The Search— A vision portrayed through Gus Van Sant’s Filmography and Art.

Purpose, Belonging, and the vision of Life as a Journey.

Robin Cru’el

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“photography of walking elephant” by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Gus Van Sant’s filmography is one that has always struck me on a deeper level through his sense of character development and embracing vulnerability through ancillary story telling.

What’s often lacking in Gus Van Sant’s filmography is what is most striking about the Director’s vision; a sense of purpose.

To understand Gus Van Sant’s filmography, one would need to understand his work as an artist.

“Paintings and films are really similar — both rely on composition and color and light — and both move in their own ways.”

In his blockbuster success, “Good Will Hunting” the audience follow a character masking his vulnerability and refusing to accept his gift as a genius. Burning bridges and shattering meaningful relationships as a form of escapism from Society.

He reviews this subject once more, in his lesser known project “Gerry”; a film set entirely on the plot of Two very dear friends straying from their path along a hike through Death Valley, only to find themselves losing sense of hope and direction as they fight for survival whilst attempting to find their way back home.

The relationship of Lost Souls and Journey through Life is a common occurrence in the work of Gus Van Sant, and none would be more synonymous with the subject than in his masterpiece “My Own Private Idaho”.

A story of success, solitude, pain, loneliness, and a constant search for belonging.

In his depiction of the gruesome events of the Columbine Massacre, he takes an eerie approach towards the subject in his critically acclaimed film “Elephant”. Setting the tone for the movie with a Stable Long-Takes and Tracking shots as it moves through the high-school following subjects as they go about their daily life as if it was just another day.

Which is what it could’ve been.

The mastery of Gus Van Sant’s work shines eloquently when Elephant is viewed a second time, only to understand how there’s a looming fear…

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Robin Cru’el

I failed to learn the piano, so I decided I’d play the keyboard instead. //All aboard the Crazytrain.