Morally Important and Deeply Moving.

Rating: 9/10 (30 April 2008)

David Lynch's poignant and touching drama is a emotionally-draining true story of acceptance and suffering set in Victorian Britain. Personal to Lynch and exploring his key themes of dreams and the effects of society on the individual, The Elephant Man is a beautiful, haunting piece of film-making. Although a simple story on the surface, as expected of Lynch films, it is also psychologically complex. Here he explores the effect of industry and class in society and draws on dark themes deriving from Bakhtin's notion of Carnival in his exploration of the marginalisation of difference and the quality of life in the developing post-Industrial Revolution world. The script is both heartfelt and precise and Lynch's direction remains taught and accomplished, enhanced by some beautiful black and white wide-angle cinematography and effective linear editing. The acting, particularly from John Hurt, is completely faultless, with every emotion hitting home. A important, masterful work of significant moral importance, that is both historically aware and ambiguously complex.
9/10