Amazon.com: You could only see his eyes behind the layers of makeup, but those expressive orbs earned John Hurt a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his moving portrayal of John Merrick, the grotesquely deformed Victorian-era man better known as The Elephant Man. Inarticulate and abused, Merrick is the virtual slave of a carnival barker (Freddie Jones) until dedicated London doctor Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins in a powerfully understated performance) rescues him from the life and offers him an existence with dignity. Anne Bancroft costars as the actress whose visit to Merrick makes him a social curiosity, with John Gielgud and Wendy Hiller as dubious hospital staffers won over by Merrick. David Lynch earned his only Oscar nominations as director and cowriter of this somber drama, which he shot in a rich black-and-white palette, a sometimes stark, sometimes dreamy visual style that at times recalls the offbeat expressionism of his first film, Eraserhead. It remains a perfect marriage between traditional Hollywood historical drama and Lynch's unique cinematic eye, a compassionate human tale delivered in a gothic vein. The film earned eight Oscar nominations in all, and though it left the Oscar race empty-handed, its dramatic power and handsome yet haunting imagery remain just as strong today. --Sean Axmaker
A sad, sad film.... The film opens under the tent of a circus. The Elephant Man is the main attraction of the freak shows. A physician, Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins), passes through a menagerie of Siamese twins, strongmen, fat women, pickled abortions, etc., until he arrives at the Elephant Man's tent. Treves pays the carnival barker, Bytes (Freddie Jones), a fee for a private exhibition of the Elephant Man. Bytes leads Treves into the Elephant Man's tent. It's dark inside. The Elephant Man peeks out of the shadows. Treves is astonished. He leases the Elephant Man from Mr. Bytes. The Elephant Man transforms a wing of the London hospital into a freak show, and Treves is the circus barker as he catalogues the Elephant Man's deformed body. The physician waves over the reeking bags and testicle-like sacs lapping out of John's back. The physician waves over the huge fibrous globes displacing John's skull; the physician waves over the swollen twisted chain of John's vertebrae.
In some, John inspires fear; in others, he inspires sympathy. His deformed body is a funhouse mirror, returning the ugliness of those who gaze at him, beat him, and exploit him. Through the first forty-five minutes of the film, John only snorts, wheezes, and growls in his mask. An ominous air surrounds him. The physician's kindness, respect, and patience win John's trust. Then, we discover that John can not only speak, but--despite the crippling distortion of his mouth--he speaks elegant English. He quotes bible scriptures. He even writes poetry. John's only possession is a picture of his beautiful deceased mother. Elephants trampled her to death when she was only twenty-one. In John's nightmares, one of those elephants--his father--impregnates his mother.
A beautiful and sympathetic actress (Anne Bancroft) visits Merrick. Her open interest in John starts a new trend. Now, John plays the humble and frequent host to London's upper society. The hospital's head nurse, old Mrs. Mothershead--Wendy Hiller, dislikes John's growing fame. The old woman scolds Treves for making John a freak all over again. Treves is defensive--at least at the hospital, John's treated with some measure of human dignity and decency. John's not abused at the hospital as he is with Bytes, the carnival barker.
The carnival suffers in John's absence; the Elephant Man was the freak show's most popular draw. Bytes interrupts John's new life, invades the hospital, and steals back his cash cow, the Elephant Man. Bytes treats John coldly, as one would treat an unfaithful spouse. The magic was gone. The Elephant Man has become a figure of sympathy. In a drunken fit of anger, Bytes drags John out of his trailer and tosses him into a cage full of baboons. The circus's other freaks pity John. They free him from the baboon cage and spirit him out of the circus.
Traumatized, John hides his head--his face--under a sack and begins his long journey home: the hospital. He boards a train to London. At the train station, his hooded face, stooped back, and limping gait attracts a mob. They unmask him and flush him to the bowels of the station. They corner him in a restroom. Amid steampipes and rows of urinals and rusted toilets, John cries at the top of his lungs: "I am not an animal, I am not an animal!" The crowd dissipates, and the film moves to its final scene.
The Elephant film is a poignant straightforward film directed by David Lynch, known for eccentric films like Eraserhead, Lost Highway, Wild at Heart, and Blue Velvet. Photographer Freddie Francis shot the film in black and white, a mode that evokes the era of the story and the mystique surrounding the film's subject. All of the main actors--Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, and Wendy Hiller--performed perfectly. But the biggest star of the Elephant Man was John Hurt. How he didn't win the Oscar in 1980, I'll never know. Get a box of Kleenex and see this film.
author of Gotta Be Down!
Too melodramatic and predictable A man and the lifetime conflict of his existence and the self acception... Despite the fact it was based in a true story, something in this film recalls me the classic French novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Very well filmed, but the plot takes an overemotional approach.
Truly upsetting and memorable I can cry at anything. I cry at films, reality TV shows, Neighbours *cough*, sob stories on American Idol, etc. And I've cried so much at a similar film, Mask, that I can no longer watch it. I was actually expecting to dislike this. Everyone seems to rave about it. What's to like?
For anyone who has seen this movie, the scene where the doctor (played superbly by Anthony Hopkins) takes John back to his home and introduces him to his wife - that was me. When John starts crying and says he's never been spoken to like that before by a beautiful woman, that was me for the rest of the film. I cried on and off for the rest of the movie. And was still crying when the credits rolled.
Elephant Man is based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, who was afflicted with a disfiguring disease. Some of this is similar to Mask, where Rocky (played by Eric Stoltz) is also afflicted by a similar disease. But this was in the 19th century, and little was known about this kind of thing. Because of this, Merrick is subjected to years of misery as the 'Elephant Man' in freak side shows, things that were popular on those days. There are benign tumours which grow all over his body, distorting his head, face and body, which makes him sleep sitting up or will die from suffocation.
Most of the movie is set inside the hospital, where we learn Merrick is extremely well educated, and instantly likeable. I'm still not quite sure about the beginning of the movie - where we see Merrick's mother being attacked by an elephant in the fourth month of her pregnancy. It seemed a bit tacked on to the beginning of the movie and didn't really work.
There are a few familiar faces in this - fans of UK TV show Hotel Babylon look out for Dexter Fletcher, he's appeared in films too, but that's how I know him. Fans of Anne Of Green Gables (!), look out for Wendy Hiller, playing the main nurse. She was Mrs. Harris in the sequel. There's probably others too, but those are the ones I know.
Unfortunately, I really don't see this as the kind of the movie I will ever watch again. It's just too upsetting, although I know people I've spoken to, disagree with that, and watch it over and over. It just had to much of an effect on me. Otherwise it's a really brilliant movie, with similarities to Mask, but in black and white, and outstanding performances.
Pure and honest; a film that will never leave you... It's hard for me to formulate with mere words the impact this film has had on me. `The Elephant Man' is so much more than a weepy drama about injustice, but in the end it becomes an overwhelming testament to the rarity of genuine kindness, and this is what serves as the catalyst for my falling tears. David Lynch's masterpiece captures the audience, sinking every claw and tooth into the heartstrings of the viewer and relentlessly tearing it to shreds, but it does so with such graceful subtlety you barely realize you're being emotionally manipulated. Some have balked at the idea that `The Elephant Man' does just that; manipulates the audience's emotions; but in my humble opinion I feel that that manipulation is necessary. As a warm-blooded human being none of us want to accept the worst parts of us, and so it becomes vital for directors like Lynch to coax that realization out of us.
What makes `The Elephant Man' and the more heartbreaking is the fact that it is based on actual events, and so the audience is forced to realize that this is no mere work of fiction but an accurate portrayal of what man is capable of. Not even in your worst of nightmares could you make something like this up.
The film tragically retells the story of John Merrick (whose actual name was Joseph Merrick), a man who, while possessing a beautiful soul, was cursed with a horrendous disfigurement that hindered him from ever being embraced by the `normal' people around him. Paraded around as nothing more than a sideshow freak, an animal even, John's life has been reduced to slavery at the hands of Bytes, a ruthless and harsh sideshow entertainer. Then his life is suddenly, and drastically, changed when he is discovered by Doctor Frederick Treves and ushered away from his cruel world and into the warm arms of the hospital.
It's within those small moments of acceptance that the audience can find the most emotional connectivity to the film. Sure, the scenes of unjust violence and mistreatment are bound to well up within us feelings of pain and sadness and overwhelming hopelessness, but it's the gestures of genuine kindness that carries the most weight. I remember in particular a moment when Doctor Treves introduces John to his wife Anne. The moment is so subtle, so tender and pure. It touched me in the most passionate of ways because it confronted a basic need for acceptance, a need that most humans take for granted.
`The Elephant Man' marvelously contradicts those moments of kindness with harsh depictions of hatred and ignorance as John is mistreated by those willing to use and abuse him for their own amusement. David Lynch is able to capture the best and worst sides of human nature so vividly and fearlessly, never simplifying or downplaying anything but keeping true to an honest depiction of humanity.
What helps elevate this film is the brilliant performances by the entire cast. John Hurt is just incredibly moving as John Merrick, captivating the audience with just the glimmer of sincerity in his eyes. While I can't deny that Robert De Niro's Oscar winning performance in `Raging Bull' was glorious and deserved of the Oscar I can't help but wish it would have been yet another Hepburn/Streisand moment and we could have seen both De Niro and Hurt walk away with a little golden man. Anthony Hopkins also delivers an outstanding yet often overlooked performance as Frederick Treves. Sadly his performance takes a backseat to Hurt's, but when one looks deep into the control and dedication in which Hopkins uses to deliver this performance once can't help but become outraged at his lack of awards attention. He compliments Hurt beautifully and it is ultimately his act of kindness that stands as the pivotal message this entire film and its emotional connectivity hinges upon. Anne Bancroft is also memorable as the famed theater actress Mrs. Kendall and Hannah Gordon's scene with John Hurt is so emotionally wrecking I have to single her out as extraordinary here. Even Freddie Jones captivates, despite his unarguable despicability.
Across the board `The Elephant Man' delivers effortlessly. It is beautifully shot in rich black and white, adding layers to the rawness of the subject. David Lynch, who is nothing short of a phenomenal and visionary director, manages to infuse so much honesty into this film I just can't help but become a part of it. In all fairness, 1980 was a very strong year and it sports one of the greatest Best Picture lineups in the history of Oscar. `Ordinary People' is a very well made film and is one that I enjoy immensely, but it did not deserve that Best Picture Oscar. The film, since its win, has garnered a bad rap for `stealing' `Raging Bull's Oscar, but in my humble opinion that Best Picture Oscar rightfully belongs to `The Elephant Man', a superb masterpiece of cinema.
This is the type of film that roots itself in the heart of the audience and resides forever within it. It is a film that will force you to recognize the evil within ignorance but it will also force you to embrace and appreciate the rare moments of warmth and kindness. The other day someone said to me that they only wished we could remember the good things people do. I think that in the end that's what this film does for me. It helps me to realize that there are good people trapped in this world of injustice and hatred. Sadly that kindness is such a rarity, such a lost treasure that one is blessed if ever he were to find it. Lynch beautifully makes that clear in what proves to be a film filled with conflicting emotions; feelings of sorrow, pain, misery and fear as well as hope, happiness, love and admiration. No matter which way to look at it, `The Elephant Man' is an alarming story of humanity in its truest form.
Classic Film! Certainly one of Lynch's most commercially accessible films. Beautiful to look at, compelling story -- Lynch at his focused, reigned-in-a-bit best.
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