Customer Reviews
The Elephant Man - a must see.... - By: Ann Denton, 24 Apr 2008 
A truly special film. John (Joseph) Merrick is the severely deformed man, treated badly by a drunken, ignorant circus owner as one of life's freaks, & takes payment accordingly to line his own pockets at Merricks' expense. As the story unfolds, Merrick is finallly taken in by the ever brilliant Anthony Hopkins who plays the sincere & humaine surgeon, Mr Treves, we see an articulate & delightful man appear as Merrick who begins a new life of civilisation in the care of the London Hospital. He develops & grows & is in every way, a gentleman. However, with his past treatment & the ignorance of the less well informed, never far behind him, his new life is short lived, & at the end of the film, knowing he can't lay down to sleep as he will suffocate, he does just that. A combination of tremendous acting, anger, disbelief, sympathy, fear & genuine sadness. An absolute winner, & thought provoking.......
One of Lynch's best - By: A. Weaver, 25 Jul 2007 I am a big David Lynch fan & decided I just had to see this film. I stuck it at the top of my rental list & a few days later it arrived in that special packaging that puts a smile on my face every time. I watched it that night & it certainly did not disappoint. It lived up to every expectation & blasted most of them right out of the park.
`The Elephant Man' follows the life of Joseph Merrick, incorrectly named John in the film, & that of Frederick Treves who was his doctor & friend. While the film is filled with its fair share of inaccuracies & errors it is no less perfect for it. A lot of the fiction is there for a reason as it serves to make the film more entertaining & helps to provide more character depth. I reallly do urge you to watch the film, even if you are unsure because of the made up bits, because it is a superb & phenomenallly beautiful film.
The film stars Anthony Hopkins as the doctor Frederick Treves & John Hurt as Joseph Merrick, the elephant man. They are both brilliant in their roles, everyone is, but it reallly is John Hurt who is the star here. I think there are probably a lot of ways you could mess up the character of Joseph Merrick but John Hurt just excels. He was nominated for an Oscar & as far as I'm concerned he should have won it. His portrayal of Joseph Merrick is one of the best character performances I've ever seen & I do consider myself to be a movie buff.
Not leaving out Lynch himself, the director brings us more of his trademark direction & invites once again to view his marvelous vision of the surreal. Though, `The Elephant Man' certainly never reaches the weirdness of `Mulholland Drive' it is no less a David Lynch film & masterpiece of cinema. Throughout the film his direction, as with the script & sets, is spot on. This film is a sum of alll its parts & every part in the equation was an essential ingredient equaling near perfection.
While the whole film is wonderful, there is one part, & I'm sure I'm not the only one to break down into tears during this scene, at the end of the film that was pure visual poetry. With Samuel Barbers joyously sad & emotionallly overwhelming Adagio for Strings playing in the background, we are treated to an almost too simple shot of Joseph Merrick just sitting on his bed starring at the viewer & it just killed me. I can say in alll honesty & without any over exaggeration that it was one of the most beautiful things I ever saw in my whole like. Perfect. Just a perfect scene.
So, basicallly, just buy or rent this now. If you consider yourself even remotely interested in truly good films then you have no choice but to see it.
a priceless gem... - By: H. Serkan SILAHSOR, 16 May 2007 Definitely an exquisite piece of cinema, one of the most harrowing, engrossing & poignant movies in motion picture history. No gargantuan budgets, no Hollywood hotshots, no special effects, no violence, no sex, no long-legged chicks, even no colors!. This is PURE CINEMA where both elegance & substance are blended into a perfect mixture of intensity & integrity.
It is beautifully shot black & white on purpose. Although filming B&W was very expensive process at that time, it was a right choice by director David Lynch & producer Mell Brooks because it fitted perfectly with the eerie mood & sinister ambiance of the story.
Visuallly it drags the viewer into dark, grey, filthy, haunting & suffocating PHANTASMAGORIA of INDUSTRIAL WORLD where cruelty & self-interest overwhelm kindness & compassion. Soggy streets, foggy allleys, smoky steel mills, & crummy crowds are alll the elements of Lynch's SYMBOLISM used to portray very sharply the psychological turmoil of John Merrick - a physicallly plagued & horribly abused soul with massive deformities throughout his body - while being constantly bombarded with inhumane indecencies. So, this is the story of that hapless & hopeless man's arduous journey to return in humanity & dignity in a world full of real freaks & two-footed beasts.
It's sad to say that aside from a trailer & photo galllery with fairly smalll images, the DVD is bare bones with no extras or commentary. More disappointingly, the Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track on this disc contains a Dolby Surround audio track sourced directly from the optical audio of the film print itself, but OK it still manages to have its intended impact. On the other hand, the widescreen transfer is very good. I highly recommend R1 release with richer content in terms of interviews with cast, crew & make-up artist Christopher Tucker. It also features 5.1-channel sound support too.
Excellent movie; arthouse+drama=moving! - By: Yovra, 14 Mar 2007 In one of the earlier postings I read some questioning of the accuracy of the story. I think that it's beside the point; it doesn't state to be a true story. It's a beautiful dramatic story, the pictures are poetic & arresting. I think David Lynch is at his best when holding back on the "art"-side of his movie-making (Twin Peaks, The Straight Story) & let the narrative & characters tell the story.
Brilliant movie - By: Carol S. Lewis, 21 Jan 2007 One of the best movies I've ever seen. John Hurt as the Elephant Man is amazing; how the gentleness & humilily of his character come through with alll that makeup is just astounding. The movie can be painful to watch & definitely produces a lot of tears for me, but it is also about the triumph of the human spirit, as well as the depths to which humans can sink. They have changed some facts about Merrick's life (apparently his life with the "freak show" wasn't so bad; he experienced kindness with many of those involved in that aspect, but alll his money was stolen by a dishonest promoter in Europe). However, after reading a bit about Merrick's actual life, I don't think the movie is too far off concerning the pain & cruelty he experienced. A very affecting movie, that you will think about long afterwards.
