Premiered
October 10th, 1980.
In 1862, a baby under the name of Joseph Merrick was born. For his first few years, he
was a happy, average child, but it soon became clear that he'd be one of the
first individuals to suffer from neurofibromatosis type I under the
suspicious and tightly wound thumb of England's Victorian era.
Joseph's affliction caused groups of cells throughout his body to
grow rapidly, randomly, and exponentially. His resulting figure was
rather shocking (the actual Merrick is pictured below). Rejected by his family
and not doing well in school, he joined a workhouse at 17. A few years later he
made a proposal to a showman to put his disfigured form on display and this man,
Sam Torr, gave him his most infamous title, The Elephant Man, and traveled Europe
with Merrick. After his days in the show circuit he spent the rest of his
life under the care of a doctor Frederick Treves at the London Hospital. He
became quite popular in London high society, but was never accepted by the
general public. He died in 1890 at the age of 27. 
If any of you have ever seen a David Lynch film, you probably know what it's like
to drop acid without actually dropping acid. While technically
well educated and adept in the use of those technicalities, he operates on a
whole other level. This film for instance opens with Lynch's
classic impeccably produced industrial soundscape over abstract shots of
elephants, all shot in black and white (as the whole movie is). It then starts
to cut in brief shots of a woman in white, clearly in distress. It’s
made apparent that one of the elephants has knocked her down and
she lets out a heavily distorted, almost
animalistic mechanical scream. This corresponds with the
story that was told at freak shows to explain John's deformities. They said
that at four months of pregnancy, his mother was toppled by
an elephant somewhere in uncharted Africa. This,
naturally, was false. After a few more shots of "Where the hell did that
come from?" and "What exactly am I looking at?", Lynch settles
on Dr. Treves' (Anthony Hopkins) first encounter with John Merrick (John Hurt)
at one these "freak shows".
The film consists of fantastic wide dolly shots on
exteriors and equally wide locked shots on interiors. It is decidedly
less abstract and surrealist than any other Lynch film I've
come across. There are several scenes with unnecessary construction
or machine work, because Lynch just can't get enough of
those mechanical background noises, but it still works.
It doesn't feel forced. The black and white is beautiful, the darks
being very dark and the lights being almost blown out. The costumes
are impeccable. They're mostly all black, save for Merrick's mother
and Treves' wife, dressed all in white, who is one of the first women to
be kind to Merrick, a display that brings him to tears in the
Treves' parlor. The lighting used in
hospitals at that time were thinly caged open flames fed by a
network of pipes carrying coal gas. This provides a presence of
lighting so physical that the lights seem to embody characters in their
own right, while also providing a lush warmth to the stark black and white
of the scenes.
Special consideration should
be given to the team of make-up artists that made John Hurt's appearance in
this film possible (Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt to the right). His mouth had
to be obstructed to the point where his speech resembled that of the original
Merrick. There's a scene where Treves attempts to get Merrick to speak. When
he's finally successful, his diction needs some work, but in the end
he manages quite well. I imagine that was an accurate depiction of
what it must have been like to have to learn to speak under the constraints of
that mask. A big high five to Hurt for being able to deliver an
above par performance under a mask that was not
only physically heavy, but carried a character with it burdened by
the fear and limited education of his generation.
While the story is mostly accurate to the actual life of
John Merrick, there is an exaggeration of the mistreatment he
experienced in the freak show business. While his
managers definitely made more money than him, he received a
salary and was treated fairly well. When he moved to the hospital,
the differences were better living conditions and better general
health, as well as being better received by the general
public.
The final scene, too, is not entirely accurate. It depicts
him in the middle of the night finishing the model church he's
building throughout the film (which Merrick did actually build. To the left is
John Hurt standing in front of said church), and lying down to sleep "like
normal people". Based on the size of his head, he couldn't sleep lying
down because his neck would break and he'd suffocate, so he always
slept sitting up with his legs drawn to his chest, resting his
head on his knees. It's exposed fairly early in the film that to sleep like
a normal person is something he'd like to be able to
do. So when he knows that his health is deteriorating, he decides to do just
that. That is the way they depict it in the film, but the actual Merrick died
in the middle of the afternoon. The official cause of death was
asphyxia, but Treves believed that he elected that route as a final feeling of
normality. This scene in the film is by far the most moving. As it begins,
Barber's Adagio for Strings comes in and
plays through to the end. Then it gets a little weird with
the final few shots of what looks to be space maybe and a woman who
is supposed to be his mother, probably there to remind us that we've
been watching a David Lynch film this whole time.
8.5/10. A quality piece of film making, full of great performances,
fabulous production values, and a huge heap of killer cinematography. Also,
this trailer should give you a pretty good idea of
what it looks like, although the trailer itself is not super wonderful.
Just humor me.
I'd like to now introduce you to the honorable mentions category of
these reviews, because in every year there are lots of good
films (and if I had time to review them all, believe me, I would). I'd like
to recommend 9 to 5 (because Dolly Parton is
amazing), The Blue Lagoon (because Brooke Shields has the
best eyebrows I've ever seen), and Flash Gordon (because Queen).
Peace out,
In 1862, a baby under the name of Joseph Merrick was born. For his first few years, he was a happy, average child, but it soon became clear that he'd be one of the first individuals to suffer from neurofibromatosis type I under the suspicious and tightly wound thumb of England's Victorian era. Joseph's affliction caused groups of cells throughout his body to grow rapidly, randomly, and exponentially. His resulting figure was rather shocking (the actual Merrick is pictured below). Rejected by his family and not doing well in school, he joined a workhouse at 17. A few years later he made a proposal to a showman to put his disfigured form on display and this man, Sam Torr, gave him his most infamous title, The Elephant Man, and traveled Europe with Merrick. After his days in the show circuit he spent the rest of his life under the care of a doctor Frederick Treves at the London Hospital. He became quite popular in London high society, but was never accepted by the general public. He died in 1890 at the age of 27.
If any of you have ever seen a David Lynch film, you probably know what it's like to drop acid without actually dropping acid. While technically well educated and adept in the use of those technicalities, he operates on a whole other level. This film for instance opens with Lynch's classic impeccably produced industrial soundscape over abstract shots of elephants, all shot in black and white (as the whole movie is). It then starts to cut in brief shots of a woman in white, clearly in distress. It’s made apparent that one of the elephants has knocked her down and she lets out a heavily distorted, almost animalistic mechanical scream. This corresponds with the story that was told at freak shows to explain John's deformities. They said that at four months of pregnancy, his mother was toppled by an elephant somewhere in uncharted Africa. This, naturally, was false. After a few more shots of "Where the hell did that come from?" and "What exactly am I looking at?", Lynch settles on Dr. Treves' (Anthony Hopkins) first encounter with John Merrick (John Hurt) at one these "freak shows".
The film consists of fantastic wide dolly shots on exteriors and equally wide locked shots on interiors. It is decidedly less abstract and surrealist than any other Lynch film I've come across. There are several scenes with unnecessary construction or machine work, because Lynch just can't get enough of those mechanical background noises, but it still works. It doesn't feel forced. The black and white is beautiful, the darks being very dark and the lights being almost blown out. The costumes are impeccable. They're mostly all black, save for Merrick's mother and Treves' wife, dressed all in white, who is one of the first women to be kind to Merrick, a display that brings him to tears in the Treves' parlor. The lighting used in hospitals at that time were thinly caged open flames fed by a network of pipes carrying coal gas. This provides a presence of lighting so physical that the lights seem to embody characters in their own right, while also providing a lush warmth to the stark black and white of the scenes.
Special consideration should
be given to the team of make-up artists that made John Hurt's appearance in
this film possible (Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt to the right). His mouth had
to be obstructed to the point where his speech resembled that of the original
Merrick. There's a scene where Treves attempts to get Merrick to speak. When
he's finally successful, his diction needs some work, but in the end
he manages quite well. I imagine that was an accurate depiction of
what it must have been like to have to learn to speak under the constraints of
that mask. A big high five to Hurt for being able to deliver an
above par performance under a mask that was not
only physically heavy, but carried a character with it burdened by
the fear and limited education of his generation. While the story is mostly accurate to the actual life of John Merrick, there is an exaggeration of the mistreatment he experienced in the freak show business. While his managers definitely made more money than him, he received a salary and was treated fairly well. When he moved to the hospital, the differences were better living conditions and better general health, as well as being better received by the general public.
8.5/10. A quality piece of film making, full of great performances, fabulous production values, and a huge heap of killer cinematography. Also, this trailer should give you a pretty good idea of what it looks like, although the trailer itself is not super wonderful. Just humor me.
I'd like to now introduce you to the honorable mentions category of these reviews, because in every year there are lots of good films (and if I had time to review them all, believe me, I would). I'd like to recommend 9 to 5 (because Dolly Parton is amazing), The Blue Lagoon (because Brooke Shields has the best eyebrows I've ever seen), and Flash Gordon (because Queen).
Peace out,
I really like how you commented on both the content and the aesthetics of the film. I was wondering what compelled you to chose this film as opposed to another from the same year.
ReplyDeleteI find with a lot of film reviews, the critics trail off into more of a summary of the film as opposed to focusing on pointing out what made the films good or bad. Be careful of this if your focus is still on film reviews, not synopses.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the background you provided in the opening paragraphs really drew me into the post. You chose a unique film, (and agreeably a great one), to review.
The way you described the aesthetics and how they appealed to the making of this movie was clear and well-communicated. However, it would be interesting to hear even a little more of your opinion on the technical makings of this movie in more detail.
Great first post, can't wait to read more. Love 80's movies!