The Elephant Man – 1980 | 125 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

David Lynch, connoisseur of the grotesque, directs this sad and moving tale based on a true story with admirable restraint. The film is shot entirely in stark black and white, acutely capturing the darker corners of Victorian London.

John Hurt is John Merrick; The Elephant Man, named so because the fairground owner Bytes (Freddie Jones) claims an elephant attacked his mother during her pregnancy. Merrick is appallingly deformed on the outside but of fine sensibilities inside, he wears a sack over his head to avoid ridicule. Merrick suffers from a rare disease (multiple neurofibromatosis); his case is so severe that in addition to the enormous skin growth he had a deformed head of almost unthinkable proportions.

Anthony Hopkins plays Dr. Frederick Treves, the good doctor who rescues Merrick from a fairground freakshow in Victorian London and takes him to a London Hospital. The nursing staff is at first frightened of Merrick, but grow to care for him. Yet despite leaving the abusive fairground atmosphere, we find elements of the hospitals living conditions equally humiliating. The chief villain within the hospital is the night porter (Michael Elphick), who supplements his wages by selling tickets to see the curiosity. Merrick is abducted by Bytes, and whisked to the continent and put back on public display, but Merrick escapes and returns by ship to England. Merrick visit’s Dr. Treves in the hope of treatment for the disease which turns out, sadly, to be incurable. Dr. Trieves must also question his own reasons, is he genuinely helping Merrick or using him to gain eminence among the medical community. After discovering he is dying, Merrick chooses to commit suicide, and falls asleep soothed by dreams of his beloved mother. John Gielgud, Anne Bancroft and Wendy Hiller provide illustrious support.