Elephant

Clearly inspired by the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, writer-director Gus Van Sant's Elephant--a Cannes award-winning, observational drama-commentary about the violence-deadened soul of America--has so little to say about such events and the culture that produces them that it becomes paradoxically tedious once the killing starts. Van Sant's cinema vérité camera follows, one-by-one, a handful of seemingly unremarkable kids going through the paces of a seemingly unremarkable day in lengthy tracking shots that become strangely intimate and engrossing in their moment-by-moment normalcy. But as the two killers emerge from the background, the narrative switch of gears takes the film into bluntly unemotional bloodshed that seems as hollow as its antagonists. While this may be the very point--that such acts of violence are empty and meaningless without looking at the conditions under which they take place--the film makes no attempt to explore those conditions. Ultimately, Elephant is neither compelling nor insightful; it simply bears witness. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include both widescreen and full screen versions, an “On the Set: Rolling Through Time” behind-the-scenes montage-style featurette (12 min.), and a trailer. Bottom line: a skimpy extras package--though it's always nice to have both viewing formats on one disc--for a disappointing film.] (R. Blackwelder)