Elephant the movie Essay - 1540 Words

Gus Van Sant’s Elephant was at once critically praised and denounced by both film reviewers and filmgoers alike. The cinematography takes you on a waltz throughout a seemingly typical day at an unnamed high school, stopping through the journey to focus on the stereotypes of school. The jock, the quirky artist, the cliqued girls, the skateboarder, they are all represented and representative of his film. Van Sant created a film, seemingly without a staunch opinion on the horrors of the Columbine shootings. The movie seems distanced from the actors and their actions: an unaware participant from the tranquil introduction to the gruesome climax. His seeming lack of a purpose, lack of a reason for the creation of this film, is exactly the†¦show more content†¦nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Van Sant’s film aestheticizes the reality of high school, focusing on its beauty and character, and ignoring the underlying grime inherent on most campuses. The halls and yard of the sch ool are kept in immaculate condition, staying unnaturally clean, almost sterile for a school. Despite this seeming glorification of the building, the hallways are kept as a constant secondary to the sharply focused characters the camera constantly follows. It takes the focus away from the bare walls and empty hallways and places it solely on the students. The film isn’t about the location that it occurred, but the people that it happened to. The focus is on the students of the film, both literally and figuratively. The camera seems to never stop moving, save for brief pauses that seem to rest the viewer. There is little extraneous distraction from the characters as they walk down the hall; the only time something distracts from the center of attention is when it is repeated again as the film goes through its several cycles that repeat scenes from different points of view. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The film intertwines the lives of its multiple points of view. They all seem to be unrelated, but they ultimately tie together in a cohesive storyline that unravels into its unavoidable conclusion. Each person follows his or her own timeline until it reaches the pointShow MoreRelatedThemes: Joseph Merrick and Elephant Man Essay940 Words   |  4 PagesBreaking through the Blindness: A Fight for Freedom The three short stories we read, The Elephant in the Village of Blind, 20/20, and The Cathedral, all have many common themes with the movie The Elephant man. What intrigues me the most is the hidden underlining meaning each and every story carries. There are three prominent themes I would like to discuss, the figurative and the literal blindness of the characters in the works, enlightenment, and the freedom the characters experience throughoutRead MoreThe Film, Elephant, Directed by by Gus Van Sant was Inspired by Real Life Events659 Words   |  3 Pages‘Elephant’ is a film directed and written by Gus Van Sant and was inspired by a real incident that took place in 1999. The term â€Å"elephant† here is taken from the phrase â€Å"Elephant in the room† which means a significant issue that people overlook or do not resolve. The issue (elephant) here is high school shootings in America. Elephant is a serene, yet haunting experience that leaves viewers with a â€Å"spirit-crushing ennui† that images American culture (Zwick 2004). The movie tracks a handful of studentsRead MoreCruelty Towards Animals772 Words   |  4 Pagesaround and then lay down in unison, elephants dont walk trunk to tail and female elephants dont mount each other. All this is possible only by extreme training, which may translate into extreme torture. The animals in circuses are also routinely and dangerously exposed to various diseases. In some cases, they were not provided with basic medical first aid. Tuberculosis is seen as a major disease for the elephants in circuses. Some instances show that the elephants were not treated medically for woundsRead MoreCharacter Analysis of Water for Elephant995 Words   |  4 PagesAnalysis Essay 9th Novemember 2011 Water for Elephants In a recent interview for â€Å"Collider.com†, Robert Pattinson, a household young actor, revealed that he was offered with various movie characters that he could choose from as his next role after starring in the â€Å"Twilight† series. Finally, he decided to play the role of Jacob Jankowski in a film adaptation directed by Francis Lawrence, â€Å"Water for Elephants†. Why did Robert Pattinson choose to act an orphaned and impecuniousRead MoreEng 225 Week 3 Final Film Critique Outline791 Words   |  4 PagesThe Elephant Man English 225 Introduction To Film 11/3/2012 I chose to critique the film â€Å"The Elephant Man† it is an iconic filmmaking endeavor. Director David Lynch shows the sadness and the scariness of deformities onto the audience in a way that touches your heart and leaves you with a sense of sadness and will also leave a tear in your eye. Most of the people who have watched this film are touched and completely changes the way they view crippled, weak, and deformed people in this worldRead MoreCharacter Analysis of Water for Elephant980 Words   |  4 PagesDoris Zhang Miss. Trosko English Character Analysis Essay 9th Novemember 2011 Water for Elephants In a recent interview for à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Collider.comà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ , Robert Pattinson, a household young actor, revealed that he was offered with various movie characters that he could choose from as his next role after starring in the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Twilightà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  series. Finally, he decided to play the role of Jacob Jankowski in a film adaptation directed by Francis Lawrence, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Water for Elephantsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . WhyRead MoreEssay on A Review for â€Å"The Lion King†1188 Words   |  5 Pagesseemingly educated woman that has won Oscar awards for her documentaries, could possibly be so far off base in her review of the Disney movie â€Å"The Lion King†. Margaret Lazarus has taken a movie made for the entertainment of children and turned it into something that is racist, sexist and stereotypes gender roles. She uses many personal arguments to review the movie but offers few solutions. The author is well organized but she lacks alternate points of view and does not use adequate sources. LazarusRead MoreEssay Harper1467 Words   |  6 Pagessolution or choice to the problem. In Leon Weiseltier’s â€Å"The Democratic thinker† he shows the obligation that people have. â€Å"The Blind Men and the Elephant† shows conflict between knowledge and understanding. â€Å"The Three Questions† by Leo Tolstoy also shows conflict between knowledge and understanding but in a different way than the blind men and the elephant does. â€Å"Education as Maturity† by H.A Overstreet shows the process. Finally Wag the Dog by Barry Levinson shows the dangers of critical thinkingRead MoreLondon s Delusive Visionary, Banksy1475 Words   |  6 Pagesof art† was the elephant in the room. The literal elephant in the room was a live mother elephant who calmly walked around the venue painted bright red with a golden damask stencil to match the wallpaper of the site. The bigger than life artwork done what had nev er been done before, but the meaning behind the exhibition was poverty which was overlooked by most which gave meaning to bringing in a living animal and camouflaging it even though it is hard not to notice the â€Å"elephant in the room.† Banksy’sRead MoreEssay 1 Elephant1078 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Essay: Elephant by Polly Clark, 2006 A To choose your own future, destiny and life is very hard. Everyone wants to do something that makes them happy. But sometimes you take the wrong decisions or everything decides to go against you, which makes you stay in the box you were trying to escape from. When your dreams don’t get fulfilled, you will be in that box and wait for the light. It’s not always about what you want, but what you need. And to live a good life, and to do something productive, you