true beauty truly comes from within

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2010)

The title for my review although cliché' and absurdly simple. It is the truest statement that sums up this film. This film had a lot going for it from the beginning. Fist of all it was produced by Mel brooks,directed by David lynch,and features the acting talents of sir Anthony Hopkins,john Gielgud,john hert,and Anne Bancroft.
The film starts out with a fairly self explanatory intro and then we are introduced to Dr. Fredrick treaves making his way through a Victorian London carnival. Whats great about this is that David lynch uses the same claustrophobic,industrial atmosphere that made eraserhead so disturbing and surreal. yet it completely works for London in the midst of the industrial revolution. Its shot in a sleek black and white that makes it look like it was filmed thirty to forty years prior,however its not grainy or scratched. Dr. treaves wonders into the freak show tent seeing the usual oddities. the fat lady,the bearded lady,Siamese twins,etc. He is drawn to display that is being given a great deal of attention. people are walking away,a woman leaves the exhibit sobbing.
We hear a man arguing harshly with police man. saying things like "i know my rights" "he is a freak,how else will he make a living" only to be responded with This is an abomination. The man leans against the wall and says "we have to move again my prize". Automatically you don't like this man. He is a pathetic man who cares only for his own self. The kind of man who is soley responsible for the mistakes he has made yet will never admit to it. Instead he uses a man of much worse circumstances and exploits him for his own profit.
intrigued the doctor follows the man back to a squalled basement slum,inquiring a view but is rebuked. However at the offer of money he is let in. Here we are shown one of the more iconic scenes of the film. As treves sees john for the first time,all we see is a single tear run down his face. He offers more money to examine the man at his hospital to witch he shows his colleagues and sends him back convinced he is completely retarded.
As he arrives he is scorned and beaten by Mr. bytes, his owner. What compelled me about this scene is not the fact that Merrick is beaten,but rather his owner is so dependent on him as a freak and the obviously little money that comes in,that one has to ask who is the more pathetic creature? John is brought in and put in isolation where his face is finally revealed. It is also revealed that under a shell of disfigurement and deformity lies the soul of a man with great intelligence and a great capacity for kindness. As we progress john is introduced to an assortment of different people. some good and some bad. Even an actress of the London stage who befriends john and later towards the end dedicates the play she is in to him. Although at one point Dr treves is convinced that he may be no better then the monster he took him from.
Later john is stolen with the help of an unscrupulous worker, and moved to a cheap freak show in France. In one of the harsher scenes we see john forced into a baboon cage.naturally this frightens the baboons. A group of freaks approach the cage and inform john that they have decided that he does not belong there. This however is not an act of ostracism,rather a true act of compassion.
The last scenes of the film consist of the famous scene in the train station where john exclaims the immortal saying " I am not an animal!,I am a human being!". and finally the scene at the opera where john is excepted by London society and finally the end.
Warning the last scene is a real tear jerker. john sits at his table putting the finishing touches on his paper model and hoarsely whispers"its finished" although he is referring to his model. I also believe he is talking about something much deeper.
As he stumbles to his bed we are set to a hauntingly beautiful choir score. As he stumbles we can truly see his pain. You know now that he is gonna die and you don't want him to because over the course of the film we see the man under the deformities and we don't want him to go. then he proceeds to take the pillows from his be and go to sleep like a normal man,something he never could do. The camera pans out to the night sky and deeper into the stars and we see a face appear and say " nothing shall die".
I loved this film because it challenges the viewer on more then one level. The obvious is to watch a deformed man. It also challenges the viewer to look at his own self. To understand that man is capable of both great kindness and great cruelty. Also to take a look into the fear all men carry with them. the fear of the what he does not understand.
i also loved the fact that although john Merrick was a victim of cruel circumstances,he did not allow himself to be a victim. He understood that although he was an outcast do to nothing more then simple genetics. He was still a man and must make it as all men do.
I believe this film is more important now then it was thirty years ago. Especially in a culture that seems sometimes to be losing it's humanity. It shows that kindness is still real and true beauty lies within.