Search - Elephant: A Film By Gus Van Sant on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Graphic Violence, Not For Children, Profanity, Watch With Your Teen Movie Release: 2003 DVD Release: 05/04/2004 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English, French, Spanish Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 20 mins Studio: HBO Home Video Total Copies: 6 Genres: Drama, Psychological Drama, Ensemble Film

Director Gus Van Sant returned to the low-key style of his early independent efforts with this semi-improvised exploration of how violence makes its way into a typical American high school. Eric (Eric Deulen) and Alex (Alex Frost) are two close friends who are students in a well-to-do suburb of Portland, OR. Eric and Alex are at once ordinary and misfits; while they seem to be confined to the edges of the clique-oriented social strata of high school, little about their behavior draws attention to itself. Or at least not during a typical school day; on their own time, the two boys are fascinated by Nazi iconography, enjoy violent video games, tentatively explore homoerotic desires, and coolly begin to make plans for an armed ambush of the school, drawing up working diagrams of the lunch room during study hall and buying rifles over the Internet. Drawing an expected degree of controversy, Elephant had its world premiere when it was screened in competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, where it won both Best Director for Van Sant and the Golden Palm award. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Alex Frost - Alex
Eric Deulen - Eric
John Robinson - John
Elias McConnell - Eli
Jordan Taylor - Jordan

Gus Van Sant's Palme d'Or-winning drama about a school shooting, Elephant, will probably be seen by more people on this DVD than saw it in the theater. The film is presented in two transfers. The standard full-frame transfer preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is preferable to the widescreen image. The carefully constructed English soundtrack is rendered in DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, and Dolby Digital Stereo. Spanish and French soundtracks are included as well. English, Spanish, and French subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include a 12-minute behind-the-scenes featurette that offers no insight into the making of the film, but does offer candid looks at the nonprofessional actors as they worked on the film. The original theatrical trailer, and a promotional spot for HBO Pictures rounds out this solid release. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide