Tuesday, January 15, 2013

ELEPHANT (2003) - ENGLISH


A sad film about a sad event. It's preferable not to watch this.

It's a film about a High School Massacre, which in recent times has become a kind of one per year news item in the United States. 

Directed by Gus Van Sant, this is a depiction of a real incident in a fictional way. The real incident is a Columbine High School Massacre. Two guys killed 12 guys and did a suicide. Now, this is psychotic and indeed very disturbing. But, Gus Van Sant, who is a good filmmaker, does not indulge into the massacre much and rather the psychology. Scenes where they see Hitler and get their guns, or those where these two guys kiss each other are indeed disturbing and rather we do not watch them. 

But since, I watched this movie not once but twice, it's a very disturbing movie, in a sense that even 75 minutes so much longer. Look at the scene in which Piano is played, that gets into the psyche and it aches something. Never felt "Fur Elise" too can be very disturbing. 

Now, I am not sure if I can call it badly edited, coz it has too many slow walking sequences and shots are taken from the back. As if they have beautiful backs. It's a kind of manipulative movie that manipulates the audience and makes him succumb to the big bang at the climax. For the first time, I was taken aback by the surprise. But next time this all seemed very manipulative and now I do not like it much. 

Though few things are good in this very lowly produced (around 3 million) budget film I say, the pace kills everything for this. The cinematography, editing, and even the setup are lethargic and tests our patience. The dialogue at seems erratic and indeed there is no point in any of such dialogues. 

If abstraction is loved and embraced it is for you, I did not like it as much as I did love in first viewing. So from a 4 the rating goes down to 3/5. It's a good movie nonetheless but no where being great. 

Please watch it at your own risk, it's highly avoidable good film.

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