Gus Van Sant
Elephant

"Hello, Ma'am...you need to come to the school, your son has been killed. There was a shooting this morning."

An ancient story by now, every now and then when I have the courage to watch the news, I learn about tragic stories, stories that involve kids...and for me, it’s really a punch in the stomach.

Once upon a time, America was a dream, the land of opportunity, the right place to become someone…but many horrors have piled up and been kept hidden from the masses and possibly even the media for years.

Anyone can be a killer. Rifles and guns are just a few "clicks" away. Little "schizoid" types, devoid of values and ideals, little types who spit on culture, who masturbate watching old footage of Adol Hitler can easily access the first site they find dedicated to the free sale of firearms.

They eagerly await the courier and once the nice package is in their hands…everything is ready. Tomorrow will be "the big day."

Classmates, teachers, janitors...they all fall under the rifle fire of these kids, death roams the school corridors, in those corridors where there should be the scent of youth, of carefreeness, of joy, of hormonal storms…instead, we find blood, bodies, and so much silence.

When the "party" is over, it often happens...the little types look at each other, the gun barrel penetrates into the mouth...boom...it’s all over.

Why does this happen? What drives these kids to do these things? Macabre fun? Revenge? Anger? Madness? Boredom? We can't know, at least not with absolute certainty.

Soon after, the classic "emotional speech" (not really) of the President of the United States of America arrives. "These things should not happen," shouts the President, and applause and tears arise that go to extinguish even some candles lit in memory and respect for the murdered kids. But after this "beautiful" and "sincere" speech, what has changed? Have they addressed the issue? Has the problem of "open to all" gun sales been resolved? Did anyone ask this question, given that after the Columbine massacre, many others have happened in other schools…and even then…the usual presidential speech and blah blah blah...

This underlines the total falsity of those in power, and here I allow myself to cite Pasolini's "Salò"…"nothing is more anarchic than power"…it’s true, power does what it wants, it fools you, you are a victim of power, you like me…and like everyone.

What’s the point of lowering the flags to half-staff every time if after a few months or at most a few years another kid comes back to kill inside a school? What’s the point of saying every time "these things must not happen, our children should be safe and happy when they enter the classroom" if then we continue to allow everyone to order whatever the hell they want on the internet?

And now I ask myself a question. Who are the real monsters? Who are the real killers? Kids with evident psychological problems or politicians/businessmen who don’t think at all about solving the problem because they know very well the circulation of money behind all this.

School massacres are the consequence of all the rot behind a sick and ruthless system. A system that doesn’t budge for anything or anyone, and if it does...they are crocodile tears, because from '99 to today, many years have passed...and yet these cases continue to occur. I don't know if I've made myself clear.

As you may have noticed, I haven’t spent a single word on the masterpiece film by Gus Van Sant, and it was my choice. I wanted to remember and respect the director’s considerations regarding the movie. It’s not a film that has to please you, it’s a film that has to make you reflect. One must ask questions to understand how the darkest side of America, never truly moralistic and never truly righteous as we are led to believe, is more than evident.

From this point of view and perhaps only from this point of view, I am happy to live in Italy…the mere thought of sending my son to school every day to give him a better future or at least hope for a better future for my child and simultaneously worrying that one of his schoolmates could tear him to pieces with a weapon...terrifies me and makes me sick. I dedicate with the utmost respect this thought of mine (this is certainly not a review) to all the boys and girls who lost their lives at school, to all those parents who lost their children inside a school.

VinnySparrow