Elephant

Elephant follows a single autumn day at a suburban American high school, where students drift through their usual routines. Eli takes photographs, Nate finishes football practice, John leaves car keys for his brother, and friends talk in the cafeteria. Two students, Alex and Eric, are preparing something violent, and their plan will bring the ordinary day to an end. The film is a fictional account inspired by the Columbine school shooting.

Gus Van Sant directed and wrote the screenplay, with Dany Wolf producing. It is the eighth of the eighteen films he has directed, coming after Gerry and before Last Days. The cast is largely made up of young, non-professional performers, among them Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson, Elias McConnell, Jordan Taylor and Carrie Finklea, with fifty-three credited cast members and sixty credited crew.

Made for about three million dollars and released in 2003, the film took roughly ten million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 7.1 rating from around 104,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7 from about 2,175 votes. A critics' rating of 7.5 from 163 reviews places it somewhat above the audience scores. Its eighty-one-minute running time and restrained style set it apart from a conventional crime drama, focusing on the rhythm of the school day rather than explanation.