THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980)

Country: U.K. / U.S.A.

Genre(s): Drama

Director: David Lynch

Cast: John Hurt / Anthony Hopkins / Freddie Jones

Plot

Based on the life of Joseph (called John in the movie) Merrick, this is the story of a severely deformed man’s struggle to find respect and love in Victorian Society and of the hospital physician who helped him.

What I Liked

The obvious centerpiece of “The Elephant Man” is the relationship between Doctor Treves and his patient, John Merrick, played by Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt respectively.  Hopkins seems a natural as the sometimes arrogant but ultimately caring intellectual Treves.  Meanwhile, Hurt manages to give a heart-wrenching performance despite the fact that his face his almost completely covered with pounds of makeup that took up to eight hours a day to apply.  The script then allows each character to develop interestingly, each learning as much about himself as the other as their personal relationship develops.  Hopkins and Hurt are also supported by a veteran supporting cast that includes Anne Bancroft, Freddie Jones, and John Gielgud, none of whom disappoint.

Even in black and white, the Victorian London (and indeed the world in general) portrayed by director David Lynch and cinematographer Freddie Francis is as convincingly gritty, grimy, and repulsive as one would imagine the real place was in that time.  It seems like a brick-walled Hell, which is very much what the city has become for the protagonist at the film’s start.  The streets teem with wandering animals and skulking people; a cacophony of bawdy shouts and drunken laughter echoes off the narrow alley walls; a putrid smelling (somehow, we can smell it) mist coats the buildings in a glistening film; and all seems oppressed by an interminable night.  Thus the setting becomes effectively a character unto itself, subtly influencing our experience of the world through Merrick’s eyes.

Accentuating the above setting is a purposeful restraint used in the film’s musical score.  Where music is usually a powerful tool in setting the mood of a scene or film, it’s the lack of music here that contributes to the disturbing reality of everything on screen.  Though music is present at times, most notably when Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” is played to lead us into the film’s understated but moving conclusion.

What I Didn’t Like

Really, I don’t have much to write here.  The writers and filmmakers did take liberty with the facts in telling the story, but their poetic license was simply used to better illustrate the meaning the audience is to draw from Joseph/John Merrick’s story.

I’ll also say that there is one scene toward the film’s end that I felt did not work.  It takes place in a theater, where Merrick is brought to watch his first play.  At the film’s conclusion, it is Merrick who is given a standing ovation from the audience.  I take it this was meant to seem as a kind of triumph from Merrick and one is convinced that the character regards it as such.  However, I felt like the crowd’s applause was disingenuous, which ruined the moment for me.

Most Memorable Scene

Throughout this film, Merrick’s physical deformity and gentle soul is constantly played against the grotesque behavior of so-called “normal” people.  This, of course, is meant to illustrate the part of mankind that can be truly ugly and disgusting.  Nowhere is this more apparent than in the drunken hospital guard who bullies Merrick and sells tickets at a local pub and sneaks in inebriated onlookers to laugh at and recoil from him.  He is more of a foil for the kind and sensitive Merrick than any other.

One of these confrontations results in a full-on invasion of Merrick’s living quarters, and in his being teased, abused, and accosted by a whole team of London lowlifes.  Timed to happen at a point in the film where Merrick is at long last beginning to feel cared for and gaining confidence, it is a heart-breaking return for Merrick to the painful realities of the outside world.  For the audience, it is a reminder from Lynch that he is not about to let this movie become a simple, sentimental tale, but one that squarely acknowledges the tragedies and ugliness of the world.

My Rating: 4 out of 5