dave_h

The thing about the movie Elephant that is so important is how boring it is.

You sit there the whole movie so thoughoughly enchanted by the mundane glimpse of these kids' lives not because the kids are doing anything interesting but because you know what is about to happen to them.

You know many of them will be slaughtered. You're waiting for the Columbine-Trenchcoat-Mafia-wannabe losers to let loose a barrage of gunfire and explosions. You're waiting for blood and unleashed vengence. You're trying to pick out which kids will die and which ones won't.

And so you sit through the whole thing tense and waiting waiting waiting.

And mostly all you see is a bunch of highschool kids being boring highschool kids.

And then when it happens it's so unexciting and anti-climactic and pointless that it makes you realize how tragic and pointless the real thing really is.

The movie is the best anti-violence movie I've ever seen because of how well it doesn't glorify violence. At the end of the big shootout you're a little disapointed by how dull it was and then it ends quietly with no resolution and you go "what was the point?"

and that, of course, is the point.

If you don't know what movie I'm talking about then you should.