Realism and Gus Van Sant’s Elephant

Abstract

Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003) is based loosely on the real events of the 1999 Columbine High School killings. As the second part of a trilogy of films inspired by true stories about people who die young – the other two parts beingGerry (2001) and Last Days (2004) – the film’s action is seemingly presented in a resolutely realistic manner in order to match the veracity of the events it portrays. Most of the film’s time is concerned with the quotidian routine of the young protagonists. The camera, through a series of long takes, traces their movements very carefully to observe every nuance and gesture of the ordinary adolescent body.¹ The film is divided into eight sections, each of which is named after the particular adolescent or group of adolescents whose peregrinations the camera follows. The names of these teenagers are the real names of the actors, suggesting further the potentially indexical relation that the film has to actual events. In addition, their presence as non-professional actors and the fact that many of them improvised their dialogue confounds further the distinction between reality and fiction in the film.