Elephant:

See Elephant. Now. Gus Van Sant’s fictional retelling of a high school shooting (structured like Columbine but not a faithful adaptation) offers no insight into why these tragedies happen but instead says that the sickness in our soul is how ordinary they are. It’s a moody, hypnotic, enormously disturbing day at the cinema but worth every minute.

P.S. Anyone know why the film is called Elephant?

Reader interactions

12 Replies to “Elephant:”

  1. I haven’t seen it, but my first thought was that it’s a reference to “ignoring the elephant in the room.” What do you think?

  2. I haven’t seen it, but my first thought was that it’s a reference to “ignoring the elephant in the room.” What do you think?

  3. That was my thought too.

  4. That was my thought too.

  5. Yup, though there’s more of a history to it than just the saying:
    “The title comes from Alan Clarke’s 1989 BBC short ‘Elephant,’ which is about school violence in Northern Ireland; Clarke is alluding to the saying that such a problem is as easy to ignore as an elephant in a living room”
    [http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/movies/trailers/documents/03314495.asp%5D

  6. Yup, though there’s more of a history to it than just the saying:
    “The title comes from Alan Clarke’s 1989 BBC short ‘Elephant,’ which is about school violence in Northern Ireland; Clarke is alluding to the saying that such a problem is as easy to ignore as an elephant in a living room”
    [http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/movies/trailers/documents/03314495.asp%5D

  7. And this has what to do with “Elephant?”

  8. And this has what to do with “Elephant?”

  9. I think that’s weblog ‘spam’.

  10. I think that’s weblog ‘spam’.

  11. And now it’s gone.

  12. And now it’s gone.

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