And I've come to a conclusion as to why the school shootings occurred, at least according to Gus Van Sant. Homosexuality. The killers in the movie (loosely based on Columbine) were gay. There was a needless sequence where they got into the shower for their first kiss with anyone. They then immediately went to school and started shooting people. Who do they target? The hetero kids. What is the last sequence in the movie? The main killer corners the school couple in the freezer of the cafeteria (its implied the girl is pregnant as well). It ends before he shoots them, but its implied they die. And why do they die? Because they're seen as the perfect hetero couple.

Hooray for Gus Van Sant for figuring out what is wrong with America... we need to stop the homos from killing our innocent children.

Sorry for the rant, but that really pissed me off that the characters are characterized that way. You do see a gay kid get killed, but its seen as more chance than it being done because he is gay. Gus, if you want to say your movie has no meaning, then don't present it in such a slanted view. Perhaps you'll get a different view from the movie, but thats what I saw.

oh, this is a real movie and a real review? haha. no offense easy, more offense to gus for making it so blatant that your review reads like fiction.

And I've come to a conclusion as to why the school shootings occurred, at least according to Gus Van Sant. Homosexuality. The killers in the movie (loosely based on Columbine) were gay. There was a needless sequence where they got into the shower for their first kiss with anyone. They then immediately went to school and started shooting people. Who do they target? The hetero kids. What is the last sequence in the movie? The main killer corners the school couple in the freezer of the cafeteria (its implied the girl is pregnant as well). It ends before he shoots them, but its implied they die. And why do they die? Because they're seen as the perfect hetero couple.

Hooray for Gus Van Sant for figuring out what is wrong with America... we need to stop the homos from killing our innocent children.

Sorry for the rant, but that really pissed me off that the characters are characterized that way. You do see a gay kid get killed, but its seen as more chance than it being done because he is gay. Gus, if you want to say your movie has no meaning, then don't present it in such a slanted view. Perhaps you'll get a different view from the movie, but thats what I saw.


Wow, I think you're really stretching it. Everyone gets killed in this movie, and theres hardly a reason why anyone gets shot, they get shot because they're there. I thought it was a great movie and don't think that Van Sant had any agenda in mind other than to simply show something happening. In fact, I would argue that he went out of his way to avoid makeing any statement at all.

Then why include the scene in the shower? Based on the movie, there was no other reason for the kids to be killers. They were never shown getting picked on, their parents cooked them dinner. The only reason presented in the movie is their gay and they feel like an outcast.

Why save the "classic" couple until the end? That was a setup kill, it wasn't random, he walked around the cafeteria until he found them hiding, then did "Eni-meni-mini-mo" until he decided which one to kill (sorry to blow the ending).

Oh, and the kids in the movie also seemed to be influenced by the history channel, classical music and violent video games... so watch for those warning signs.

Then why include the scene in the shower? Based on the movie, there was no other reason for the kids to be killers. They were never shown getting picked on, their parents cooked them dinner. The only reason presented in the movie is their gay and they feel like an outcast.

Why save the "classic" couple until the end? That was a setup kill, it wasn't random, he walked around the cafeteria until he found them hiding, then did "Eni-meni-mini-mo" until he decided which one to kill (sorry to blow the ending).

Oh, and the kids in the movie also seemed to be influenced by the history channel, classical music and violent video games... so watch for those warning signs.


I personaly didn't even think of them as gay, they knew they were gonna die by the end of the day and they wanted to have sex, I didn't find it to be an overt statement about gays. As for the couple, I find it kind of ridiculous to make a movie about High School and not have a single couple involved, wether it's Elephant or American Pie. I just think your being overly critical.

Haven't seen the movie, and probably won't. However, the Columbine killers were gay, and that did tie in somehow with their motivation for the killings. That was largely ignored/glossed over in the media, much in the same way that they glossed over the Virginia snipers being radical Islamicists.

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showthread.php?t=15726&highlight=elephant

I tried to start a thread on the movie six or so months ago.

As I stated then, the filmmaking was very interesting, but there wasn't much substance to the movie. I didn't (and still don't) take the movie as being as slanted as you did. I think the one thing that being gay did relate to was the feeling of being cast aside by the mainstream. Was the shower scene gratuitous? Maybe, but I think it added insight to why these kids felt like outsiders. I think you have to make quite a leap to say they killed people because of their sexual preference.

In the movie they planned on killing everyone before discovering they were gay

Then why include the scene in the shower? Based on the movie, there was no other reason for the kids to be killers. They were never shown getting picked on

hmm wrong, there is a scene in the classroom were one of them gets thrown wet paper balls at him by many of the other boys.

Yeah, besides, I think the fact that they got picked on can pretty much be, ya know, assumed.

Isnt Gus Van Sant gay? I thought he was.

Gus is gay.

In the movie they planned on killing everyone before discovering they were gay



hmm wrong, there is a scene in the classroom were one of them gets balled by many of the other boys.

This movie sounds plain sick!

Hey, Easy, ever heard of the word SPOILER? Just asking.

Given that Gus Van Sant himself is gay, this theory doesn't hold much water. He's trying to show the dangers of what alienation can produce. The killers don't fit in, for whatever reason, and that leads to the murders.

What I really feel here is that this is the type of movie that shouldn't have been filmed. Columbine, while not directly related into film, was the main resource for this story, and columbine was a terrible rediculously pathetic tragedy.

Can anyone say there is something offerred by this film that is entertaining? informative? USEFUL in ANy way?

I haven't seen the film, nor will I ever, because making films about kids wiping out other kids in a high school is about the stupidest idea I've heard in decades. It surves no purpose. Its not entertainment, its someone trying to make a buck off a tragedy that touched hundres of lives. Its just fucking sick is what it is.

What I really feel here is that this is the type of movie that shouldn't have been filmed. Columbine, while not directly related into film, was the main resource for this story, and columbine was a terrible rediculously pathetic tragedy.

Can anyone say there is something offerred by this film that is entertaining? informative? USEFUL in ANy way?

I haven't seen the film, nor will I ever, because making films about kids wiping out other kids in a high school is about the stupidest idea I've heard in decades. It surves no purpose. Its not entertainment, its someone trying to make a buck off a tragedy that touched hundres of lives. Its just fucking sick is what it is.

Yeah, that movie was a cash cow. :rolleyes:

it doesn't matter how much it earned in the box office, the writer, director and everyone else involved got paid to make it, they took money to tell a story on a big screen about kids killing kids.


am I wrong? Is it wrong for me to feel completely disgusted by those involved in making this trash? Talk about glorifying everything that is wrong with society, exculsion, murder etc etc......

I understand your point, but I then hope you boycott movies about WWII, Veitnam and such for similar reasons.

Actually I do unless I can believe beforehand that they're based on factual accounts. AKA saving private ryan, and we were soldiers. those are the only two war movies set in our historical settings that I've attended in the theatre. I have been sucked into some (the patriot) that were more a twisted account of things.

unfortunately the analogy isn't accurate though. Wars though awful, were accepted situations in history. the killings at columbine were a blatant acts of violence directed at their peers. they were simple acts of homocide, not acts of war delegated down from heads of state. There are movies that glorify war for war's sake, and those, yes indeed, I do boycott in their entirety, but this really isn't the same thing. They took a story of murder, and put it out there for more disalusioned and mislead teens to see and perhaps imitate because "its cool and I'll get a movie made about me someday"

you may think that rediculous, it certainly sounds rediculous to a sane person, but that is in fact what very well could happen in this case.

Actually I do unless I can believe beforehand that they're based on factual accounts. AKA saving private ryan, and we were soldiers. those are the only two war movies set in our historical settings that I've attended in the theatre. I have been sucked into some (the patriot) that were more a twisted account of things.

unfortunately the analogy isn't accurate though. Wars though awful, were accepted situations in history. the killings at columbine were a blatant acts of violence directed at their peers. they were simple acts of homocide, not acts of war delegated down from heads of state. There are movies that glorify war for war's sake, and those, yes indeed, I do boycott in their entirety, but this really isn't the same thing. They took a story of murder, and put it out there for more disalusioned and mislead teens to see and perhaps imitate because "its cool and I'll get a movie made about me someday"

you may think that rediculous, it certainly sounds rediculous to a sane person, but that is in fact what very well could happen in this case.

First of all the movie is R rated, so no one under 17 "should" ever see this movie. And if anyone who sees a movie and decides it would be cool to go on a killing spree, guess what, they were gonna go on a killing spree anyway. It seems sanctimonious to rail against something you've never even seen. The movie is a very fine piece of filmaking IMO that simply shows an event occuring. It doesn't try and explain it and doesn't try to give it rationale.

As far as the money aspect, here is an excerpt from Roger Eberts review of the film,
"Van Sant would have found it difficult to find financing for any version of this story (Columbine isn't "commercial"), but to tell it on a small budget, without stars or a formula screenplay, is unthinkable. He found the freedom to make the film, he said, because of the success of his "Good Will Hunting," which gave him financial independence: "I came to realize since I had no need to make a lot of money, I should make films I find interesting, regardless of their outcome and audience." "

Doesn't seem like a guy who's trying to make money off of the project.

"I came to realize since I had no need to make a lot of money, I should make films I find interesting, regardless of their outcome and audience." " Or he could just be pushing his homosexual Agenda onto the rest of the world. You know the don't blame me it's genetics/societys fault crap!

BTW--I don't understand this "gay" stuff because 2 of the columbine killers girlfriends are currently on probation. The parts they played in the shootings were documented through the videos they left behind and this footage led their girlfriends to plead guilty to some minor crimes.


Although I did enjoy Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine"? Did not agree with it, but it is watchable.

Or he could just be pushing his homosexual Agenda onto the rest of the world. You know the don't blame me it's genetics/societys fault crap!


Yeah, the same way Piece Brosnan pushes his heterosexual agenda on the rest of the world. :rolleyes: