal ivory imports and authorizes government funding for elephant field conservation projects. Although some African countries have initiated African elephant conservation programs, many do not have the sufficient resources to properly manage, conserve and protect their elephant’s populations. Unfortunately, we are possibly undergoing “the greatest percentage loss of elephants in history” (Ruggiero). Without the proper conservation of elephant survival we will see a drastic shift in the environment.

    Read More

More about Analysis of Elephant, by Gus Van Sant

Open Document