the elephant man (1980)
by zEke
Joseph Carey Merrick was born in Leicester in 1962 with a rare medical condition that started developing at the age of five and turned him into a unique human being. Because of the extreme deformity this condition caused in his body he was given the nickname of “The Elephant Man”. He started a career as a sideshow attraction in both England and Belgium with different luck before he was given a permanent home at London Hospital by the physician Frederik Treves. Once there, he became a celebrity among Victorian bourgeoisie.
Mel Brooks seduced by the real story of Joseph Carey Merrick told in the books the elephant man and other reminiscences (1923) by Sir Frederik Treves and the elephant man: a study in human dignity (1942) by Ashley Montagu decided to produce a cinematographic adaptation of the life and death of John Merrick, as he was called by Sir Treves, purposely or not, in his book. Since he was well known as a comedian, and did want people to take the film seriously, asked a young David Lynch, who had only directed one film back then, to take care of the project, and he downplayed his involvement. After a promising debut with eraserhead (1977), the elephant man, which deserved 8 Oscar nominations, turned into the best letter of introduction for the American director.
As one might already expect the movie tells the story of John Merrick (John Hurt), “The Elephant Man”, a hideously deformed young man who works for a showman called Bytes (Freddie Jones) as a sideshow attraction. When physician Frederik Treves (Anthony Hopkins) discovers him, he manages to take him from Bytes and put him at London Hospital, where Bytes will not beat him up again but he will become a funfair for Victorian bourgeoisie.
I should say now, before I write further, that any resemblance of the events in this story to actual events is mere coincidence. Some of the characters did exist, so some of the events did happen, but the main purpose of the tape is to deliver a reflection on human nature rather than to be accurate. Thus, the script include new characters, such as Bytes, and events that never happened for the sake of the cinematographic adaptation, but, a priori, there is nothing wrong with that.
The movie pretends to be an introspection on how society behaves with those that are different and how sometimes apparently opposite attitude lead to strangely similar effects. The viewer will definitely compare the way Bytes and Frederick treat John, will think of the differences between physical and psychological violence, will think of Frederick’s leitmotif, will think of John’s composure, or will rather yawn and complain about the movie being in black and white.
John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins are both convincing, riveting the first, elegant the second. Unfortunately, the performances delivered by some of the extras, among who we can find the director if we look carefully, are far from mediocre, taking credibility away from some of the strongest scenes. David Lynch uses, as in his first movie, black and white to accentuate the dark side of the story. He manages to survive to the complexity of the adaptation getting away from most of what nowadays are known to be his trade marks, but still delivering a movie, which although not as personal as his latest ones, certainly touches you.
In the end a correct pseudo-biopic about the life and death of Joseph Carey Merrick that will always be remembered by the attention such an independent director as Lynch got from everyone, composer John Morris’ main theme, and John Hurt’s make-up.
For the deadhours of those who were laugh at in high school.
deadrate: γood
official site | imdb
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