On the 20th April 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered in their High School and killed 13 people. This massacre had strongly haunted the spirits. Revenge, violence and death could be found in every corner, even in young teenagers. The movie Elephant from Gus Van Sant was constructed based on this tragic event. We follow the lives of the Columbine High-School’s teenagers on the day of the massacre. What stands here is that the atmosphere predominates on the plot. It is one of the main conventions of indie films according to Staiger. The dialogues are not use for the purpose of plot but to show a banal day, in a banal school, and the violence melt in this triviality. In mainstream’s movies violence is normally emphasizes, by the editing, and the use of music. Here it is the opposite. The scenes of violence are filmed the same way as the other scenes. For example, when the two armed murderers has just entered the library, everybody is watching them, but nobody is alarmed. The photographer, Elias, points his camera at them. He sees but does not react. When Alex shoots Michelle, the first victim, the whole library is going to panic, shout and hide. When the damage has already be done, people react. After this event three girls, in the bathrooms, hear the gun shots. Even though they know what is going on, they don’t panic and are glad they won’t have to go to school anymore “Oh, that’s bombs, that’s fine.”. They shout only when Alex is fronting them. Hearing about the violence don’t warn people. It has becoming normal. It’s when the violence is in front of us that we personally react. It’s also directly linked with the movie title Elephant which represents the fact that it stands out a mile, but we still ignore it.

We can confront Elephant with Spring Breakers from Harmony Korine in this idea of the triviality of the violence. To go on a Spring Break Candy, Brit and Cotty, are going to rob a fast food to collect money for their holiday. What stands out is the fact that they seem to do it with a lot of detachment. They advise themselves to do it like if they were in a videogame or in a movie. They are totally out of the reality and the real consequences of violence. This idea can as well be seen in Elephant. The movie ends on Alex who is singing “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe” to choose who he is going to kill first, Nathan or Carrie. Again, killing is the game (as Alex was playing video games as well). It is interesting because Spring Breakers and Elephant are, however, totally different in their realization. Harmony Korine wanted to imitate the archetype of the mainstream movies. As Ed Cameron said in his article Harmony Korine's: Break from Reality": Spring Breakers as Candy-Coloured Neon Noir, the film looks like a candy-coated landscape where the superficiality has taken the place of the reality. The violence is also lead by a sexual interest. The girls have a sexual attraction for Alien, because he is a criminal who doesn’t respect the orders. His guns and bills are the objects of his power. We can also see in the pistols a phallic representation. As Cameron said, the real goal of this spring-break was more the transgression itself of being powerful by the use of violence. These holidays are their way to release all their human’s frustration. For the first time there are in control.

Being in control depicted well the two movies. Alex, Eric, Candy, Brit and Cotty see in the violence a way of finally be empowered.