Elephant (2003)

Director Gus Van Sant's works such as <Good Will Hunting>, <Idaho>, <Promised Land>, <Finding Forester>, and <Milk> have a strange charm that makes you want to look for them if you forget them all the time.

After the short running time of 81 minutes passed,
I felt a certain bitterness and guilt at the same time.

Then I became convinced that this was probably the most dystopian of Gus van Sant's work. As with the previous review <Boy on a Bike>, in the end, the core of this film is the fact that the gun is aimed at the invisible perpetrator, that is, us outside the screen.

With the motif of the Columbine High School massacre in the United States, this work unravels the flow of the video from a thorough observer's point of view. neither add nor subtract No explanation or reason is expressed in words about the terrible tragedy that occurred during the 16 minutes of that day. Instead, cross-editing, which introduces characters sequentially according to the flow of time in daily life, and long take and movement tracking applied to maximize realism effectively make viewers feel uncomfortable realism as if they were in the scene. Truly, I think that the filming technique contributed quite a bit to conveying the message and amplifying the afterglow of this film. As I said before, the camera that follows them one by one is our gaze.

As I said before, the film excludes dialogue and sounds as much as possible. So it makes us think for ourselves. As the relationship between the characters becomes clearer, those thoughts eventually turn into convictions, because we have come to understand the reason for such a result. After all, bullying is common anywhere in the world. Even in Korea, we usually come across the concept of so-called 'Iljin' when we go to middle school or high school, but the problem is that the perspectives of the subject and the object are completely opposite to the series of bullying they commit. For those who are above the vertical relationship, such behaviors are a part of 'nothing' in their daily life, but they are an indelible wound to those who are below them, that is, persecuted, and the most obvious cause of their irrational behavior. In the film, there is only one scene in which the main characters of the shooting are judged to be 'harassed', and even that appears to be simply joking with friends rather than direct physical contact. However, it is possible to infer that the fact that the bullying has continued until now through the distorted expression of that moment or the scene of shaking off paper debris from clothes in the bathroom, and that the degree of bullying has already reached a position too heavy for a boy to endure. make it possible

Although artificial sounds are almost excluded, it shows Alex playing the piano at home before the incident, and in this scene, he minimally argues that the character's nature is not corrupted enough to commit ruthless murder in the first place. seems to do The reason why a beautiful melody was transformed into the noise of an exploding gun is the disconnection of communication and the cynicism of the community. During a meal at home, Alex's parents do not say much, but leave the house quietly for work, leaving only the words, 'Be good at locking the door.' Through this brief momentary scene, we can very easily guess the absence of communication between family members. The situation is not very different at school, where we spend a lot of time at home. So, unlike anyone else, 'everyday life' is already a hell they want to escape from. We, this society, had to do something before their anger exploded. If even one person had recognized Alex's artistic sensibility, the result would have been different if he had given him a warm word first. Even if complete salvation was impossible, innocent sacrifices may not have taken place. Before the incident, John, the first person to be introduced, is alone in an empty room and wipes his tears. The weight of life is too heavy, but there is no place to vomit, so it is to die in silence. At that moment, a schoolgirl walks in, says 'what's going on' to John, kisses him lightly on the cheek with tears falling, and then she disappears.

Alex and Eric needed the kiss too. But in the end we just let it go. I couldn't turn my eyes to those in the shadows because I accepted the daily life that seemed to have no problems. Yes. After the movie is over, we find ourselves in a strange dilemma where we can't just slander their atrocities by calling them 'garbage'. Of course, it must be an event that makes you emotionally outraged when you think of the victims, but in reality, the victims, the students and staff of the school, and even us who are looking at American society and the screen cannot easily feel it unless we are alert. It's because they're sharing the 'sin' little by little. That's why warm interest in growing up is so important. If it is lacking, the small anxiety and confusion will snowball and grow, eventually eroding their identity and reason. By then it was already too late. So, let's break this selfishness into a little bit and turn it into altruism.

So, if you extend a soft touch like a girl's kiss to someone 'nearby', I imagine that this society would become more beautiful.