The Elephant Man

"I'm not an animal!
I'am a human being!
I am... a man!"
These are the deepest emotional words that John Merrick says in the movie the Elephant Man. John Hurt is magnificent and his performance is worth an oscar definitly. His credibility for this part is absolutly amazing and overhelming. Even with the inability to use his face or much of his voice, his portrait of the elephant man is extraordinary.
The movie is simple, its based on the true story of Joseph Carey Merrick who was born in Leicester in 1862, and who suffered from multiple neurofibromtosis, a disease that engenders spongy growths on the human skin and bones.
This said, the storyline start when, at a freakshow in London a hideous and deformed young man is the attraction of the public for entertainment. Later on this man is found by a surgeon Dr. Frederick Treves portrayed by Anthony Hopkins and he examines and adopts these exquisite creature. Dr. Frederick learns that this creature is a sensitive, thinking, intelligent, speaking human being hidden behind that monstruosity.

I was never a fan of the director David Lynch, don't ask me why, i just think his movies are too strange for me. I'm always thinking there's some true message or meaning hidden behind of all the confused and misterious movies he makes. When i start seeing the elephant man it was the same feeling but in the end i had a satisfaction that this was a great movie, simple to understand and excelent to admire.
David Lynch said "The point was to let the audience become familiar with the moster, so that the monster could disappear and the human being come into view.", and i couldn't agree more with him. I think he acomplished exactly what he wanted. The first half-hour of the movie, we see nothing of Merrick's face, only the reactions of the pople who do so. And later on, when he's revealed to us we already become acquainted with a human being and our reaction is anything but shock.
David Lynch is excelent in the command of this movie, he films in black and white with help of the cinematographer Freddie Francis, one of England's finest cameramans. The narrative is extraordinary, the characters portrayed by John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins are amazing and the extreme constrasts between areas of light and dark are very good.

It's a movie for every lover of the 7th art and a very good one. It's mandatory to everybody who loves cinema like me.

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Trailer