The Elephant Man
The wife and I watched The Elephant Man Friday night. She had seen it before, when she was very young, but it was my first time.
The movie is based on the story of John/Joseph Merrick, a man who lived in Victorian England who suffered from some amazing deformities (originally thought to be elephantiasis, but now thought to be Proteus Syndrome). His head, when measured at death was 36 inches in circumference (I believe), and his right arm was wider around than most men's thighs. The movie follows his befriending by a prominent surgeon, Dr. Freddie Treves, who was able to provide some peace and dignity in his last years.
Merrick is played by John Hurt (most recently seen as Ollivander in Harry Potter: the Sorcerer's Stone). Anthony Hopkins plays Dr. Treves, Anne Bancroft is in a supporting role, David Lynch directs, and Mel Brooks (!) was one of the producers (a particularly odd combination).
I highly recommend it. It is a very difficult movie to watch, though. The sheer inhumanity displayed within the movie is profoundly disturbing. The cinematography is also very stark, almost gritty, switching alternately at random times between John Merrick's mother screaming in pain, the cold lifelessness of Victorian Industry, and the torment of Merrick's life.
After watching the movie, I was struck by what a brutal picture it is of the effects of sin upon the world. In both the physical hideousness of Merrick's deformity and the hideousness of how he was treated by many, I can see much of my own spiritual ugliness. In the kindness that was displayed to him by many, a little bit of the mercy and graciousness of God is displayed.
My only major qualm is that I checked http://www.josephmerrick.com/ afterward to learn more of Merrick's life and was disappointed by some of the "artistic licenses" that Lynch & co. took in telling the story of Joseph Merrick. Not as many licenses as A Beautiful Mind, but still enough to damper my enthusiasm for the movie.
Final Score: 8 of 10
August 24, 2003 07:12 PM