Review of The Elephant Man (1980) by Sanyam J — 20 Nov 2008

The Elephant Man by David Lynch is the voice inside all of us that tells us that no matter how much pain, suffering, turmoil, and abuse that we experience and endure, we can still remain beautiful and sincere even though the world is not sometimes.

To me this film is a plea to see the humanity behind the vanity, to question what is humanity and compassion, to see beyond appearance and society's image of beauty and recognize the most important type of beauty which is inner.

This is definitely one of my favorite films of all time, it's even beyond a rating system. This film can be extremely painful to watch, David Lynch wants the viewer to experience what its like to be neglected and repeatedly abused and to stop its occurrence whenever we can, but sometimes the pain become unbearable, as in John Merrick's case.

This film shows a man's struggle to remain himself, to not become cruel and disgusting like many people who treated him. Anthony Hopkins character goes into question if a human being can be completely altruistic, and not exploit for personal gain, and to question your intentions, and to know another person's integrity is worth more than all the achievements and publicity that one can fathom to hope for.

John Merrick you are my inspiration for hope in humanity and David Lynch has made that inspiration a reality at least for me and hopefully for you.