One of the most beautifully moving dramas of modern cinema.

Rating: 10/10 (7 February 2006)

A modern masterpiece of style, grace, and thoughtful film-making; The Elephant Man is one of David Lynch's finest works.
In Victorian England, a doctor discovers a terribly deformed gentleman being used as a side-show freak and takes in him hoping to give him a decent life in society.
The Elephant Man is one of those rare films that actually reaches an emotional level with its viewer. Lynch makes this film with a truly dark and even bleak atmosphere, but this atmosphere gives birth to a kind of hope only the human heart could produce. Its sounds weird to describe a Lynch film in this way, but The Elephant Man differs from the stories of some of Lynch's more terrifying thrillers. Director Lynch does give this film some of his trademark surrealism, as well as some nicely hypnotic sequences. The style of this film is lavish, even as it's filmed in black and white. John Hurt's makeup work is astonishingly convincing. The music score of John Morris is beautiful and haunting at the same time. The conclusion of this film is one of the most elegant and solemn of cinematic history.
The great Anthony Hopkins is terrific as always as the doctor that wishes to save the title character. John Hurt, even under a ton of makeup, is excellent as the films sympathetic and tender-hearted subject. The late Anne Bancroft appears as a theater actress who becomes friend to John Hurt's character.
A magnificent film, quite unlike any other, The Elephant Man is a must see for all cinema lovers - the tender hearted of which will likely need tissues before the movie ends. For once, that's a good thing!
**** out of ****