Joseph Merrick was more complex but this film is a masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2015)

This film is a masterpiece for various and very simple reasons.
First it is a real case, a real man, a real disease. The man is Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film) and he was taken care of at the end of his life by the Royal London Hospital and this particular doctor Frederick Treves. His bones have been studied recently and the disease has been identified, including the cause of his death, asphyxiation.
Second it reveals two dimensions of Victorian society. The exploitation of horrible facts and beings, what they call freaks, that can inspire horror in the public. Exploitation in carnivals and funfairs, but also exploitation in everyday society in both cases by some greedy people who make money on these "freaks." In reality Joseph Merrick was exploiting the public for his own survival because he was willing to do it to make the money he needed to take care of himself. The second dimension is the benevolence and empathy of this Victorian society, I mean here the doctors and medical personnel on one hand and the "good" society on the other hand to show they are "good," for most of them, but for a few to prove to themselves they are human, humane, and for many of these few good Christians (the religious aspect that the film misses completely).
Third it also reveals that the medical personnel was ready to get out of their way to help a fellow human being who was in a state of suffering that deserved some help, and in this case we are beyond plain suffering and beyond any kind of cure and even help. Let's say then some alleviating support. It is true too that the doctors might have done it for the advancement of their own career, but that's part of the game, isn't it?
The film cheats on some details. How could Joseph Merrick have learned Shakespeare or the Bible if he had been the "possession" of his carnival master? How could Joseph Merrick have carried on himself the portrait of his mother if he had been the possession of his carnival master? How did Jospeh Merrick get into that position of being a show animal in carnivals (which he was not in real life since he made it a career)? Finally the escape to Belgium, or the abduction to Belgium, and then the return to England shows clearly he was considered as a fellow "artist" by the other carnival attractions, but it forgets to mention the fact that his employer abandoned him in Belgium after robbing his fifty pounds, a real fortune at the time, that he had accumulated in time.
But the film remains a masterpiece of empathy and humane social thinking with the extraordinary case of the London stage actress who finds the power and courage to dedicate a show to Joseph Merrick in extremely valorizing circumstances, valorizing for Joseph Merrick, and so much so that he will decide to go to sleep like any normal person though he knew he would not wake up on the following morning.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU