Five bags of popcorn

Rating: 10/10 (7 August 2016)

After seeing "Eraserhead", it seemed impossible to me that David Lynch could make a better or more unique film. Yet he did. The Elephant Man is a dark tale of the human spirit through prejudice and hatred. Perfectly cast, it features jaw-dropping performances from John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft. It is the most emotional film for me.
Every time Lynch uses white noise, it is more effective than most soundtracks for me. That, and the seemingly random scenes of machine-men, sent me on a journey straight into my very existence, into my own emotional reality. The dark, dehumanizing parts of The Elephant Man and the eerie white noise are used as a contrast to the pure, humanistic moments. This dehumanization made the emotional moments of the film so effective for me because it forced me to feel the lack of humanity that John Merrick, The Elephant Man, had experienced his whole life. It took John Merrick 27 years. 27 painful, humiliating years where the only people he knew bought and sold him for entertainment because of his disfiguration. This is why The Elephant Man is so powerful to me - it is an exaggerated version of my own being, one that lets me feel all of the self waiting to be shared and the torture within. When I saw John Merrick finally be treated kindly by a beautiful woman for the first time, he bursts into tears, and I had a tear running down my eye. The Elephant Man lets me feel everything I would ever want to feel in my life, while showing me the stark contrast of what surrounds me.