The Elephant Man

Rating: 7/10 (5 June 2019)

'The Elephant Man' stands out in David Lynch's filmography, never was a movie of his so focused on trying to make the audience feel the protagonist. The IMDb synopsis stating that John Merrick was an intelligent man, I was expecting this movie to be about a misunderstood disfigured genius, an idea that can't help but sound lame, but I was wrong, the point of the movie is not that he is more intelligent than people around him, but that he is more good, he is perceptive and kind whereas his bullies act like animals.
The so-called elephant man doesn't say a word during the first 40 minutes of the film, and it becomes pretty clear that it is because he was traumatized, no one loved him and he was considered a freak, however regardless of how interesting this sounds for a character, John's lack of verbal communication during a substantial part of the first half troubles us in really connecting with him, during that section of the movie the only way we can know that John isn't mentally disabled is when he recites Psalm 23 by memory, stating that he used to read the bible every day-a scene that the movie seems to think is of great importance for understanding the title character, but doesn't do much for me in term of getting what's on his mind. Despite that, we do feel closer to him on a scene where the man has tea with his friend Dr. Frederick Treves and the latter's wife.
The thing I most enjoyed out of watching it was the established environment and the Victorian time frame, both of which were creatively exemplified as we're thrown into the middle of a 19th century surgery performed by Treves during the first few minutes of the movie; besides that choosing to shoot in black-and-white contributed immensely for the movie's mood.
Unfortunately, one of the movie's strongest attributes leads to what bothered me the most in it. The working class men give the film depth in capturing the spirit of the community from the time and the place the story is told, but their perversion towards John-shown especially when they break into his bedroom and get him drunk-makes the movie feel manipulative, forcing the audience to feel pity for him in an excessive way.
However, Merrick's inability to react when surrounded by sadists is contrasted when he is followed by a large group of curious men on a train station and proves to be anything but a coward by crying at them: "I am not an elephant, I am not an animal, I am a human being!", a scene that despite being hard to watch because of how much sorrow it transmits, remains the most memorable in the film.