"I am not an animal! I am a human being! I...am...a man!"

The Elephant Man (1980): 7/10

Poster (c) Paramount Pictures

It's pretty hard to find a more eccentric director than David Lynch. Of course, he's known for making such films as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr., but people tend to forget about The Straight Story and The Elephant Man, two of his most touching films. And it's hard to grasp how he made Elephant directly after he made Eraserhead, considering basically the only similarity is that they're both shot in black and white.

The Elephant Man stars John Hurt as the title character, real name John Merrick. He has been physically deformed since birth, and spends his life in a freak show around the turn of the century. One day, Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) takes him to his hospital for examination, and realizes that there's more to this person than just his extremely deformed body, from which he gets the name "Elephant Man". Some people, however, aren't ready to believe that he's not just a sideshow anymore.

It's hard to know where to begin when writing a review for a movie like this. I suppose I'll begin with Lynch's directing. I liked how we weren't able to see what Merrick looked like until a half hour into the film, even though he was an intergral part. The black and white photography, however, didn't really seem to work, because a movie like this could be more expressive, although perhaps the makeup used was oddly colored. Some of the symbolism he used was obvious and a little strong, especially at the beginning.

I can't go on in this review without talking about the makeup used on Hurt. It took 12 hours every day to apply, but from the black and white photography, it was hard to tell whether the makeup was extremely good or extremely fake for most of the movie. Near the end, though, I was able to tell how extraordinary the makeup was, helping me feel with the main character more.

However, for a lot of the movie (mainly the middle), the plot goes from the examination of Merrick to Merrick talking with regular people. Emotion went with the original plot there, but soon after, quite possibly the most emotionally harrowing scene in the history of movies comes. Hurt does an amazing job as Merrick, and Hopkins puts in a good job as the doctor. Those are the two biggest characters, but the movie revolves around them. Overall it's a very good movie, with some great moments, but some other things fall apart.

Rated PG for thematic elements.

Review Date: March 13, 2004