Maybe there's something else at work here, something Van Sant is trying to tell us, like, for example, with the ready availability of these weapons, and with the lack of sufficient counselling for students obviously disturbed by some bloody thing, something like this was always going to be a possibility, maybe even a certainty. Maybe the world at large, looking on this mini-society with all its hang-up's and pressures and problems, maybe it was like watching these kids all day, knowing that there was a tragedy about to strike.
Van Sant borrows his title and, to some extent, his approach, from Alan Clarke's 1989 Elephant, which dealt with the "troubles" in Northern Ireland via a series of disjointed, non-linear vignettes, each concerning a horrific murder. It too was criticised for its lack of rationale, its lack of answers. Van Sant's film goes deeper in terms of character shading and audience identification, but as with Clarke's film, it offers no solutions, no resolutions, just a series of incredibly difficult questions.
What it does offer is a heartbreaking humanity which soon exposes the Larry Clarke comparisons for what they are - shallow and uninformed. Elephant is a poignant, tender and searingly beautiful film, qualities which the likes of Kids, with its nihilistic, inhumane treatment of its subjects, could never lay claim to.
The Duke Resides At Mondo Irlando
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