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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 8671
Released: December 11, 2001 |
| Our Price: $37.59 |
| Used Price: $21.95 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
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
The Elephant Man Reviews:
4 stars out of 4 
2009-01-03 - The Bottom Line:
Expertly directed, painfully acted, and shot in a way that makes the 19th century London setting come alive, The Elephant Man would still not be such a great movie (which it is) if it wasn't for the humanity that pervades every minute of the film.
Painfully sad to watch but a true classic
2008-11-03 - Rightly regarded as one of the classic British films of the last decades, this broadly true tale of dignified humanity shining through the gloomy, impersonal smog of Victorian London hardly puts a foot wrong. Anthony Hopkins is superb as the dispassionate surgeon who rescues the maltreated circus freak and convincingly settles his own (and our) moral doubt as to whether he has simply replaced the morbid curiosity of the voyeuristic crowds for an equally exploitative scientific curiosity and means of personal gain. But it is John Hurt's rendition of a humanity that has refused to die that makes this film so memorable, a peerless performance that is heartbreakingly never less than utterly convincing.
One of the most powerful films in existence
2008-10-25 - This is an incredible film and one of my all time favorites. I first saw it on cable TV when I was only 6 years of age or so and was completely blown away by the film's message. Even at such a young age, it changed my outlook on the world. This movie kept me up at night. It truly redefines what is to be human. I purchased it on DVD a few years ago and the film was just as powerful as I remembered, even more so. Yes, it is a sad film but is equally uplifting as kindness and compassion trump cruelty and fear in this true story of Joseph Merrick. I've read numerous books on Merrick's life and the film does differ in some ways from the historical accounts. Being a cinema adaptation of the story, it is to be expected. But most importantly, David Lynch understood the temperament of Merrick as being a polite and intelligent young man and conveyed this successfully in the film. John Hurt's performance as `The Elephant Man' was amazing. Joseph Merrick had to endure incomprehensible hardships while growing up but his spirit was never broken. He always remained a kind, intelligent, well read, and gentle soul without hatred and a desire for revenge. He will always be of my heroes. David Lynch did a fabulous job with this film. Great film score too. Highly recommended.
A sad, sad film....
2008-10-07 - 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 nasty 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 
2008-09-15 - 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.
