The Delicate Art of the Rifle is a 1996 independent film directed by Dante W. Harper, with a screenplay by Stephen Grant, based on his short story by the same name. It is a surrealistic comedy-drama about a school shooting as seen through the eyes of a socially awkward college student named Jay. Walt Whitman, the shooter, is loosely based on Charles Whitman, but the film is not in any way a factual account of the 1966 shootings at the University of Texas.