You're the monster! You're the freak!

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2010)

So much content and so many themes are thrown around in this film that it is easy to loose sight of its main purpose. Throughout smoke billows forming mangled spheres while machines pound rhythmically, implying both an image of our hero as well as a dystopian view of an English society that finds itself more civilized and refined than any before or after. There is an ongoing question as to whether John is being pimped out by Treves as a sort of cutting edge fashion statement to the upper classes just as much as he was a circus act to the lower ones. The unavoidable apparent point of the movie is to show Johns kindness and acceptance of a cruel design of nature and a society that mocks what is doesn't understand. On top of all this Lynch can't help himself and throws in some of his acid soaked dream sequences. All of these are rouses though that misdirect us from the movies main function. It is a film that is a scathing and scorching indictment of human society as a whole. The apparent freak of the film is easily the most normal and attractive person. When the night porter breaks into Johns room and we see a man forcing a woman to kiss John, we feel disgust not for the woman's sake, but for Johns. During the long focuses on Johns mothers supposedly angelic face, we are forced to question why what we are seeing is the supposed definition of beauty. Every supposed normal person in the film is meant to be disgusting. Only John is truly beautiful. Even Johns supposed friends, including Treves, seem distressingly neutral towards Johns ultimate value as an actual human. Some are barbaric in their distastefulness, refusing to muffle their disgust towards John. Most are purely barbaric in their gleeful cruelness towards him. Ultimately the finger is pointed at us, the viewer. How do we judge beauty? Why do we hold people to such random standards? Why do we base one's intrinsic value on their physical appearance? Treves indictment of the night porter is really an indictment of all of us. Perhaps WE truly are the monsters. Perhaps WE truly are the freaks. The film puts us all on trial. It is a furious statement that should make us all reevaluate ourselves. A film of utmost importance.