"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 or audience" - Gus Van Sant

I've read and watched a great deal about Columbine since its unfortunate pitiful tragedy played out on the news media. What I'm hearing more than anything is a generation without a voice... lost in a world full of technology, thrown at them by their parents, the sign "nurturing needed here" was left on the ground and never posted outside the door of idle teen minds. Playstation, cable tv, cellular telephones, cheap asian cars, malls, and fast food replaced community, knowing your neighbor, learning how to interact with others in the face of adversity, and forming the bonds which fill gaps in communication. Complacency on the part of teens and their parents leads to apathy. Ebert and Shaw are correct in assuming that violent tendencies arise not from exterior influences, but from something as simple as unchecked boredom. Van Sant's way of showing this is "Elephant". Only I wouldn't call it interesting, only sad. Brilliant, yes, but a warning to the aging generation to listen harder, and judge less.