The Telling of Columbine
Four years and four films later the horror of Columbine is retold
Is the tragedy of Virginia Tech next? More than likely.
The Columbine High School shootings of April 1999, took place in Jefferson County, Colorado, near Denver and Littleton. Two teenage students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, carried out a shooting rampage, killing twelve students and a teacher, as well as wounding twenty-four others, before committing suicide. After the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and the 1966 University of Texas massacre, Columbine is the third-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
Director Gus Van Sant
Four major motion pictures have dealt with the retelling of the tragedy of Columbine as has documentarian Michael Moore. Gus Van Sant’s "Elephant" (2003) won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in May 2006. It a visually original film about a normal day in high school that ends in a Columbine-esque massacre. Much of the film is improvised. “Runaway Jury” (2003), the Gene Hackman/Dustin Hoffman thriller, based on John Grisham's 1996 novel, briefly refers to a school killing and exchanges the book's central court case involving a cigarette company for a firearms trial. The tag line for “Zero Day” (2003) is: In high school, you're told you can do anything you put your mind to.
“Home Room” (2002), is a story that deals with the aftermath of a high school shooting and an unlikely bond between two young women, united by nothing more than their common suffering. It is a film writer/director Paul F. Ryan hopes can make an impact. "'Home Room' is an opportunity to start a discussion without anybody in the real world getting hurt."
FBI Begins Profiling
Ryan’s idea of cinema catharsis is still relevant today. A story that addresses a social issue and uses performance as a way of illustrating injustice to the audience is a concept that finds its origins in the philosophers of ancient Greece.
The problem with this theory is that often life, particularly modern life, is imitating art. In the wake of the recent Virginia Tech shootings, the FBI is sending psychologists into schools to profile the minds of such potential killers. Reminiscent of Michael Mann’s “Manhunter,” these profilers, by identifying ‘red flags’ and getting into the heads of these murders, believe they can stop a tragedy before it happens.
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech's Student Government Association issued a statement Sunday asking the news media to respect the privacy of students and leave campus. Around campus, camera crews and reporters are routinely met with scorn, including comments such as "go home."
Although some TV viewers expressed outrage at NBC’s decision to broadcast the tapes that Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-hui sent to it on the day of his attacks, the network's Nightly News With Brian Williams surged well ahead of its rivals Wednesday, according to Nielsen Research. The use of the killer's tapes is being condemned by many websites. Cliff Kincaid, editor of the watchdog group Accuracy in Media, wrote, "NBC is playing into the cold, dead hands of a mass murderer, exploiting his paranoid delusions for ratings and profit." But NBC was taken to task even on the liberal Huffington Post blog. Harry Shearer warned, "a hundred thousand self-pitying mentally ill young men (and women?) have just been shown the road to glory one more time."
