The Elephant Man remains a compelling, tragic, interesting and beautifully made film. Never preachy or overly sentimental, it has a lot to show (and tell) about human nature, compassion and how charity, cruelty, fairness, justice and exploitation are doled out.

Although David Lynch directs it is a mainstream film far more conventional than his Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, or Twin Peaks and far less experimental than Eraserhead or Lost Highway.

Lynch’s fascination with human suffering makes him the perfect choice to tell the tragic tale of John Merrick. It begins with a strange, dark, dream-like sequence and then begins to weave it’s tale, that was based on a true story.

Mel Brooks whose production company created this project was not able to get the rights to the play, which almost became a competing film project. So the screenplay is based on the memoirs of Dr. Frederick Treves and a later account of Merrick's life by Ashley Montagu. Brooks was an early fan and supporter of Lynch’s Eraserhead, and after a few meetings with the director was confident he was the perfect choice to direct .

It would be Lynch’s second theatrical feature. Lynch would go on to make a deal with Dino Delaurentis’ production company to work on the film version of DUNE (a critical and box-office disaster) and get final cut on a modestly budgeted film he was anxious to get started on (BLUE VELVET). He turned down the opportunity to direct the second Star Wars movie to do the two films.

Elephant Man is shot beautifully in black and white by cinematographer and sometime (Hammer horror film)director Freddie Francis. Visually the film is a combination of Hammer and Universal horror films and not nearly as experimental as Lynch can sometimes be. The images for the most part are presented well on the DVD.

It is based on a true story and gives us a remarkable performance by John Hurt who triumphs far beyond the convincingly gruesome make-up he wears. The rest of the mostly British thespians seem to have all agreed to award the film with some of their best moments on screen. Anthony Hopkins, John Geilguld, Freddie Jones and Anne Bancroft are all quite good in the film. Even most of the smaller supporting parts are performed with perfection.

John Merrick (Hurt)is a 19th-century Englishman who was afflicted with a disease that deforms the head and body with tumors, odd growths and other abnormalities. Merrick is the subject of ridicule at a travelling freak show and he is beaten and treated cruelly by Mr. Bytes (Freddie Jones). He is discovered however by Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) a highly regarded surgeon who takes Merrick to a hospital where he is shown warmth and compassion for the first time in his life. Surprisingly, Merrick is not a bitter cynical man despite his horrible experiences. He is also not a retarded or slow man, which means he understands exactly what is happening to him and how cruel fate has been to him. Dr. Treves comes to realize he may not be beating or displaying Merrick for curious crowds, but he is also exploiting Merrick in the name of research. The moral and ethical questions are fascinating to consider and the film concentrates on the issues of human compassion.

Rather than go into detail regarding the journey the story takes, I urge you to discover this for yourself. Lynch’s interest in accurately exploring human suffering gave him a unique perspective on the story. I’ve discussed Lynch’s too-normal upbringing in other articles I’ve written about him. He moved many times during his childhood, but made friends easily. He lived in a series of medium to small towns and experienced no abuse, suffering or hardship of any kind. So where does the dark side of many of his movie come from? An unrestricted imagination. He was able to imagine horrible things without it hitting home. He developed a unique tolerance and sensibility toward the unseemly nature of man. His is fascinated with dreams—the darker the better, fascinated with the duality of man and with human suffering. Not merely in a morbid curious way, but to understand it and accept it and attempt to portray the various facets and sides of it as accurately as possible.


IMAGE AND SOUND

The Elephant Man is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. There is some visible grain and dirt in the print used, but the black levels are good. The slight imperfections of the print actually add rather than detract from the ambience of the film. There is however some noticeable edge enhancement.

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 in English, as well as Dolby 2.0 Surround in English . The newly mixed 5.1 track includes a few uses of subtle surround type effects but the improvements are a lack of distortion or hiss on the soundtrack and the musical score sounding full and effective.

Extra Features

The nearly 30 minute retrospective featurette includes John Hurt , directory of photography Freddie Francis, producers Jonathan Sanger and (yes) Mel Brooks and some other cast and crew members. This is not a fluff promotional piece but a pretty in-depth discussion of the film and a lot is covered.

Next is an in-depth interview with Christopher Tucker who shows off the original head model of the Elephant Man which was cast by using the actual preserved remains of Merrick.

There is also a narrated photo gallery which includes behind the scenes pictures from the film and photos of the original Merrick skull.

There is also the original widescreen theatrical trailer.

David Lynch does not like scene indexes so there are no chapter selections or scene indexes on the film. He would like you to watch the entire film and not skip around.

There is no commentary track on the disc.

FINAL WORD:

The Elephant Man is a compelling, tragic, interesting and beautifully made film. Never preachy, it has a lot to show (and tell) about human nature, compassion and how charity, cruelty, fairness, justice and exploitation are doled out. The DVD presentation is flawed but it’s good and there are some worthwhile extras making this a disc worth having in your collection.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening