Great Film-making, Problematic Treatment of John Merrick

Rating: 7/10 (27 June 2010)

Moralising narratives are at the heart of many "outsider" biopics as a means of exposing the flawed logic of a "civilized" yet inherently inhumane society. This approach is exemplified to the extreme in David Lynch's The Elephant Man. The famous biography of John Merrick is presented as a horror film in which the viewer is repeatedly subjected to scenes of violence against a helpless and cripplingly deformed man. Historical documentation reveals that Merrick indeed suffered a great many injustices but testament to his survival is his industriousness and independence, qualities not explored in the film. The intelligent and gentle nature of Merrick is emphasized not to explicate his strength of character but rather to expose the stupidity and brutality of his tormentors. Fictionalized abuses such as a kidnapping, a violent manager, and a psychopathic night-guard supplement an already grotesque vision of 19th century England as an era of absolute inhumanity. The industrial nightmare which is the basis of Lynch's earlier experimental film Eraserhead is recycled and juxtaposed with the world of etiquette and bourgeois finery of the self-righteous Victorian upper classes. The system of capitalism is exposed for its inability to acknowledge the worth of human life outside of productive capacity. Those without labour power are dehumanized and stripped of all dignity in order to survive, fuelling the prevalence of prostitution, child exploitation, and freak shows. The treatment of John Merrick in The Elephant Man is yet another exploitation of sorts as it reduces an extraordinary life to a moral tale. When Dr. Treves says, "Mr.Bytes, I'm sorry but all you do is profit from another man's misery", one has to wonder at the hypocrisy of a film which replicates the spectacle of the freak show and exaggerates victimization in order to drive home an unsubtle misanthropic narrative.