A mostly solid film based on the true story of a short, sad life!

Rating: 9/10 (18 May 2008)

"The Elephant Man" was definitely a successful film of its time, but I wasn't around to see it then, as I was born six years later. I have, however, known about the film for quite sometime now, and all along, I have been aware of the fact that it's a sad one, so when I finally actually watched it after all these years, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Due to what I had heard, I had high expectations, expecting an excellent, touching, and sometimes heart-wrenching film. My expectations may not have been met completely, as I couldn't always stay into it, but in the end, it still struck me as a great film!
Set in Victorian England, Dr. Frederick Treves is a surgeon who works in the London Hospital. At a circus freak show, he sees John Merrick, known as the "Terrible Elephant Man", who is severely disfigured from a rare disease, and treated very poorly as a side-show freak. Treves is fascinated, and has Merrick sent to the London Hospital, where he studies his deformities and gives a lecture to his colleagues about them. Afterwards, Merrick returns to his "owner", Bytes, who beats him severely and injures him! Treves is then called back over and told that Merrick fell. The surgeon soon takes the severely deformed man back to the hospital, where he gradually learns that his patient is surprisingly intelligent. Merrick is treated much better in the hospital, but Treves brings him a lot of publicity as his patient, causing the surgeon to wonder if he is any better than those who exploited Merrick in the circus!
I have read about some inaccuracies in this film, which doesn't surprise me at all. Even though some criticise "The Elephant Man" for that, I've learned to expect it from movies based on true stories. I know that his name was actually Joseph Merrick, not John, though he is widely known as John, apparently due to Treves' memoirs for some reason. I know there are more significant inaccuracies, and probably significant things about Merrick's life left out as well. However, Merrick apparently was a very nice, intelligent individual who lived a sad life, facing discrimination just because of his deformities, which is all shown in this movie. This is what makes the movie so heart-wrenching at times (as I'm sure the true story was), seeing such a kind-hearted individual mistreated and living such a sad life. I know my eyes watered a bit a couple times!
I'll admit I certainly wasn't moved by the entire film. Like I said, I couldn't always stay into it. This was mainly at certain times early on. I could have stopped the film, but I eventually found that forcing myself to keep watching was the right thing to do, as the story got so interesting that I couldn't stop watching! "The Elephant Man" is not the fastest-paced film ever made, and has somewhat limited musical score, which I'm sure could make it hard for some to watch, but overall, it is still a very well made, touching, and memorable biopic that shows what an unfortunate world we live in, where such kind-hearted people can be treated so cruelly for something they can't do anything about, and how you should not judge one by their appearance. Thumbs up for that!