This month we have had David Lynch’s 78th Birthday and the 7th anniversary of the passing of John Hurt so I thought I would finish this month off with a re-watch of David Lynch’s 1980 classic “The Elephant Man” starring John Hurt.
“The Elephant Man” (1980)
Directed by David Lynch, Written by Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren & David Lynch, Based on the books The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences by Frederick Treves and The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity by Ashley Montagu, Produced by Jonathan Sanger, Cinematography by Freddie Francis and Music by John Morris.
Starring John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Freddie Jones, Michael Elphick, Hannah Gordon & Dexter Fletcher.
In the late 1880s Frederick Treves, a surgeon at the London Hospital, Discovers John Merrick a man who was born with a severe congenital disorder in a Victorian freak show in London's East End, where he is kept by Mr. Bytes, the brutish ringmaster. When not on display Merrick's head is kept hooded and Bytes his “owner” views him as intellectually disabled. Treves pays Bytes to let him bring Merrick to the hospital for examination. When Treves gets to spend time with Merrick he discovers beneath his disfigurement he has intelligence and a pure soul. Merrick becomes the toast of London, meeting members of society and he finally makes meaningful connections with other people. He yearns for normality but is aware that his deformity means he will tragically never find it.
*David Lynch directing John Hurt on set.
I am aware I use the word “Masterpiece” a lot but this film really is.
As we all know David Lynch is a genius but it is quite remarkable that this film was his first project after his debut feature film “Eraserhead” (1977) which had obviously been seen but was still slowly finding its audience and establishing its cult status. This film is surprisingly straight forward but you can still tell Lynch was at the helm. I noticed the producers did install an experienced assistant director Anthony Waye who was assistant director on films such as “Where Eagles Dare” (1968) “Star Wars” (1977) among others and the inspired choice of hiring Freddie Francis as the cinematographer on this project. Not only was he a wonderful director of photography but throughout his career he directed a lot of amazing films for Hammer productions. So I can’t help but think Francis was very well qualified to help capture a form of Victorian “Monster” movie.
Before writing this I just watched the film on my 4k UHD disc. The black and white cinematography is stunning and beautifully drifts between Victorian drawing rooms, spooky shadow-laden gas-lit streets and the slightly surreal and industrial moments that are peppered through the film.
Performance-wise, John Hurt is remarkable in the role of Merrick. The quintessential example of acting through the make-up. to be able to give such a nuanced performance and successfully convey Merrick’s emotional state through a limited range of physical gestures and eye movement was such a tremendous feat. He was Oscar-nominated for his performance but lost to Robert de Neiro who one for his role in Raging Bull. Anthony Hopkins gives a stoic performance as Frederick Trevers the highly regarded surgeon who discovers and rescues Merrick and becomes possibly his first true friend. The actor Freddie Jones is formidable in the role of Bytes the abusive carnival hawker who profits from Merrick’s misery. The whole cast is wonderful, to be honest, and this could slip into me listing names and writing “is fantastic” after them.
This film is so remarkable. It tells the story of a man whose story deserves to be told. Even though the real Joseph Merrick’s life story before the events of this film is historically not as mysterious as the film indicates. the last few years of his life are the most cinematic.
There are some truly amazing scenes in this.
Trevers is established as an educated experienced medical practitioner so the first time he gets to see Merrick, what we get is this full-frame close-up of Hopkins absorbing what he is seeing through his lens of medically understanding Merrick's situation and this stoic Victorian doctor produces tears that roll down his cheeks. So powerful and Iconic. On the subject of powerful and memorable, Hannah Gordon as Mrs Trevers has this amazing scene where she meets and has tea with Merrick you can tell she has gathered herself and prepared to spend time with this disfigured man but we see that moment when the penny drops and she realises that John is a thinking, feeling human with a soul and she breaks down and cries with empathy. Up until that point in the film, we have only seen women cry from fear and repulsion from seeing John and we now see a female cry due to compassion.
The other pivotal scene is the angry mob scene where John due to being in public is wearing a hood/mask and has limited visibility and collides with a young girl knocking her to the ground in a railway station and an angry mob forms and chases John until he is cornered and unmasked in a mens public toilet. John is about to be lynched and he screams “I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being!”. I feel this sequence is influenced by Frankenstien the interaction with a girl leading to a mob chasing “The Monster” down but instead of being burned grunting in a windmill John is a thinking feeling man who can express himself and communicate and stalls the mob until he is helped by the police.
I feel this movie is a Horror and a Monster movie but the Monster is not Merrick it is the hawker Bytes and the hospitals night porter who see John’s suffering and only want to exploit him for financial gain. The horror is realising the man Merrick is trapped in that body.
Treves says after medically examining Merrick for the first time he says to a colleague,
“Oh, he’s an imbecile, probably from birth. Man’s a complete idiot… Pray to god he’s an idiot.”
Remarkably, we have “The Elephant Man” film because Mel Brooks wanted it made.
It was Mel who put up the money and he hired David Lynch because he recognised his talent from seeing “Eraserhead” (1977).
So if you ever wondered how Mel Brooks got John Hurt to appear in “Spaceballs” to do the Alien chest burster gag the fact Mel funded the film that got Hurt the Oscar nomination for Best Leading Actor is probably the answer. Plus I am sure John Hurt had a great sense of humor.
The Elephant Man (1980) is Available to watch via streaming on ITVX premium, Studiocanal.
You can rent it online on Apple TV for £3.49 or Amazon Prime for £2.99
Or even better you can buy and keep the film on physical media (see links below)
