The Elephant Man (1980)

Summary

A surgeon in Victorian England ‘discovers’ a man whose congenital mutilations are so grotesque that no one in society can stand the sight of the circus sideshow man. As he endeavors to bring this “elephant-man” into society, the surgeon inadvertently creates another sort of freak show amongst England’s high society. Can this unfortunate soul ever find rest?

Prove ‘Em Wrong?

After the critical success of “Eraserhead,” there were some in film circles who felt that while it was a really unique and creative vision, it also betrayed David Lynch as an arthouse director, who would never be able to adapt his aesthetic to a more mainstream form. The, “Elephant Man,” Lynch’s most accessible film, is his answer to the critics.

In some ways they were right and in others they were wrong. On the one hand, “The Elephant Man,” Is the only David Lynch movie many people will have ever even heard of. On the other, many of those people will have heard of the film but not seen it, since it is strikingly unmodern, with none of the features we typically expect in a four quadrant film.

The Limits

The main things that makes this film work so well is its theme and the way that Lynch, as a director, communicates that theme, not just verbally, but visually. The film loosely tells the story of a real man’s, Joseph Merrick’s, life. Luckily, Lynch understands, as do the best directors, that making a film is not about telling the facts. It is about communicating ideas and thoughts. As such, he does not confine himself to actual events, opting instead to try and communicate his own feelings about this man’s life as he reacted to it.

Merrick, the ‘elephant man,' played by John Hurt (1984), begins the film already in a cage. He is a circus side show, only for the especially brave. His appearance remains unseen to the audience but it is so ghastly that the carnival owner treats him simply as a beast and he behaves as one. A surgeon, played by Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs), buys the elephant man from the carnival owner and sets out to rehabilitate him, once he realizes that there truly is a man beneath that mass of malformed flesh. 

It seems the stage is set for a miracle to occur. A little love and kindness, and the most deformed and hurting among us turn from monsters into men. At least, that is how most Hollywood films would go.

This is where Lynch’s brilliance shines. He never lets us forget that John is a human being, but that very very few other people see him that way. As Merrick learns to dress, speak, and converse properly in society, there remains no cure for his deformity and so he simply becomes the subject of another sort of disgusting carnival show, this time playing at high society but never really belonging.

Lynch is the perfect director for a task such as this. His eye hones in on all of the ways that society, the surgeon, and the carnival owner all behave like animals toward Merrick. He sees the malformed human heart and holds it out for us all to see and examine. In the end we see that the film is not about transforming a near animal into a man, but about all of the ways that we, who have no outer scar, are deeply flawed within.

He explores the limits of humanity not as the frontier of what qualifies biologically as a human, with head, and arms, and language, but what qualifies as the frontier of our inner humanity, with compassion, mercy, and vulnerability. This unfolding of our undesirable traits, thoughts, and feelings is what Lynch does best so while this film amy not meet modern standards horror, it is a sort of horror film.

Yet again, however, Lynch cannot help himself, and makes it horror at the sight of ourselves, with which we are confronted, not the horror of the film.

Review Written By:

Michael Mcdonald