A Beautiful Movie With An Interesting Subject

Rating: 8/10 (13 January 2010)

"The Elephant Man" is truly a beautiful movie. I have been interested in the elephant man for a while now (ever since an acquaintance of mine started painting several art pieces on him) but never really knew much about him other than the physical deformity.
This movie is very nicely done and really makes you feel for John. It is very sad that he is treated the way that he is and you really root for him to make it in normal society. It is great to see him finally make it to the theater in his nice suit.
The movie transitions from the positive theater experience to the horror of the public humiliation quite quickly, but it is a necessary one. It really helped to solidify our feelings for John.
The way that he died was really great as well. He had been longing to be normal and had been looking at the photo of a person sleeping on their back for so long, that it was very beautiful that he finally felt normal enough in his last living moments.
I have always hated David Lynch and when I found out that he directed this movie I became very worried, but I must say that he did a very good job. My only minor complaint was how many useless transitional shots he used. I get that they help to set the mood, but every one was a bit too long and he seemed to throw one in every few minutes. Things like pictures of elephants, or people working in a factory. Again, it is just a minor complaint and did not take anything away from the film for me, but I think they should have been minimized a bit.
I must say that I was a bit disappointed to find out that a large part of this film is not historically accurate. Everything right down to his name (it was Joseph, not John). I have always said that I don't mind with movies if they are not the most historically accurate pieces of footage ever produced, but sometimes I feel like they should be pretty close. This is one of those examples.
But nevertheless this is still a beautiful movie and should be seen.