The Elephant Man

When Carr Gomm first meets John Merrick, he walks close up to him.

In the next shot he is way back from him, then close again.

In nearly every scene, 'John Hurt' (qv)'s make-up changes in some way.

When we see an image of smoking pipe stacks, its obviously stock footage because its much grainer then the rest of the film.

When 'Frederick Treves (II)' (qv) is bring up the oatmeal to John Merrick and Carr Gomm startles him he puts the oatmeal behind his back as to hide it from him.

In the next shot he has the oatmeal in front of him and puts it behind his back again while he is walking towards Carr Gomm.

Although it claims to be based on non-fictional writings and primary sources, the movie is full of historical inaccuracies and fictionalised incidents.

I've always been a big fan of David Lynch and his surrealist films but I never got around to watch Elephant Man. I didn't know what I was expecting but I got a lot more of this film than I originally thought I would.

The doctor later wondered if he and the circus boss were the same kind of person, but he changed the place of detention into a ward, and still used elephants as objects in the exhibition to meet his professional needs? The doctor does profit from it.

David lynch's expression is still experimental, had seen years before Japan stage version of the elephant man, more attention to the psychological description of characters, then don't understand why emphasize looks like people dies slowly lie down, see the understood because of his spine deformity, like normal person lie down and sleep become his dream, he is more a way of taking. In the film, John self-imposed isolation from the start to have the friendship, and the doctors put him as their friends, and the doctor, but because of heart guilty can't respond to his friendship, dare not look into the eyes of his.

Victorian England, circa 1886. A severely disfigured man called John Merrick lives a deplorable life as a carnival sideshow "freak", until he is rescued by a kind doctor and given a second chance at life.

For a movie which attempts to portray a mostly accurate portrayal it is curious to me they used his erroneous name of John, his real name was Joseph Carey Merrick. Still it is a very well made movie, in the 1880s England ordinary people did not know what to make of his deformities.

One of Lynch's more conventional movies and also maybe his most emotional (Though I would argue FWWM is also totally heartbreaking in a different kind of way). You gets glimpses of Lynchian imagery and some dreamy sequences but for the most part it's (a) a straight forward narrative, (b) told really well, (c) backed by two great lead performances and (d) contains beautiful monochrome cinematography.

This movie came to me as one of those films that was highly praised at the time but hasn't aged well, and of course I was wrong and ended up loving this film. Where to start, well perhaps in the style of it.

This movie brings us face to face with some of mankind's greatest failings: the shallowness of seeing beauty as skin deep, and the relentless exploitation of the weak. The acting by Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt is incredible and the crisp black and white cinematography is beatifully done.

If you want to know if you or someone else has a heart, watch this film. If you do not feel something, sadness or anger, while watching this film then i'm sorry to say, you are heartless.