90-788: Van Sant may refer to: People [ edit ] Gus Van Sant (born 1952), American film director and musician Joshua Van Sant (1803–1884), U.S. Representative and Mayor of Baltimore (1871–1875) Samuel Rinnah Van Sant (1844–1936), Governor of Minnesota (1901–1905) Tom Van Sant (1931–2023), American artist Peter Van Sant (born 1953), American reporter Places [ edit ] Van Sant Airport , airport in Bucks County, Pennsylvania Van Sant Covered Bridge , bridge in Bucks County, Pennsylvania See also [ edit ] Van (Dutch) Van Zandt Van Zant (disambiguation) Vansant (disambiguation) Topics referred to by
180-514: A Savage-Springfield 67H pump shotgun . Klebold used a 9mm Intratec TEC-DC9 semi-automatic handgun with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine and a Stevens 311D double-barreled shotgun . Harris' shotgun was sawed-off to around 26 inches (0.66 m) and Klebold shortened his shotgun's length to 23 inches (0.58 m), a felony under the National Firearms Act . On November 22, 1998, their friend Robyn Anderson purchased
270-460: A micro cassette labeled "Nixon" on the kitchen table. On it Harris said "It is less than nine hours now," placing the recording at some time around 2:30 a.m. He went on to say "People will die because of me," and "It will be a day that will be remembered forever." In the months prior to the attacks, Harris and Klebold acquired two 9mm firearms and two 12-gauge shotguns. Harris had a Hi-Point 995 carbine with thirteen 10-round magazines and
360-798: A "spiritual journey". The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival but was met with harsh critical reception at the Cannes, being booed and laughed at. In December 2016, it was announced Van Sant would direct Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot , a biopic about cartoonist John Callahan , starring Joaquin Phoenix , Rooney Mara , Jonah Hill , Jack Black , and Mark Webber . Principal photography began in March 2017. Van Sant released two musical albums: Gus Van Sant and 18 Songs About Golf . Van Sant played himself in episodes of
450-485: A TEC-9 handgun from Mark Manes for $ 500 at another gun show on January 23. Manes, Manes' girlfriend, and Duran are all in the Rampart Range video. After the massacre, Manes and Duran were both prosecuted. Each was charged with supplying a handgun to a minor and possession of a sawed-off shotgun. Manes and Duran were sentenced to a total of six years and four-and-a-half years, respectively, in prison. In addition to
540-477: A box office success. In addition to directing, he devoted considerable energy to releasing two albums and publishing a novel, Pink , which was a thinly veiled exploration of his grief over River Phoenix's death. Van Sant traveled to the deserts of Argentina , Utah , and Death Valley for the production of 2002's Gerry , a loosely devised, largely improvised feature in which stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck —both playing characters named Gerry—wander through
630-633: A business, he and Klebold made a video called Hitmen for Hire on December 8, 1998, which was released in February 2004. It depicts them as part of the Trench Coat Mafia , a clique in the school who wore black trench coats and opposed jocks, extorting money for protecting preps from bullies. Klebold and Harris themselves were apparently not a part of the Trench Coat Mafia but were friends with some of its members. They wore black trench coats on
720-533: A carbine rifle and the two shotguns for the pair at the Tanner Gun Show , as they were too young to legally purchase the guns themselves. After the attack, she told investigators that she had believed the pair wanted the weapons for target shooting and denied that she had prior knowledge of their plans. Anderson was not charged. Harris and Klebold both held part-time jobs at a local Blackjack Pizza . Through Philip Duran, one of their coworkers, Klebold bought
810-606: A class test. Harris, a good student, was unlikely to miss school days with important academic obligation. Brown berated Harris for missing the test. Harris, acting unconcerned, replied "It doesn't matter anymore." Harris went on: "Brooks, I like you now. Get out of here. Go home." Brown, feeling uneasy and already prepared to skip his next class, walked away down South Pierce Street. Meanwhile, Harris and Klebold armed themselves, using straps and webbing to conceal weapons beneath their trench coats . They lugged bags containing bombs and ammunition. Harris had concealed his shotgun in one of
900-444: A custodian called Deputy Neil Gardner, the assigned resource officer to Columbine, on the school radio, requesting assistance in the senior parking lot. The only paved route took him around the school to the east and south on Pierce Street, where at 11:23 a.m., he heard on his police radio that a female was down, and assumed she had been struck by a car. While exiting his patrol car in the senior lot at 11:24, he heard another call on
990-478: A diversion. For ignition, they used storm matches, cannon fuses, and model rocket igniters as well as timing devices built from mechanical alarm clocks for the propane bombs. During the massacre, they carried match strikers taped to their forearms for easy ignition of the pipe bombs and CO 2 bombs. Harris also experimented with napalm , and envisioned a kind of backpack and flamethrower . They both attempted to get another friend and coworker, Chris Morris, who
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#17328548589101080-431: A field about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of CHS, and 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the fire station. The bombs were intended as a diversion to draw firefighters and emergency personnel away from the school. Only the pipe bombs and one of the aerosol canisters detonated, causing a small fire, which was quickly extinguished by the fire department. It went off after first having been moved. Bomb technicians immediately examined
1170-405: A foot fetish, & bondage exteme (sic) liking. I try to thwart it..." Harris described his desire for sex with women, especially his desire of raping and torturing women in his bedroom. Harris also expressed interest in cannibalism , stating that he would like to dismember a woman with whom he could have "animalistic sex" and eat her flesh. Harris and Klebold's schoolwork also foreshadowed
1260-453: A hardware store. They bought six propane tanks on the morning of the attack. Harris was caught on a Texaco gas station security camera at 9:12 a.m. buying a Blue Rhino propane tank. Both cafeteria bombs included a single 20-pound tank, attached pipe bombs, and supporting gasoline canisters alongside. Both car bombs were made from two 20-pound propane tanks, pipe bombs, and various containers filled with gasoline were spread throughout
1350-485: A job as a production assistant to filmmaker Ken Shapiro , with whom he developed a few ideas, none of which came to fruition. In 1981, Van Sant made Alice in Hollywood , a film about a naïve young actress who goes to Hollywood and abandons her ideals. It was never released. During this period, Van Sant began to spend time observing the denizens of the more down-and-out sections of Hollywood Boulevard . He became fascinated by
1440-410: A joint court hearing, where they pled guilty to the felony theft . The judge sentenced them to a juvenile diversion program . As a result, both delinquents attended mandatory classes such as anger management and talked with diversion officers. They both were eventually released from diversion several weeks early because of positive actions in the program and put on probation . Shortly after
1530-506: A paper on Nazi Germany and Klebold wrote a paper on Charles Manson . In a psychology class, Harris wrote he dreamed of going on a shooting spree with Klebold. Harris's journals described several experimental bomb detonations. Nearly a year before the massacre, Klebold wrote a message in Harris's 1998 yearbook: "killing enemies, blowing up stuff, killing cops!! My wrath for January's incident will be godlike. Not to mention our revenge in
1620-526: A pipe bomb into work. They would give various nicknames to their pipe bombs. After the massacre, two pipe bombs had been left in Klebold's bedroom, one named "Vengeance" and another " Atlanta ", presumably after the Olympic Park bombing . They had in their possession eight propane tanks all converted into bombs. The weekend before the shooting, Harris and Klebold bought two propane tanks and other supplies from
1710-736: A result of his father's job, the family moved continually during his childhood. Gus Van Sant's paternal family is of partial Dutch origin; the name "Van Sant" is derived from the Dutch name " Van Zandt ". The earliest Van Zandt arrived in the New Netherland area in the early 17th century, around what is now New York City . Van Sant is an alumnus of Darien High School in Darien, Connecticut , and The Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon . One constant in
1800-461: A result, select victim families and journalists were allowed to view them, though the tapes were then withheld from the public and, in 2011, destroyed for fear of inspiring future massacres. Transcripts of some of the dialogue and a short clip recorded surreptitiously by a victim's father still exist. The pair claimed they were going to make copies of the tapes to send to news stations but never did so. When an economics class had Harris make an ad for
1890-599: A shooting attack. Their motive remains inconclusive. The police were slow to enter the school and were heavily criticized for not intervening during the shooting. The incident resulted in the introduction of the immediate action rapid deployment (IARD) tactic, which is used in active-shooter situations, and an increased emphasis on school security with zero-tolerance policies. Debates were sparked over American gun culture and gun control laws , high school cliques, subcultures (e.g. goths ), outcasts, and school bullying , as well as teenage use of pharmaceutical antidepressants,
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#17328548589101980-403: A significant disaster. Van Sant's 1995 film To Die For helped to restore his luster. An adaptation of Joyce Maynard 's novel, the black comedy starred Nicole Kidman as a murderously ambitious weather girl; it also stars Matt Dillon as her hapless husband and, the third Phoenix sibling in as many projects, Joaquin Phoenix , as her equally hapless lover (River had died of a drug overdose
2070-537: A year and half earlier). It was Van Sant's first effort for a major studio ( Columbia ), and its success paved the way for further projects of the director's choosing. The same year, he served as executive producer for Larry Clark 's Kids ; it was a fitting assignment, due to both the film's subject matter and the fact that Clark's photographs of junkies had served as reference points for Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy . In 1997, Van Sant gained mainstream recognition and critical acclaim thanks to Good Will Hunting , which
2160-506: Is a biopic of openly gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk , who was assassinated in 1978. The film received eight Oscar nominations at the 81st Academy Awards , including Best Picture , winning two for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Sean Penn , who starred as Milk, and Best Original Screenplay for writer Dustin Lance Black . Van Sant was nominated for Best Director . Van Sant later stated that his experience with Sean Penn on
2250-495: Is a fictionalized account of what happened to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in the days leading up to his death. In 2006, Van Sant began work on Paranoid Park based on the book by Blake Nelson , about a skateboarding teenager who accidentally causes someone's death. The film was released in Europe in February 2008. He also directed the "Le Marais" segment of the omnibus film Paris, je t'aime . Released in 2008, Van Sant's Milk
2340-424: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Gus Van Sant Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American filmmaker, photographer, painter, and musician who has earned acclaim as an independent filmmaker. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures . His early career was devoted to directing television commercials in
2430-506: Is still the deadliest school shooting in Colorado and one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States. Harris and Klebold, who planned for at least a year and hoped to have a large number of victims, intended for the attack to primarily be a bombing and only secondarily a shooting. But when several homemade bombs they planted in the school failed to detonate, the pair launched
2520-503: The Cannes Film Festival . Van Sant also received the festival's Best Director Award that same year, making him one of only two filmmakers—the other being Joel Coen —to win both accolades at the festival in the same year. Though most of Van Sant's other films received favorable reviews, such as Finding Forrester (2000) and Paranoid Park (2007), some of his efforts, such as the art house production Last Days (2005) and
2610-613: The Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, California . Van Sant was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky , the son of Betty (née Seay) and Gus Green Van Sant Sr. The younger Gus' father was a clothing manufacturer and traveling salesman, who rapidly worked his way into middle class prosperity, holding executive marketing positions that included being president of the White Stag Manufacturing Company 's apparel operation. As
2700-604: The Pacific Northwest . He made his feature-length directorial debut film Mala Noche (1985). His second film, Drugstore Cowboy (1989), was highly acclaimed, and earned him screenwriting awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics Circle and the award for Best Director from the National Society of Film Critics . His next film, My Own Private Idaho (1991),
2790-562: The University of Colorado Boulder . Dylan Bennet Klebold ( / ˈ k l iː b oʊ l d / KLEE -bohld ; September 11, 1981 – April 20, 1999) was born in Lakewood, Colorado . His parents were pacifists and attended a Lutheran church with their children. Both Dylan and his older brother, Byron, attended confirmation classes in accordance with the Lutheran tradition . As had been
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2880-773: The HBO series Entourage and the IFC series Portlandia . Van Sant was credited for all photography, paintings and art direction on the Red Hot Chili Peppers ' album Blood Sugar Sex Magik , and directed the video for " Under the Bridge ". He directed the pilot for the Starz television program Boss , starring Kelsey Grammer . Van Sant went onto The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast in 2014 to discuss filmmaking, writing, film history and their collaborations that never got made ( The Golden Suicides ) and
2970-579: The Internet, and violence in video games and film . Many makeshift memorials were created after the massacre, including ones employing victims Rachel Scott 's car and John Tomlin's truck. Fifteen crosses for the victims and the shooters were erected on top of a hill in Clement Park . The crosses for Harris and Klebold were later removed following controversy. Planning for a permanent memorial began in June 1999, and
3060-549: The attack. In both their journals, Harris and Klebold would later plot the attack. Soon after beginning his journal, Harris typed out a plan for an attack which included possibly escaping to a foreign country after the massacre, or hijacking an aircraft at Denver International Airport and crashing it into New York City . Klebold and Harris both made entries in their journals on topics related to sexuality . Klebold expressed shame for his sexual interests, which included bondage and foot fetishism , stating that, "My humanity has
3150-410: The bags. Beneath the trench coats, Harris wore a military bandolier and a white T-shirt with the inscription " Natural Selection " in black letters, a mantra he had adopted; Klebold wore a black T-shirt with "Wrath" in red letters. The cafeteria bombs failed to detonate. Had these explosives detonated as intended, they would have killed or severely wounded the 488 students in the cafeteria and damaged
3240-424: The blog postings began to show the first signs of Harris's anger against society. By the end of the year, the site contained instructions on how to make explosives. Harris's site attracted few visitors and caused no concern until August 1997, after Harris ended a blog post detailing murderous fantasies with "All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you as I can, especially a few people. Like Brooks Brown." Brown
3330-413: The bombs and relayed to police at the school the possibility of devices with motion activators. Harris and Klebold changed clothes and returned separately to CHS. Harris parked his vehicle in the junior student parking lot, and Klebold parked in the adjoining senior student parking lot. The school cafeteria was their primary bomb target; the cafeteria had a long outside window-wall, ground-level doors, and
3420-424: The cafeteria and went back up the stairs to join Harris. They each shot once at students standing close to a soccer field but did not hit anyone. They walked toward the west entrance, throwing pipe bombs in several directions, including onto the roof; only a few of these pipe bombs detonated. Witnesses heard one of them say, "This is what we always wanted to do. This is awesome!" Meanwhile, art teacher Patti Nielson
3510-424: The cafeteria. Each bag contained propane bombs, set to detonate during the "A" lunch shift, which began at 11:15 a.m. No witness recalled seeing the duffel bags being added to the 400 or so backpacks that were already in the cafeteria. The security staff at CHS did not observe the bags being placed in the cafeteria; a custodian was replacing the school security videotape at around 11:14 a.m. Shortly after
3600-467: The case with his older brother, Klebold was named after a renowned poet—in his case, the playwright Dylan Thomas . Klebold attended Normandy Elementary for first and second grade before transferring to Governor's Ranch Elementary, and became part of the CHIPS ("Challenging High Intellectual Potential Students") program. In 1996, 15-year-old Eric Harris created a private website on America Online ( AOL ). It
3690-545: The chest, arm, and abdomen by both Harris and Klebold; he fell unconscious to the ground and was left paralyzed below the chest. After firing twice, Klebold's TEC-9 jammed, and he was forced to temporarily cease shooting to fix it, which he did by reloading a new magazine into his pistol. Meanwhile, Harris took off his trenchcoat and aimed his carbine down the west staircase in the direction of three students: Daniel Rohrbough, Sean Graves, and Lance Kirklin. The students presumed they were paintball guns , and were about to walk up
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3780-408: The commons"; "the commons" was slang for the school cafeteria. Harris and Klebold were both enrolled in video-production classes and kept five video tapes that were recorded with school video equipment. Only two of these, " Hitmen for Hire" and "Rampart Range", and part of a third known as " Radioactive Clothing", have been released. The remaining three tapes detailed their plans and reasons for
3870-424: The court hearing for the van break-in, Harris reverted his website back to just hosting user-created levels of Doom . He began to write his thoughts down in a journal. Klebold had already been keeping a personal journal since March 1997; as early as November of that year, Klebold had mentioned going on a killing spree. Klebold used his journal to vent about his personal problems as well as what he'd wear and use during
3960-466: The day of the massacre, and the Hitmen for Hire video seemed a kind of dress rehearsal , showing them walking the halls of the school, and shooting bullies outside with fake guns. On October 21, 2003, a video was released showing the pair doing target practice on March 6, 1999, in nearby foothills known as Rampart Range , with the weapons they would use in the massacre. Before the massacre, Harris left
4050-698: The desert, discussing Wheel of Fortune , video games, and nothing in particular. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival . It took Gerry over a year to make it to theaters, in which time Van Sant began production on his next film, Elephant . Approached by HBO and producer Diane Keaton to craft a fictional film based on the 1999 Columbine High School massacre , the director chose to shoot in his hometown of Portland, employing dozens of untrained, teen actors. Melding improvisational long takes like those in Gerry with Harris Savides ' fluid camerawork,
4140-552: The director's early years was his interest in visual arts (namely, painting and Super-8 filmmaking); while still in school he began making semi-autobiographical shorts costing between 30 and 50 dollars. Van Sant's artistic leanings took him to the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970, where his introduction to various avant-garde directors inspired him to change his major from painting to cinema. After spending time in Europe, Van Sant went to Los Angeles in 1976. He secured
4230-579: The environmental drama Promised Land (2012), have received more mixed reviews from critics, while his adaptation of Tom Robbins 's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), his 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock 's Psycho , and The Sea of Trees (2015), were critical and commercial failures. Van Sant wrote the screenplays for several of his earlier works, and is the author of a novel, Pink . A book of his photography, 108 Portraits , has been published, and he has released two musical albums. He lives in
4320-446: The existence of this marginalized section of L.A.'s population, especially in context with the more ordinary, prosperous world that surrounded them. Van Sant would repeatedly focus his work on those existing on society's fringes, making his feature film directorial debut Mala Noche . It was made two years after Van Sant went to New York to work in an advertising agency. He saved $ 20,000 during his tenure there, enabling him to finance
4410-461: The film earned Van Sant almost overnight acclaim on the festival circuit, with the Los Angeles Times naming it the year's best independent film . The film's success attracted Hollywood interest, and Van Sant was briefly courted by Universal ; the courtship ended after Van Sant pitched a series of project ideas (including what would become Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho ) that
4500-527: The film was "amazing". His 2011 film Restless was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival , and starred Henry Hopper and Mia Wasikowska . Van Sant's film, Promised Land , was released on December 28, 2012. The film stars Frances McDormand , Matt Damon, and John Krasinski—the latter two co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by Dave Eggers. Filmed in April 2012,
4590-554: The film was influenced by Alan Clarke's 1989 film of the same name (see Elephant ). The finished film provoked strong reactions from audiences at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival . At the Cannes festival, the jury awarded Elephant with their top prize, the Palme d'Or , and Van Sant with his first Best Director statue from the festival. In 2005, Van Sant released Last Days , the final component of what he refers to as his "Death Trilogy", (the other parts being Gerry and Elephant ). It
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#17328548589104680-485: The film's success in Kevin Smith 's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back . Van Sant received the opportunity to remake Alfred Hitchcock 's classic Psycho . As opposed to reinterpreting the 1960 film, Van Sant opted to recreate the film shot-for-shot, in color, with a cast of young Hollywood A-listers. His decision was met with equal parts curiosity, skepticism, and derision from industry insiders and outsiders alike, and
4770-477: The finished result met with a similar reception. It starred Anne Heche , Vince Vaughn and Julianne Moore , and met with a negative critical reception and did poorly at the box office . In 2000, Van Sant directed Finding Forrester , about a high-school student ( Rob Brown ) from the Bronx unlikely becoming a friend of a crusty, reclusive author ( Sean Connery ). Critical response was generally positive and became
4860-421: The firearms, the complex and highly planned attack involved several improvised explosive devices . Harris and Klebold constructed a total of 99 bombs. These included pipe bombs , carbon-dioxide cartridges filled with gunpowder (called "crickets" ), Molotov cocktails , and propane tanks converted to bombs . The propane bombs were used in the cafeteria, the shooters' cars, and in another location intended as
4950-427: The ground, weakly calling for help. Klebold said, "Sure. I'll help you," then shot Kirklin in the jaw with his shotgun. Although near-fatally injured, Kirklin would survive. Graves—paralyzed beneath the waist—had crawled into the doorway of the cafeteria's west entrance and collapsed. He rubbed his blood on his face and played dead. After shooting Kirklin, Klebold walked towards the cafeteria door. He then stepped over
5040-434: The injured Graves to enter the cafeteria. Graves remembers Klebold saying, "Sorry, dude." Klebold only briefly entered the cafeteria and did not shoot at the several people still inside. Officials speculated that Klebold went to check on the propane bombs . Harris was still on top of the stairs shooting, and severely wounded and partially paralyzed 17-year-old Anne-Marie Hochhalter as she tried to flee. Klebold came out of
5130-492: The library and four times inside. Klebold fired the TEC-9 handgun 55 times: three shots outside, 31 shots inside, and 21 shots in the library. Klebold also fired 12 rounds from his double-barreled shotgun: twice outside, four times inside, and six times in the library. Law enforcement officers fired 141 rounds during exchanges of gunfire with the shooters. On Tuesday morning, April 20, 1999, Harris and Klebold placed two duffel bags in
5220-483: The machete had a swastika on the sheath. Klebold had a "Cobra" knife mounted to his belt on the left side as well as a switchblade in his right pocket. According to the shooters' respective journals and video tapes, it is believed by investigators that the pair intended to detonate their propane bombs in the cafeteria at the busiest lunch hour, killing hundreds of students. After this, they would shoot and stab survivors, as well as lob bombs. Bombs set in their cars in
5310-620: The majority of his tale of doomed love between a gay liquor store clerk and a Mexican immigrant. The film, which was taken from Portland street writer Walt Curtis ' semi-autobiographical novella, featured some of the director's hallmarks, notably an unfulfilled romanticism, a dry sense of the absurd, and the refusal to treat homosexuality as something deserving of judgment. Unlike many gay filmmakers, Van Sant—who had long been openly gay—declined to use same-sex relationships as fodder for overtly political statements, although such relationships would frequently appear in his films. Shot in black-and-white,
5400-544: The massacre, including the ways they hid their weapons and deceived their parents. Most were shot in the Harris family basement, and are thus known as the Basement Tapes. Thirty minutes before the attack, they made a final video saying goodbye and apologizing to their friends and families. In December 1999, before anyone besides investigators had seen them, Time magazine published an article on these tapes. The victims' family members threatened to sue Jefferson County. As
5490-450: The massacre, police speculated the bombs were placed during this "tape change". They also investigated whether the bombs were placed during the "after-prom" party held the prior weekend. Some Internet sleuths claim the bomb placement can be seen on the surveillance video at around 10:58 a.m. Harris and Klebold are seen in the tapes planting the bombs in casual school clothes separately. Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy Neil Gardner
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#17328548589105580-477: The massacre. They both displayed themes of violence in their creative writing projects. In December 1997, Harris wrote a paper on school shootings titled "Guns in School", and a poem from the perspective of a bullet. Klebold wrote a short story about a man killing students which worried his teacher so much that she alerted his parents. Both had also actively researched war and murder. For one project, Harris wrote
5670-529: The one that did ( The Canyons ). The moving image collection of Gus Van Sant is held at the Academy Film Archive . The archive has preserved many of Van Sant's short films, including The Happy Organ , Ken Death Gets Out of Jail , Five Ways to Kill Yourself , and others. Columbine High School massacre Location: Columbine High School ( Columbine, Colorado ) The Columbine High School massacre , often simply referred to as Columbine ,
5760-410: The parking lot would also eventually detonate, killing more students as well as possibly any police officers, paramedics, firemen, or reporters who had come to the school. However, the bombs in the cafeteria and cars failed to detonate. Several official sources claim they planned to shoot the fleeing survivors from the parking lot but, when the bombs failed, they moved to the staircase on the hill at
5850-518: The production company, Focus Features, selected the release date so that the film is eligible to qualify for awards consideration. After Promised Land , Van Sant directed a film titled Sea of Trees , which starred Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe . The film tells the story of a man who travels to the infamous Aokigahara suicide forest in Japan to kill himself, only to encounter another man wishing to kill himself as well, with whom he then embarks on
5940-564: The resulting Columbine Memorial opened to the public in September 2007. The shooting has inspired dozens of copycat killings, dubbed the Columbine effect , including many deadlier shootings across the world. Eric David Harris (April 9, 1981 – April 20, 1999) was born in Wichita, Kansas . The Harris family relocated often, as Harris's father was a U.S. Air Force transport pilot. His mother
6030-511: The same award for his Drugstore Cowboy screenplay), as well as greater prestige. The film gained River Phoenix best actor honors at the Venice Film Festival among others. It helped Reeves—previously best known for his work in the Bill and Ted movies—to get the critical respect that had eluded him. Van Sant's next film, a 1993 adaptation of Tom Robbins ' Even Cowgirls Get the Blues ,
6120-467: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Van Sant . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Van_Sant&oldid=1211365385 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description
6210-413: The school's structure, collapsing the library into the cafeteria and possibly killing more students and staff. At 11:19 a.m., 17-year-old Rachel Scott and her friend Richard Castaldo were having lunch and sitting on the grass next to the west entrance of the school. Klebold threw a pipe bomb towards the parking lot; the bomb only partially detonated, causing it to give off smoke. Castaldo thought it
6300-406: The school: Michael Johnson was hit in the face, leg, and arm but ran and escaped; Mark Taylor was shot in the chest, arms, and leg and fell to the ground, where he faked death; the other three escaped uninjured. Klebold walked down the steps toward the cafeteria. He first shot once at the body of Dan Rohrbough with his shotgun, and then came up to Lance Kirklin, who was already wounded and lying on
6390-403: The shoulder with shrapnel. Anderson and Nielson ran back down the hall into the library, and Nielson alerted the students inside to the danger, telling them to get under desks and keep silent. She dialed 9-1-1 and hid under the library's administrative counter. Anderson fell to the floor, bleeding from his injuries, then hid inside the magazine room adjacent to the library. At 11:22 a.m.,
6480-489: The similarly acclaimed My Own Private Idaho (1991). Only with the success of Cowboy was Van Sant now given license to make Idaho (a film he had originally pitched that was knocked back several times because the studios deemed the script 'too risky'). New Line Cinema now gave Van Sant the green light, and he went on a mission to get the Idaho script into the hands of River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves , his preferred choice for
6570-417: The staircase directly below the shooters. Harris fired ten times, killing Rohrbough and injuring Graves and Kirklin. William David Sanders, a teacher and coach at the school, was in the cafeteria when he heard the gunfire and began warning students. Harris turned west and fired seven shots in the direction of five students sitting on the grassy hillside adjacent to the steps and opposite the west entrance of
6660-558: The studio declined to take interest in. Van Sant returned to Portland, Oregon, where he set up house and began giving life to the ideas rejected by Universal. He directed Drugstore Cowboy about four drug addicts robbing pharmacies to support their habit. The film met with great critical success and revived the career of Matt Dillon . Drugstore Cowboy' s exploration of the lives of those living on society's outer fringes, as well as its Portland setting, were mirrored in Van Sant's next effort,
6750-523: The two young leads. After months of struggle with agents and managers over the content of the script, Van Sant finally secured Phoenix and Reeves, who played the roles of Mike Waters and Scott Favor, respectively. Centering on the dealings of two male hustlers (played by Phoenix and Reeves), the film was a compelling examination of unrequited love, alienation and the concept of family (a concept Van Sant repeatedly explores in his films). The film won him an Independent Spirit Award for his screenplay (he had won
6840-406: The vehicles. Eight pipe bombs were placed in Klebold's car, and one in Harris'. Harris and Klebold were both equipped with knives, but investigators do not believe they ever utilized them during the massacre. Harris had a boot knife on his belt and a "Khyber-pass" machete bowie knife taped to the back of his ankle. Both had an "R", referencing Harris's alias "REB", etched into the handle, and
6930-458: The west side. Other sources claim the top of the staircase where the massacre began was their preferred spot to wait for the bombs to go off all along. A total of 188 rounds of ammunition were fired by the perpetrators during the massacre. Firing nearly twice as much as Klebold, Harris fired his carbine rifle a total of 96 times: 47 shots outside, 36 shots inside, and 13 shots in the library. Harris also discharged his shotgun 25 times: 21 times in
7020-536: Was a homemaker . The family moved from Plattsburgh, New York , to Littleton, Colorado, in July 1993, when his father retired from military service. The Harris family lived in rented accommodations for their first three years in the Littleton area. During this time, Harris attended Ken Caryl Middle School, where he met Klebold. In 1996, the Harris family purchased a house south of CHS. Harris's older brother attended college at
7110-454: Was a school shooting and attempted bombing that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado , United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold , murdered twelve students and one teacher. Ten of the twelve students killed were in the school library, where Harris and Klebold subsequently died by suicide . Twenty-one additional people were injured by gunshots, and gunfire
7200-528: Was a classmate of his. After Brown's parents viewed the site, they contacted the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office on August 7, 1997. An investigator wrote a draft affidavit to request a search warrant for the Harris household, but it was never submitted to a judge. On January 30, 1998, Harris and Klebold were arrested for breaking into a white van parked near Littleton and stealing tools and computer equipment. They would subsequently attend
7290-458: Was a part of the Trench Coat Mafia, to keep the napalm at his house, but he refused. Harris also tried to recruit him to be a third shooter but played it off as a joke when rebuked. Harris's website contained instructions on making pipe bombs and Molotovs, and the extensive use of shrapnel . Harris's father once discovered one of his pipe bombs. Harris's journal logged the creation of 25 pipe bombs. Klebold scared his coworkers by once bringing
7380-433: Was also exchanged with the police. Another three people were injured trying to escape. The Columbine massacre was the deadliest mass shooting at a K-12 school in U.S. history , until December 2012. Columbine is still considered one of the most infamous massacres in the U.S. for inspiring many other school shootings and bombings; the word "Columbine" has since become a byword for modern school shootings. As of 2024 , Columbine
7470-421: Was an excessive flop, both commercially and critically. Featuring an unusually large budget (for Van Sant, at least) of $ 8.5 million and a large, eclectic cast including Uma Thurman , John Hurt , Keanu Reeves and a newcomer in the form of River Phoenix's younger sister Rain (at Phoenix's suggestion), the film was worked and then reworked, but the finished product nonetheless resulted in something approaching
7560-521: Was assigned to the high school as a full-time school resource officer . Gardner usually ate lunch with students in the cafeteria, but on April 20 he was eating lunch in his patrol car at the northwest corner of the campus, watching students in the Smokers' Pit in Clement Park, a meadow adjacent to the school. Two backpacks filled with pipe bombs, aerosol canisters, and small propane bombs were also placed in
7650-466: Was initially to host levels (also known as WADs ) Harris created for use in the first-person shooter video games Doom , Doom II , and Quake . On the site, Harris began a blog , which included details about Harris sneaking out of the house to cause mischief and vandalism, such as lighting fireworks with Klebold and others. These were known as "Rebel Missions", and Harris's blog primarily consisted of "mission logs". Beginning in early 1997,
7740-402: Was inside the school; she had noticed the commotion and walked toward the west entrance with student Brian Anderson. Nielson had intended to walk outside to tell the two students, "Knock it off", thinking they were either filming a video or pulling a student prank. As Anderson opened the first set of double doors, the gunmen shot out the windows, injuring him with flying glass; Nielson was hit in
7830-430: Was just north of the senior parking lot. The library was located above the cafeteria in the second-story of the window-wall. Each car contained bombs. As Harris pulled into the parking lot, he encountered classmate Brooks Brown, with whom he had recently patched up a longstanding series of disputes. According to Brown, who was smoking a cigarette, he was surprised to see Harris, whom he earlier noted had been absent from
7920-400: Was no more than a crude senior prank. Likewise, several students during the incident first thought that they were watching a prank. The two allegedly returned to where Rachel Scott and Richard Castaldo lay on the ground injured. Scott was killed instantly when she was hit four times with rounds fired from Harris's carbine ; one shot was to the left temple . Castaldo was shot eight times in
8010-522: Was similarly praised, as were the black comedy To Die For (1995), the drama Good Will Hunting (1997), and the biographical film Milk (2008); for the latter two, Van Sant was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and both films received Best Picture nominations. In 2003, Van Sant's film based on the Columbine High School massacre , Elephant , won the Palme d'Or at
8100-551: Was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck . The film, about a troubled, blue-collar mathematical genius, was a huge critical and commercial success. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards , including Best Director for Van Sant. It won two, including Best Screenplay for Damon and Affleck, and Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Robin Williams , who, in his acceptance speech, referred to Van Sant as "being so subtle you're almost subliminal." Van Sant, Damon and Affleck parodied themselves and
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