Published via Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

There are few film authors that divide opinions as sharply as David Lynch does. The audience either worships him as an undisputed artistic genius who successfully created and maintained his very personal style of films; or rejects him as confused hack who owes his success to small circle of cultish followers who mistook his confusion for some deep artistic truth. If you want to make your opinion on Lynch, probably the best starting point is his most conventional and least “Lynchian” film, 1980 biopic The Elephant Man.

The plot is based on the life and times of Joseph Merrick (1862 – 1890), man whose rare and horrible physical deformities made him into one of the most famous personalities of Victorian England. In this film, his character, named John Merrick, is played by John Hurt. He has spent most of his life afflicted by condition that made his head deformed and overgrown, right arm useless and body covered by hideous tumours. At the beginning he works as circus freak, dubbed “The Elephant Man” by Mr. Bytes (played by Freddie Jones), greedy and cruel ringmaster who abuses him physically, mentally and financially. Dr. Frederick Treves (played by Anthony Hopkins) is a surgeon who takes scientific interest in Merrick and brings him to London Royal Hospital for observation. At first, everyone believes that Merrick is unable to speak and mentally impaired, but Dr. Treves gradually discovers that behind the facade of physical deformity lies the gentle and intelligent man with interest in arts, literature and theatre. Treves becomes determined to keep him in hospital and thus prevent further abuse by Mr. Bytes and, in order to help his cause, brings various influential members of British elite to visit Merrick. “The Elephant Man” becomes talk of the town and gains many supporters, including famous actress Mrs. Kendal (played by Anne Bancroft). After some time, Treves begins to doubt whether this campaign would do more harm than good to his friend and patient, and whether he keeps Merrick in hospital for selfish purpose of his own self-promotion.

Produced by Mel Brooks, The Elephant Man was Lynch’s second feature film. Although Brooks had hired Lynch deeply impressed by his artistic sensibilities and unusual style displayed in his 1977 feature debut Eraserhead, this film doesn’t look exactly like typical Lynch’s film. The subject obviously intrigued Lynch, who always liked to explore aesthetic qualities of ugliness, but “Lynchian” scenes are reduced to the nightmarish fantasy in the beginning and sentimental fantasy at the end. The rest is made as conventional biographic drama with straight linear narration and realistic reconstruction of 19th Century England, aided in great deal by excellent black-and-white cinematography by Freddie Francis. Lynch directs the film with great ease and borrows an effective narrative technique from horror films by refusing to directly display Merrick and his deformities until the second half a film. Until that time his face is always masked, shown through curtains or simply imagined by audience when they see shocked reaction of people who have seen Merrick for the first time.

When his face is finally shown to the public, viewers can finally appreciate the great effort that make-up artists led by Christopher Tucker have put in order to reconstruct Merrick (using authentic casts of Merrick’s body as a model). And they can also appreciate even greater effort John Hurt has made in order to have that make-up applied to him every day during the production and than deliver one of the greatest roles of his career. Somehow, under all that hideous make-up, there is a very gentle, human and sympathetic character whom Hurt delivers on screen and make audience like from his first, pathetic attempts to communicate until tear-jerking death scene at the end. Hurt’s efforts are helped by Anthony Hopkins who delivers another strong performance as Victorian gentleman scientist whose cold scholarly mind often fights with conflicting emotions and self-doubt. Those two actors are helped by an excellent cast of veteran British actors. The Elephant Man also features one of the most impressive villains portrayed by Freedie Jones; his Bytes is portrayed as one of the most despicable excuses for a human in history of cinema, while at the time also menacing and the scenes after he re-enters Merrick’s life are among the most disturbing in Lynch’s filmography.

Lynch always liked to play with archetypes of absolute Good and Evil and his films, and this tendency found its way into The Elephant Man, resulting in one of the most unusual portrayals of class divisions in cinema. Victorian England was a society sharply divided by class, but, unlike most film makers, who take the side of the lower classes for commercial or ideological reasons, Lynch told the story of “the Elephant Man” from the point view of Victorian elite. Bytes and all other characters who abuse Merrick – including opportunistic and dishonest hospital porter played by Michael Elphick – clearly belong to working class, while other characters belonging to that group are portrayed as depraved or bigoted. Merrick is aided and ultimately rescued by characters who belong to the upper strata of society – Dr. Treves, his boss played by John Gielgud and, ultimately, Queen Victoria being represented by her daughter Princess Alexandra (played by Helen Ryan) – and it is the superior education, noblesse oblige principles and financial resources that allows British aristocrats to overcome fear and prejudice and recognise humanity in Merrick, something that 19th Century version of “deplorables” could not. Those elitist, ultra-reactionary and anti-democratic views were, and for the most part still remain, unnoticed by critics, even those who take great pains to view anything through political lens. This couldn’t have happened if Lynch lacked talents to steer their attention somewhere else. Although not without certain flaws – use of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings at the end pushes sentimentality a little bit too far - The Elephant Man is a very good film that could be recommended even to those who otherwise don’t like Lynch.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)