Elephant poster

2003·81 min·Released

Elephant

“An ordinary high school day. Except that it's not.”

Crime
Drama

Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.

7.0(2,121 votes)

Popularity3

Videos

4K Remastered Trailer

Cast & Crew

Alex Frost

Alex Frost

Alex

Eric Deulen

Eric Deulen

Eric

John Robinson

John Robinson

John McFarland

Elias McConnell

Elias McConnell

Elias

Jordan Taylor

Jordan Taylor

Jordan

Carrie Finklea

Carrie Finklea

Carrie

Nicole George

Nicole George

Nicole

Brittany Mountain

Brittany Mountain

Brittany

Alicia Miles

Alicia Miles

Acadia

Kristen Hicks

Kristen Hicks

Michelle

Bennie Dixon

Bennie Dixon

Benny

Nathan Tyson

Nathan Tyson

Nathan

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CinemaSerf

Written on 7/2/2026

With the atrocity of the Columbine massacre still fresh in many American minds, Gus Van Sant has a go here at imagining some of the psychological and societal causes that drove two ostensibly ordinary college lads to arm themselves to the hilt and take to the corridors of their school with devastating effects. "Alex" (Alex Frost) and "Eric" (Eric Deulen) are unremarkable in almost every aspect of their teenage, angsty, lives and are surrounded by a flock of personalities which tick almost every box when it comes to that dreaded expression - "coming of age". There are even a group of girls who engaged in some synchronised post-lunch vomiting, but we mainly focus on the floppy haired "John" (John McFarland) whose alcoholic father (Timothy Bottoms) is constantly trying to rebuild a relationship with his increasingly distant son - a new arrival at this large and anonymous institution. The chronology doesn't help. Or does it? By watching two lads dressed in fatigues with fully stocked kit bags walk into the building near the start of the film - and recapped a few times thereafter - we know what is going to happen - albeit we don't see the faces of the perpetrators. Does that rob the film of jeopardy or does it rather bravely suggest that this film is more about investigating the causes of their behaviour than it's results? Large scale education has been likened to an ant-hill. People coming and going in an almost factorial procession with little opportunity for individuality or to stand out. What better way for two people to make their presence felt? Is it a cry for attention or is more the result of endless hours playing shoot 'em up video games where targets make points and points make... prizes? It's quite subtly ramming that disconnect down our throats disguised as teenage hormonal norms and there I felt it quite subliminally effective: with the geeks and nerds; the handsome and the less so; the popular and the shunned all subject to the same rather arbitrary "justice" of two guys whose connection with any sort of normal reality had been well and truly severed. On that front, I felt that Frost, especially, managed by a combination of an understated less-being-more style of characterisation and some disarmingly potent dialogue to exemplify the peculiarities of a friendship rooted in emotional and physical ambiguity and increasingly ambivalent to the effects of their actions on others. Revenge? Maybe. Or perhaps more a cry just to be noticed, valued, respected? It's divisive and controversial, and the refrains of the beautiful "Für Elise" on the piano add an extra dimension of calmness to the calculated nature of a denouement that is almost surreal and is this is probably my favourite feature from a director who is no stranger to quirky self-indulgence.

Media

4K Remastered Trailer

4K Remastered Trailer

About Elephant

About Elephant

On the Set of 'Elephant': Rolling Through Time

On the Set of 'Elephant': Rolling Through Time

Trailer

Trailer