An Oddly Artistic Cinematic Niche

With the new film Our hero, Balthazar currently making its debut in select NYC theaters, we thought it would be a good time to discuss other films in this rather niche and controversial micro-genre. What sub-genre, you ask? Well, it may be more subtly referred to as the “mass casualty” indie film, but more colloquially, they are simply referred to as school shooter films.

Zero Day

Zero day is the first and perhaps the most powerful and experimental of the bunch of films we’re gonna be talking about today.

Released in 2003, it was conceived of and shot during a time when Columbine was still fresh in the cultural memory of America, and where the internet and news media had, in many ways, unfortunately deified the shooters and turned the entire situation into a twisted pop-cultural phenomenon. This, of course, begot more and more instances of tragedy across the country, whether through mental illness, the quest for infamy, or both.

Zero Day could generally be perceived of as a found footage film, as the film is intentionally set up as if it was recorded by its two main antagonists, and it feels so much like lost Columbine footage that I’m sure when it was first released, many people felt like they had accidentally stumbled upon something actually sinister.

The film (although now missing its original, disconcertingly realistic mystique afforded to it by virtue of the early days of the internet) still feels like the most intimate portrayal of teen perpetrators ever put to screen. Although it feels like a found footage film, it has an uncomfortable and uncanny effect of very intentionally framing the audience as an invisible accomplice. It does this subtly, as the main characters record every aspect of their lives, including their more innocent or mundane daily life events. Because the acting here is so absolutely fantastic for an entirely unknown and amateur cast, the film is able to guide the viewer into an uncomfortable empathy with the film’s central antagonists. As we see their planning stages leading to their final action, it adds to the uncomfortable feeling that we are a sort of post-hoc accomplice to the tragic, violent actions they eventually take. So many times, it feels, we could have reached back to these kids, attempting to stop the events from happening, but it’s impossible. This has the effect of mimicking the feelings of the real-life friends and family of these types of perpetrators, who may ask themselves how this happened. We almost ask ourselves, despite everything, these people are still just disturbed kids who should have been saved from themselves.

As the story ramps up, it’s clear they’ve made their decision to go through with their actions, but the film decides to do something interesting when the violence actually begins. For nearly 10 minutes, our only perspective of the violence is through black and white security camera footage, keeping in line with the found footage or leaked footage aspect of the rest of the film. This footage is disturbingly similar to the real security footage from Columbine, giving the scene a cold authenticity. In the end, though, the result is a lot less intimate than the other films in the genre. I think it was a bold, stylistically consistent choice that contrasts the intimacy of the rest of the film, making the violence feel less exploitative than other films in the genre which use close up shots and handheld cameras.

Overall, though, I think the intimate nature of the rest of the film probably led to the sort of cult romanticization of the main characters that we see online today, which was certainly not a good thing. You can’t control the internet, though, and it’s pretty clear that the filmmakers didn’t think that the film would end up being such an aesthetic model for real life events and an obsessive cult fandom. Sadly, even as recently as this year, real life teens were unfortunately idolizing the film while attempting a copy cat event. Art imitating life, life imitating art.

The director of Zero Day went on to write The Place Beyond the Pines, which is another fantastic, gritty meditation on violence and familial trauma.

The Dirties

Another film we’re gonna be talking about today is the dirties, which went fairly unnoticed on its release and has sense developed a fairly large cult following thanks to the other works by the director, most notably, the films blackberry and the show Nirvana, the band the show.

The dirties is as much a film about filmmaking as it is about violence in schools and bullying, and it spends much of its runtime actually being a meta-film about two students in high school who are shooting a film. Suitingly, this was also the reality of the filmmakers, who were shooting The Dirties in their school IRL, where most of the students were not actors, and the teachers were not actors.

The film itself is about making a film about getting revenge on bullies, and The Dirties is as much a meta-commentary on film-obsession and filmmaking as it is the phenomenon of school shootings. The film shows us how the perfect storm of mental illness and bullying can fuel such heinous acts of violence, and how mental health issues go unnoticed in society even when they’re so glaringly obvious.

The Dirties is an even more odd film in this lineup because it is also largely a comedy. I mean, it’s a buddy comedy about two kids struggling to fit in, and how they compartmentalize their real life and the lives they live on camera when making silly home movies. The comedic aspects actually take up the majority of the film, so when the violence finally happens in the final act, it makes it even more disturbing by contrast.

This contrast was definitely the intended effect. The violence is really only in the last few minutes of the film, and although there were clear signs that this mass-casualty event was going to happen, it’s still shocking when it finally shifts from laughter, friendship and filmmaking to such a terrible, life-ruining decision.

Unlike Zero Day, The Dirties uses a mix of placed action cameras and security footage during the shooting, giving it a more contrived but intimate feeling than Zero day. The camera work sort of reflects the disturbing compartmentalization of its main character, oscillating from the contrived, well placed GoPro shots, to standard follow shots which evoke the fact that the shooting is really happening.

The film doesn’t frame the shooter as a victim, but it is hard not to empathize with the character as he throws his entire life away instead of seeking help. For much of the film, we see him from an empathetic perspective, from his perspective as a bullied kid who’s actually very kind, but who’s obviously in need of adult intervention. It’s clearly a story of mental illness going untreated, and people not paying attention to the very clear, very real warning signs of violent ideation. This is perhaps the most salient point of the entire film, and one that really reflects the current reality that allows these events to occur with such tragic regularity.

Elephant

Perhaps the most famous and lauded film based around school violence and the ghosts of Columbine, is Elephant by Gus van Sant. It was, of course, a highly risky film for such a celebrated filmmaker to release at the time, but Gus has always taken risks. Whether it’s his creation of queer films in the early 90s, when reception was certainly more hostile than it is now, or whether it’s working with two brand new script writers on something like Good Will Hunting, Gus has had a rather iconoclastic career.

Elephant itself is a very interesting film because it doesn’t delve into the psychology of school violence- it’s more of a conceptual, poetic piece. Elephant is a more mundane, polished, artsier look into the average life of high schoolers, and how that mundanity and calm can so easily collide with violence.

In Elephant, the same 10 to 20 minute period before a school shooting takes place is framed from the perspective of a variety of students across the school and their everyday, typical student life.

The violence is not the center of the story, but it’s always there waiting. We know it’s coming, and it makes it more unnerving to see these kids going about their daily lives and their daily struggles while knowing that soon enough, they will have to witness or be victim to something so heinous and so unbelievable.

When the film came out, it had mixed reception in terms of its casualness when relating to this controversial subject, but it was also celebrated for its juxtaposition of the mundane and innocent with the callous violence of school shootings.

While it seems airy and casual, the tension of the possibility or inevitability of violence is always there- something I’m sure kids can now relate to even more than before in America. The audience watches these kids live out their lives, with the palpable tension beneath the surface that the shooting is going to happen, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Through Gus van Sant’s filmmaking, it’s impossible not to be absorbed into the interwoven moments of the students’ lives. So many of the shots feature long, beautiful walking scenes, taking the audience through these mundane trips through the entire school- whether that’s through empty fields or busy, loud hallways or a chaotic lunchroom, you’re always following these characters from behind in a truly voyeuristic manner. The school is alive, and the various perspectives that we follow make us feel more engrained into the school environment and culture, making the violence that closes off the last part of the film so much more disturbing.

Sant, much more than Zero Day or The Dirties, opts for realism during the violence, keeping the framing the same as the mundanity of the earlier shots. The deafening silence of the classrooms and hallways adds to the fear and terror the teens must be experiencing. The sound design for the gunshots is fierce, loud and encompasses everything.

When making Elephant, I think Gus understood that people are always looking for a definitive reason why these types of events occur, as a reason can help people more easily come to terms with the events. Unfortunately, there are never satisfying answers, as justifications for such violence simply don’t exist. When Columbine happened, the story was easy to understand: these kids were bullied, and this was their petty, evil revenge. However, as time went on, that narrative became less and less credible, and in the end, we were left with no conceivable justifications for their violent actions at Columbine. Sants idea to forgo the psychology or moral questions was rather smart, in hindsight. He instead gave us the more terrifying experience of witnessing high schoolers going about their naive innocence, and having to experience their entire world being shattered by violence. No answers, no reasons.

Polytechnique

Polytechnique, unlike the others, is based on the irl accounts of the actual survivors of a mass casualty event at a Canadian university. It chooses to open on the seemingly random act of violence on campus, then, it goes back to the hours before the shooting occurred, shifting perspectives between the shooter, and his victims.

It’s shot in black and white, which feels as if it reflects the lack of hope and nihilism of its shooter. Even more than Elephant, it’s more of an art film than the others in the genre, and it goes into the more psychological and political motivations of the shooter, drawing a straight line between ideology and violence.

The main character writes a manifesto, clearly outlining exactly why he believes he is justified, how even a self described rational person can commit these types of actions. In his case, it was a reactionary, anti-feminist hatred that fueled his violence.

The film jumps from his perspective to that of the women who would end up having to endure the shooting, Juxtaposing between the mundanity, friendships, innocence and the casual sexism occurring in the women’s daily lives to the irrational, violent misogyny that the shooter professes.

The main character is clearly unwell, despite his own estimation of being rational, and the film constantly shows his inability to see a future, his loneliness, and his utter lack of connection with those around him. He stews in his hatred, and is constantly glaring at others as if grasping at the last hope for someone to truly see him. In his estimation, he is a failure due to the world changing, not due to his own lack of effort or talent.

Unfortunately, his spiral toward misanthropy becomes everyone else’s nightmare, and the film does not hold back, detailing the violence with a cold, calculated framing that never pulls away from the carnage, and unlike the other films, the violent act itself is outlined with graphic detail for nearly half the film.

The film has mixed reviews, likely due to its arthouse vibes and unblinking violence, but it does a very good job of profiling an unfortunately common descent into violence. The film is praised more so for humanizing the victims and and keeping them at the center of the story, which is something the other films in the genre generally don’t do.

It’s probably the most controversial film here simply because of its excess of violence, which is only made more disturbing as the shooter clearly targets helpless, terrified women. Denis is known for his intentional, dramatic minimalism and his use of beautiful static wide shots. From Polytechnique to Prisoners to Dune, regardless of the budget, there’s always been a show-don’t-tell ethos that some have found boring, but I’ve always found fascinating in a way that’s very similar to Alex Garland. He excels in aesthetics, visual storytelling and world building, and all of his films are gripping no matter what genre they are. Polytechnique is certainly more arthouse, but it’s the beginning of a clear artistic vision that continues to impress.

Our Hero, Balthazar

Time will tell where Our Hero, Balthazar fits into this sub-genre, but from the ironypilled sarcastic trailers, I would assume it’s somewhere between The Dirties and Zero Day. So far, it looks like an edgy, unblinking look into Internet culture, isolation, and violence perpetrated through nihilism. If that is the case, it’s a strong foundation, and ground that hasn’t really been covered in this genre of films. Hopefully we can see it soon, as the director has been involved in some of the best indie films of the last decade.