Film Review: The Elephant Man (1980)

Fig. 1 The Elephant Man (1980) Film Poster

David Lynchs The Elephant Man is based on the real life story of Joseph Merricks dealings with his deformity and explores how it impacted on Merricks life. The film begins in a typically Lynch surrealist style with flashes of black and white imagery that give a dreamlike sense and later on click to the audience that this is supposedly how Merricks (John Hurt) deformity came about. The dreamlike telling of this however, explores Lynchs belief that this wasnt the case, instead that it could have happened to any of us. The black and white cinematography doesnt allow the impact of colour deprive us of the true emotion behind the story of The Elephant Man instead, in the especially tense parts the black and white seems to get deeper expressing more emotion. Lynch, still brings his stylish surrealistic lenses to the film, and mixes moods of dark tension and music with dialogue about what it means to be human. (Gullotta, 2011) The linear and quite slow placed (in the way of discovery) narrative further assists in the expression of the films emotion because rather than the sudden viewing of Merrick, the audience are slowly introduced to him via his personality and silhouetting through shadows therefore, becoming more open to his actual visual appearance because they feel they know him personally already. This silhouetting of his physique however does explore Barthes Enigma code as the audience sits in wait to meet this man that has captured Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) interest.

Fig. 2 The enigma of Merricks appearance

Claude Levi-Strauss theory on binary oppositions is evident throughout many scenes in The Elephant Man most noticeably between Merricks treatment from others. The range of Victorian societies seem to bounce off of each other with their different ideologies towards Merrick especially the poor, money grabbing seeing him as an object of gaping and a circus act whereas, the upper, more respected class, as an equal with his intelligence and personality outweighing his deformity. The films use of the hypodermic syringe model therefore injects the beliefs similarly to La Belle et la Bte that we should not judge each other by our appearance and first sight or we risk naivety to the wider world. Instead of following Chomskys belief of diverting the mass media from real life issues because an audience is more likely to engage The Elephant Man opens up a whole new spin on the representation of people and allows us to empathise and relate with Merrick because we have all at some point felt like an outsider struggling to be heard over the prejudice of the many. (Haflidason, 2001) The Elephant Man seems like a symbol of all that is good in us being neglected and mistreated by the lust for an ideal and perfect world.

Fig. 3 Merricks treatment as a circus act

David Lynch deals with disturbing tableau throughout of Merricks treatment creating moral panic in the audience as we worry what will happen to him but also what would happen to someone like Joseph Merrick now. There is a sense of role reversal through the disturbing scenes as Merrick isnt the one going around harming people and putting them in horrible situations. Instead it is those who are seen as the human ones. The ones who scream at Merrick in horror as they see him as some sort of monster and as such are actually enjoying tormenting him due to his unfortunate deformity which is an example of Schadenfreuds theories. The Elephant Man is a movie dealing with an unspeakably hideous monsterand that monster is us. (Jacobson, 2001) Instead of a stereotypical view on what a monster physically looks like this monster is one of the few who are actually human throughout the film connoting that the monster comes from the person inside, not what you perceive from the outside and as Merrick rightly puts it himself I am not an animalI am a human being!

Bibliography
Gullotta, D, N. (2011) Battle Royal with Cheese http://www.battleroyalewithcheese.com/2011/09/elephant-man-1980-review.html (Accessed 08/10/11) Haflidason, A. (2001) BBC Films http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/05/24/the_elephant_man_1980_review.shtml (Accessed 08/10/11) Jacobson, M. (2001) DVD Movie Central http://www.dvdmoviecentral.com/ReviewsText/elephant_man.htm (Accessed 08/10/11)

List of Illustrations
Fig. 1. The Elephant Man (1980) Film Poster From: The Elephant Man Directed by: David Lynch. [film poster] On uk.movieposter.com http://uk.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/111/MPW-55902 (Accessed 08/10/11) Fig. 2. The enigma of Merricks appearance (1980) From: The Elephant Man Directed by: David Lynch. [film still] On fanpop.com http://www.fanpop.com/spots/the-elephantman/images/11130952/title/elephant-man-movie-still-screencap (Accessed 08/10/11) Fig. 3. Merricks treatment as a circus act (1980) From: The Elephant Man Directed by: David Lynch. [film still] On fanpop.com http://www.fanpop.com/spots/the-elephantman/images/11130774/title/john-hurt-joseph-merrick-photo (Accessed 08/10/11)