The Elephant Man (film)

The Elephant Man is a 1980 film about Joseph Merrick (whom the script calls John Merrick), a severely deformed man in 19th century London. The film was directed by David Lynch and stars John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Michael Elphick, Hannah Gordon and Freddie Jones.

The screenplay was adapted by Lynch, Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren from Frederick Treves’s The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences (1923) and Ashley Montagu’s The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity (1971). It was shot in black and white and featured make-up work by Christopher Tucker.

The Elephant Man was a critical and commercial success with eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor. When the Academy was scolded for failing to honor the make-up work on the film, it prompted them to create the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling the following year. The film also won the BAFTA Awards for Best Film, Best Actor and Best Production Design.



Contents
[hide]  *1 Plot  ==Plot[ edit] == London Hospital surgeon Frederick Treves finds John Merrick in a Victorian freak show in London’s East End, where he is kept by the brutish Bytes. His head is always hooded, and his “owner”, who views him as retarded, is paid by Treves to bring him to the hospital for exams. He shows Merrick to his colleagues and highlights his monstrous skull, which makes him sleep with his head on his knees, since if he were to lay down, he would asphyxiate. On Merrick’s return he is beaten so hard by Bytes that an apprentice calls Treves to bring him back to hospital. When Bytes accuses Treves of likewise exploiting Merrick for his own ends, he vows to do what he can to help Merrick.
 * 2 Main cast
 * 3 Production
 * 4 Reception
 * 5 Awards and media listings
 * 6 Home media
 * 7 See also
 * 8 References
 * 9 Further reading
 * 10 External links

John is tended and quarantined by Mrs. Mothershead, the formidable matron, since the other staff cringe away from Merrick. Mr Carr-Gomm, the hospital’s Governor, is against housing Merrick as the ward is no place for “incurables”. To prove to Carr-Gomm that Merrick has skills, Treves makes him say a few phrases. Carr-Gomm sees through the ruse but as he walks off, he and Treves are stunned to hear John recite the 23rd Psalm, which Treves did not teach. He now permits John to stay, and the patient starts drawing, reading, and making a model of a cathedral he sees from his window.

When Merrick has tea with Ann Treves, he is so overwhelmed that he shows them his mother’s picture. He hopes she would love him if she could see his “lovely friends”. Later on he starts to have guests in his rooms, including the actress Madge Kendal, and becomes an object of curiosity and charity to high society. Mrs. Mothershead says he is still treated as a freak, though in a more upper-class style. This rebuke and his role in the matter trouble the surgeon, who now questions his morals. And while John is treated well by day, the Night Porter by the name of Jim makes money by bringing clients from nearby pubs to gawk at Merrick.

Through her daughter-in-law Alexandra, the hospital’s royal patron, Queen Victoria sends word that Merrick will have permanent hospital care with all funds arranged. But his problems resurface when Bytes uses Jim, the Night Porter’s “viewings” to reach John and take him to continental Europe, where he is once again put on show and brutalized. Consumed with guilt over Merrick’s plight, Mr. Treves sacks the porter with Mrs. Mothershead’s help.

His fellow attractions help Merrick flee, though at Liverpool Street station he is taunted by several boys and accidentally knocks down a girl. He is chased, unmasked, and cornered by an angry mob, at which point he cries, “I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I ... am ... a ... man!” before collapsing. When policemen return him to the hospital he goes back to his room. He recovers a little, but as he is dying from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Mrs. Kendal bids him go to the theatre, where he, Treves, Mrs. Mothershead and a nurse will see an enrapturing show. A white-tied John Merrick stands up in the royal box to reap hearty applause, having had the performance dedicated to him from Mrs. Kendal. Back in the hospital, Merrick thanks Treves for all he has done and completes his church model. To copy the sleeping child on his wall-hung sketch, he takes off the pillows he needs to sleep upright, lies down and dies, consoled by a vision of his mother, who quotes Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Nothing Will Die”. ==Main cast[ edit] == ==Production<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The film's executive producer, Stuart Cornfeld, had seen Lynch's film Eraserhead and loved it. Cornfeld and Lynch exchanged phone calls and Cornfeld offered four scripts, the first was The Elephant Man and Lynch wanted to do that project. Lynch and Cornfeld together looked for financiers and production backers for the film, all of whom were turned off by the concept and Lynch's proposed vision. Cornfeld then looked into his own business connections and brought Elephant Man to comedy director Mel Brooks. Brooks loved the script and decided to help finance the film through his company, Brooksfilms. However, Brooks had not heard of David Lynch when development started. Cornfeld invited Brooks to a midnight screening of Eraserhead. Although Lynch thought that he was going to be let off of Elephant Man, Mel loved Eraserhead and enthusiastically let him direct this new film.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[3] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[4]  Mel himself kept his name off the credits and marketing, making sure people don't get the wrong idea to see his name on the film and expect a comedy.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IMDB_5-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[5]
 * John Hurt as John Merrick
 * Anthony Hopkins as Frederick Treves
 * Anne Bancroft as Madge Kendal
 * John Gielgud as Francis Carr-Gomm
 * Wendy Hiller as Mrs Mothershead
 * Freddie Jones as Mr. Bytes, The Ringmaster
 * Dexter Fletcher as Bytes’ Boy
 * Michael Elphick as Jim, The Night Porter
 * Hannah Gordon as Ann Treves
 * Helen Ryan as Alexandra, Princess of Wales
 * John Standing as Fox
 * Lesley Dunlop as Nora, Merrick’s Nurse
 * Phoebe Nicholls as Mary Jane Merrick
 * Morgan Sheppard as Man In Pub
 * Kenny Baker as Plumed Dwarf

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">For his second feature and first studio film,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-TimeOutInterview_6-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[6]  David Lynch furnished the musical direction and sound design. Lynch tried to design the make-up himself too, but decided not to do it himself after many unsuccessful attempts.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IMDB_5-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[5]  The makeup, now supervised by Christopher Tucker, was directly designed from casts of John Merrick’s body, which had been kept in the Royal London Hospital’s private museum. The makeup took seven to eight hours to apply each day and two hours to delicately remove.John Hurt would arrive on set at 5am and shoot his scenes from noon until 10pm. When Hurt was having his first experiences of the inconveniences of applying make-up and having to perform with it, he called his wife saying "I think they finally managed to make me hate acting." Because of the strain on the actor, he worked alternate days.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IMDB_5-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[5]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">In keeping from his bizarre vision from Eraserhead, Lynch bookended the film with surrealist sequences centered around Merrick's mother and her death. Lynch usedSamuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings to underline the end of the film and Merrick's own death. When Brooks and Cornfeld screened The Elephant Man to Paramount executives, they wanted the opening and ending cut from the film. Brooks, according to Cornfeld, told them, "We are involved in a business venture. We screened the film for you to bring you up to date as to the status of that venture. Do not misconstrue this as our soliciting the input of raging primitives."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IMDB_5-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[5] ==Reception<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The Elephant Man was well received by critics; the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 91% rating with an average review score of 8.2/10.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[7]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Vincent Canby wrote: “Mr. Hurt is truly remarkable. It can’t be easy to act under such a heavy mask... the physical production is beautiful, especially Freddie Francis’s black-and-white photography.”<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[8]  Roger Ebert gave 2/4 stars, writing: “I kept asking myself what the film was really trying to say about the human condition as reflected by John Merrick, and I kept drawing blanks.”<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[9]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">In her book The Spectacle of Deformity: Freak Shows and Modern British Culture, Nadja Durbach said the film was “much more mawkish and moralising than one would expect from the leading postmodern surrealist filmmaker” and “unashamedly sentimental”. She blamed this mawkishness on the use of Treves’s memoirs as source material.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Durbach35_10-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10] ==Awards and media listings<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == Main article: List of awards and nominations received by The Elephant Man<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The Elephant Man was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role (John Hurt), Art Direction-Set Decoration (Stuart Craig,Robert Cartwright, Hugh Scaife), Costume Design, Director, Film Editing, Music: Original Score, and Writing: Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NY_Times_11-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[11] However, the film did not win any.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">People in the industry were appalled that the movie was not going to be honored for its make up effects when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencesannounced its nominations at the time. A letter of protest was sent to the Academy's Board of Governors to requesting to give the film an honorary award. The Academy refused, but in response to the outcry, they decided to give the make-up artists their own category. A year later, the Academy Award for Best Makeup category was introduced with An American Werewolf in London as its first recipient.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IMDB_5-4" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[5] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[12]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">It did win the BAFTA Award for Best Film, as well as other BAFTA Awards for Best Actor (John Hurt) and Best Production Design, and was nominated for four others: Direction, Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing. ==Home media<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">There have been many releases of the film on both VHS and DVD. The version released as part of the David Lynch Lime Green Box includes several interviews with John Hurt and David Lynch and a Joseph Merrick documentary.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[13]  This material is also available on the exclusive treatment on the European market as part ofOptimum Releasing’s StudioCanal Collection.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[14]  The film has only been released on Blu-ray Disc in the UK, however this disc will play in both Region A and B players.