Elephant Movie Information

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Movie Information

Overall Rank: 1452

Average Rating: 2.9/4

# of Ratings: 101

Theatrical Release Date: 10/24/2003

Language: English

Genre: Drama, Crime

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Gus Van Sant

Actors: John Robinson, Eric Deulen, Alex Frost, Elias McConnell, Carrie Finklea, Brittany Mountain

Plot: A look at what could have been in Littleton Colorado as the camera follows the days of ordinary students in an ordinary school.

Logan D. McCoy - wrote on 06/26/2019

Gus Van Sant's raw teen drama inspired by the events of Columbine can be justifiably defined as 'all too real' and is that kind of movie that can characterized as good, but too upsetting to want to watch twice.

Ranker - wrote on 03/25/2013

A list of the best Elephant Movies. This is a list of the top films featuring elephants. We believe we've got them all, but if you feel we've missed one, please feel free to add it to the list yourself. Children and adults alike love elephants, be it their enormous size coupled with their gentle demeanor, or simply their unique appearance with their trunks and enormous tusks. This list features all species of elephants, including a wooly mammoth or two. for more elephant movies see http://www.ranker.com/list/the-best-elephant-movies/all-genre-movies-lists

mitchellyoung - wrote on 05/19/2012

Elephant is an important film, though not one that can be watched many times. It's a chilling and matter-of-fact portrayal of various perspectives on the Columbine tragedy with few frills or thematic showboating. By taking a simple approach, the film is a scary and sad look at what is still a remembered national tragedy.

Matthew Brady
Movie God

This one will leave you feeling cold inside

Matthew Brady - wrote on 03/24/2015

Don't let the title fool you. The movie doesn't have elephant in it, but it has a deep meaning to it that will make your feel like mash after thinking about it to long.

The story is about high school violence that unfolds on an ordinary school day, inside an American high school, filled with schoolwork, football, gossip and socializing. For each of the students we meet, high school is a different experience: stimulating, friendly, traumatic, lonely, hard.

Elephant is loosely based on the school shooting in 1999 known as Columbine High School massacre with the shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. When I say loosely I really mean loosely because this isn't base on a true story bullsh't that you always get in movies, no it's actually Gus Van Sant wanted to make a movie relating to …

The Film Rebel
Producer

If he hollars, let him go.

The Film Rebel - wrote on 02/02/2011

With Elephant, Gus Van Sant has created a moving, at times disturbing, and very reallistic portrayal of High School life. Watching this film you could think to yourself "This could be my own high school." The film follows a diverse group of students around on a day that appears to be going normally. That is until it takes a turn for the tragic.

The film is loosely based on the Columbine Massacre and explores what could've happened on the day of the shootings. Our main protagonists in this case are Alex and Eric (Van Sant decided to have all the actors just use their real names for the characters they played). Their story shows them planning the shoot out, watching a video of Hitler, and even sharing a brief kiss.

Eric and Alex's story is just one of many intertwining story lines. …

Bob Stone
Director

A subtle, saddening, and dreamlike experiance,

Bob Stone - wrote on 05/07/2009

Watching Gus Van Sant's Elephant raises the question,what would you have done or reacted like if you had been in Columbine on that fateful day? The film follows about a half dozen high school student going through with their daily routine, when suddenly their world explodes in thier face and for the first hour or so the film is fairly uneventful. Elephant has no intention of offering the viewer answers, it's one and only explanation is that sometimes human beings snap out and explode in fits of violent rage. During the extremly surreal finale one is as confused and out of the loop as anyone else would be, had they been in the situation. Whether you like the film or you must admit that it is pitchperfect in portraying the behaviors of real teens and because of this, when the horror begins …