Elephant in the room

Elephant

This film's relevance to society is all in the title, Elephant. The violence is the elephant in the room. Through out the film the camera plays the part of a fly on the wall in a high school and in the homes of a select number of the students. To watch the film is a violent act itself. There is not any true dialogue, there is not a story that is set up, and the characters do not intertwine like the other films we have watched this semester. However, there is violence! The film is a direct replication of the Columbine High School shooting.

What this film displays is the dynamics of a young American's life. The first student we see is a kid taking care of his drunken father. With in the following half hour the camera follows select students around in their "day-to-day" lives. The importance of the reality style filming is to create an environment for the viewer to be part of the film. By the end of the film, as a viewer, I felt like I was walking side by side with the shooters. I wanted to reach out and yell "Stop this, stop!" But this is part of the social violence, it is that elephant in the room that needs to be acknowledged and not just a spit wad target.