The Elephant Man (1980) - Lynch's deeply moving second feature

♥♥♥♥♥

 

An unusual, gritty poster for David Lynch's The Elephant Man

 

John Merrick is the world's greatest freak of nature, known to the public simply as 'The Elephant Man' in London around a hundred years ago. Unscrupulous people exploit his deformity, as a doctor begins caring for him.

 

Merrick's challenges, humility and setbacks, and the compassion that he finally meets, is a fantastically moving journey to be on. The Elephant Man as a film is a remarkable achievement and extremely well done. The acting is stellar, but particularly John Hurt (Brighton Rock (2010)) in the title role and John Gielgud (The Wicked Lady (1983)) as the ultimately good hospital director are astoundingly brilliant. - Hurt's performance is all the more impressive for the enormous makeup contraption he is acting under.

The Elephant Man is written by Christopher De Vore (Hamlet (1990)), Eric Bergren (Frances (1982)) and Montanan master co-writer-director David Lynch (The Straight Story (1999)), whose second film it is. It is based on the true character of Joseph Merrick as detailed in Sir Frederick Treves' (Anthony Hopkins' character in the film) book The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences (1923) and Ashley Montagu's (Man and Aggression (1968)) book The Elephan Man: A Study in Human Dignity (1971).

Lynch's near-fetishistic fascination with urban industry of the kind London was teeming with in the late 19th century makes the film a rare and strange experience. Lynch cultivates a kind of profound alienation in the film, attempting to put us in Merrick's shoes, which takes full concentration and can render the experience extremely rewarding. Not achieving it is ultimately a failure of the viewer and not the film or its makers.

 

Related reviews:

David Lynch: Blue Velvet (1986) or, The Strange World 

Dune (1984) - Lynch heads to space, with an (unsurprisingly) strange result

Listen to the theme from the film here

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: 26 mil. $ (North America only), world gross likely somewhere between 35 - 45 mil. $

= Huge hit

[The Elephant Man premiered October 3 (New York) and runs 124 minutes. Mel Brooks' Brooksfilms produced the film, and Brooks was responsible for somel fine decisions as backer of the project: He rejected an executive producer's credit for himself so as not to make anyone think that The Elephant Man was a comedy. He believed in Lynch as director based on his supremely strange debut Eraserhead (1977) and to a large degree let Lynch make the film - and cut it - the way he saw fit. Lynch tried to make the makeup designs himself but failed, - a time he has described as one of the "darkest moments of my life." The prosthetics were eventually cast directly from the original casts made off Merrick's head, arm and foot after his death. The makeup took eight hours to apply and two hours to remove for each of Hurt's working days. Shooting took place in London and the Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England from October 1979 - May 1980. It was the 25th highest-grossing film in North America of 1980. It got nominated for 8 Oscars, tying with Raging Bull, but won none: It lost Best Picture to Ordinary People, Best Actor (Hurt) to Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, Best Director to Robert Redford for Ordinary People, Adapted Screenplay to Alvin Sargent for Ordinary People, Art Direction and Costume Design to Tess, Best Score to Fame and Best Editing to Raging Bull. The film's remarkable makeup achievement caused the instatement of the Best Makeup Oscar the following year, first won by An American Werewolf in London. It was also nominated for 4 Golden Globes, winning none; 7 BAFTAs, winning 3, and for 2 Grammys. It was on The National Board of Review's Top 10 list of the year and won the Best Foregin Film César (French Oscar). The film rests at #152 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, between Wild Strawberries/Smultronstället (1957) and Warrior (2011). The Elephant Man is certified fresh at 90 % with an 8.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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