Sunday, August 01, 2004
Rave of the Day for August 1:
Watched the DVD of "Elephant" last night. Wow is the first word that comes to mind. This is the definitive explanation of why violence takes place...the answer is that no one really knows the whole story.
I felt as though I were actually a part of the high school used as the central focus of the movie. The sprawling campus with its endless halls seems somehow impersonal, even when it contains students that know each other. But part of the point of the movie is that we hardly know each other at all.
This is beautifully illustrated in the way that we only see characters in small segments, the way you would see them if you happened to be walking past. You only hear bits of conversation, only see some of them from the side or back. You also see them out of chronological order, as if you were trying to remember something or solve a problem with no solution.
Knowing recent incidents that no doubt inspired the storyline, I was satisfied that no explanations were given. I suspect that the real witnesses of school shootings would see through any attempt to glorify or rationalize what took place. And that made the calm demeanor of the killers all the more chilling.
This made more sense to me than all the psychobabble surrounding the Columbine tragedy. The fact that there ARE no answers is exactly what makes it a tragedy.
I felt as though I were actually a part of the high school used as the central focus of the movie. The sprawling campus with its endless halls seems somehow impersonal, even when it contains students that know each other. But part of the point of the movie is that we hardly know each other at all.
This is beautifully illustrated in the way that we only see characters in small segments, the way you would see them if you happened to be walking past. You only hear bits of conversation, only see some of them from the side or back. You also see them out of chronological order, as if you were trying to remember something or solve a problem with no solution.
Knowing recent incidents that no doubt inspired the storyline, I was satisfied that no explanations were given. I suspect that the real witnesses of school shootings would see through any attempt to glorify or rationalize what took place. And that made the calm demeanor of the killers all the more chilling.
This made more sense to me than all the psychobabble surrounding the Columbine tragedy. The fact that there ARE no answers is exactly what makes it a tragedy.
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