Review of The Elephant Man (1980) by Tomas T — 02 Oct 2009
Elephant man, one could be put off by the tittle alone, but what a fantastic cinema experience it turns out to be.
The movie focuses on a doctor patient relationship that is anything but ordinary. The compassionate doctor impersonated by Hopkins is pleasure to watch, not many actors can pull off as many thought and feeling rising facial expressions as Hopkins in this movie. The main star however is one John Merrick who J.Hurt characterizes with equal skill to that of Hopkins. Merrick is a young man who is horribly disfigured and living in the gutters literally and earning his living in various freak shows.
Beginning of the movie is as intensive as one can get, the director builds up expectation and intensity untill the viewer is in breaking point, dying to see the monstrosity. Once the climax is reached and gone, the movie does not slow down, it takes a different road, a thought rising and serious look on humans cruelty and dislike for anyhing out of the ordinary. All aspects of the movie being top notch, if one must choose, the directing is above others. Lynch choice for B&W color scheme suits the movie perfectly and his use of shadows bring a sense of noir with it.
Beautiful and thought rising as the movie is, I felt that the movie lost some steem after the curtain was lifted so to speak, anyways an excelent movie.
This review of The Elephant Man (1980) was written by Tomas T on 02 Oct 2009.
The Elephant Man has generally received very positive reviews.
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