The touching story of a freak

Rating: 10/10 (23 September 2006)

The elephant man is only the second film by David Lynch, but you can already breathe perfume of masterpiece. The Elephant Man (real name John Merrick) is played by John Hurt (1984), who uses his voice only: it's really unfair he didn't get the Oscar for this performance. The story of this man hideously deformed is touching and makes you think: who's the real monster, him or us? Can he be considered like a monster, he so delicate and appreciative? Or we are the real monster, we that use his hideous malformation to get money, or we that can't understand he's an human being? It's all more shocking because it's cinematographed (by Freddie Francis) in a violent black and white, full of shadows and twilights. Maybe, it remembers the shadow part of everybody. The cast is completed with Anthony Hopkins (who plays the doctor who saves and studies the Elephant Man), John Gielgud (the hospital manager), Anne Bancroft (the actress who grows attached of the Elephant Man) and Freddie Jones (the circus manager who beats and takes advantage of the Elephant Man). It's a shame for the Academy The elephant man didn't triumph at the Oscars. A real, real shame.