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PHOTO: H BO FILMS/FINE UNE FEATURES
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Hope and
conformity
PHOTO BV 9COTT GREEN. HBO FILMS FINE LINE FEATURES
us Van Sant can create tension rarely
found outside the horror genre. His seem
ingly simple, quiet little movies like Main
N oche and G erry, or even the bigger studio
releases G ood Will Hunting and Fnrulmg Forrester,
keep you nervously anticipating the next move.
Because the films often deal with vulnerable
characters in difficult situations, you’re always
kind of desperately hoping they won’t fuck up.
From the very' beginning, his new film, E le
phant, which opens Nov. 7, lets you know
something’s amiss. T h e camera pans the clouds
above Portland, a high schixil girl ninning out
side during gym class pauses, searching the sky,
and the tension is palpable.
Unless you shelter yourself from all media,
you already know what the movie is about.
Sin ce its double win at the C annes Film Festi-
val for Best Film and Best Director (normally
not allowed at the illustrious event), everyone
is talking about the new Am erican movie,
directly influenced by the Colum bine High
Schixil massacre, that takes on gun violence.
Now, I am not a critic who feels I have
to love everything Van Sant has ever done
because he’s gay and he lives in Portland. These
situations can be tough, especially if you know
you could run into people you pan at various
social events. T h a t’s my disclaimer. T h e truth is
Elephant is so goddamned good, Portland critics
got lucky this time.
Like G erry, Elephant is full o f achingly long
shots and very little dialogue. A melange o f stu
dents— the jock, his girlfriend, the nerd, the
shallow girls, the sensitive photographer— move
through their day, oblivious to the outcasts who
are home packing their guns (ordered off the
Internet) into duffel bags. T h e camera follows
each student along, picking up the subtleties of
bias and assumption among students and teach
ers that plague high school youth.
Gu s Van Sant’s
new film finds
the elephant in the room,
and it is us
by
L isa B radshaw
Interestingly, the standout performance
belongs to the kid who doesn’t fit into a neat
stereotype. John (played by heart-wrenchingly
cute John Robinson, the only one who has
already shot another movie) is the quintessential
Portland indie everykid— a somewhat troubled
home life but with obvious love, popular enough
to have friends, but unpopular enough to con
stantly be in trouble with the principal. He and
his drunk father (Timothy Bottoms) are the
anchors of compassion in an otherwise emotion
ally and architecturally barren environment. It’s
John’s brief encounters with photographer Elias
(Elias M cConnell) and Gay Straight Alliance
attendee Acadia (Alicia Miles) that provide the
film’s hope of future supportive alliances.
Again like G erry, Elephant was shot with no
real script— even the characters were written
around the actual Portland-area students Van
Sant chose to cast. (Unknown actors lend to a
sense o f anonymity.) T he title Elephant is
derived from a 1989 British short o f the same
name abixit brutal violence in Northern Ireland,
which, in turn, took its name from the famous
saying of ignoring the elephant in the room.
These processes are all akin to the Van Sant
touch, and so are the slip
ping in of two queer ele
ments— the inclusion o f
the Gay Straight A lliance
meeting (the topic: C an
you tell if someone is gay
by how they look?) and a
shower-scene kiss between
A lex (A lex Frost) and Eric
(Eric Deulen) just before
they shixit down their
classmates.
O h no! T he psycho
killers are gay! But witness
ing the kiss is a far more
ambiguous experience than
hearing a h nit it. Knowing
he’s about to either die or go
to prison for the rest of his
Acadia com forts Jo h n before heading o ff to her G ay Straight
life, Enc calmly joins Alex
A lliance m eeting
From left, Alex Frost, producer Danny W olf and G us Van Sant on the set of E lep h an t
in the shower, and his words are barely audible:
with your fellow students— not to stick out too
“I’ve never even kissed anyhxly, have you?"
much, to conform. And if you don’t and you
are a certain age, you may be led to believe
Van Sant maintains it’s not really a gay
that not conforming means that you will live
moment. “I thought that they were inexperi
like an outsider for the rest o f your life.”
enced with things like sexual intimacy,” he
W hich is something that’s remarkable for a
explains, “which was important to point out—
52-year-old man to remember, bur Van Sant,
their age, experience and that one of them just
with every movie, always
kissed the other one because,
does. “T h e two kids may
as he said, h e’d never kissed
have really wanted to belong
anyone before."
and conform, but things
T he scene is simple, not
fraught with meaning, not a
weren’t working out that way
with them, and the situation
moment of awareness that
could have taken away their
leads to something else. Alex
hope for a future.”
and Eric’s motives for any
thing are never fully
Sounds almost like mean
explained. Nothing in Ele
ing. But Van Sant concludes
the statement by adding,
phant is explained.
Critics are always trying to
“Just a guess.”
Elephant isn’t a perfect
figure Van Sant exit, asking
movie. Three girls group
him all these questions about
purging in the bathrixim
what his movies “mean.” (I
seems very A m erican Pie; Eric
did, too.) But unless it’s pretty
and A lex’s watching of a doc
obvious like, say, in To Die For
umentary on A dolf Hitler is
(rabid quest for what passes as
metaphorically forced yet still
fame in America leads one to
do bad things), meaning is
seemingly
pointless.
—Gus Van Sant
But the easy, quiet move
not finite. As the director
explained to me when Gerry ran in Portland,
ments o f John, A lex and Elias, as well as the
he interprets them like everyone else. His dia
frightened, mousy M ichelle (Kristen Hicks),
provide a striking juxtaposition to detached
logue is scattered with “I think” and “maybe,”
like he’s talking about films someone else made.
violence, K ith in everyday bullying and in ran
dom mass murder. Elephant explores the para
T hat said, Van Sant doesn’t have the
dox of beauty and violence, which is difficult
answers to problems with gun violence in the
to do but offers great rewards. J H
United States. “I can’t say for sure any more
than anyone else,” he acknowledges. “I believe
LlSA B radshaw is the Arts and Culture Editor o f
it is a combination o f things. There are many
guas. There is a certain demand for blending in
Just Out and can he reached at lisa@justout.ccrm.
T thought that
they were
inexperienced
with things
like sexual
intimacy...one
of them just
kissed the other
one because..Jiefd
n ev er kissed
anyone before ”