The Elephant Man Reviews

Heartbreaking drama isn't for sensitive viewers.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

The greatest contribution -- apart from the central performances -- comes from Francis, whose wonderful black and white, widescreen photography lends atmosphere and clarity to the proceedings.

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The picture itself is a strange trade-off between Lynch's personal themes -- the night world of obscure, disturbing sexual obsessions -- and the requirements of a middlebrow message movie.

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A moving, faithful retelling of a bizarre true story.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

Director David Lynch has created an eerily compelling atmosphere in recounting a hideously deformed man's perilous life in Victorian England.

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It's an amazing story about the human spirit that's told with great sensitivity.

Full Review | Original Score: A

One of the year's best films. Only DeNiro could take the Oscar away from John Hurt.

| Original Score: 5/5

In this follow-up to the amazing Eraserhead, David Lynch exposes undercurrents of anguish along with an emotionally accessible tale of Merrick's nobility--a Victorian morality play disguised as an elegy to freakishness

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Has the look and texture of an authentic document, elevated by the hand of a artist with a singular vision

Full Review | Original Score: 92/100

This black-and-white film already includes several Lyncian benchmarks: hissing noises, nightmare sequences, and moments of deadly quiet.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

A marvellous movie, shot in stunning black-and-white by Freddie Francis.

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Perhaps Lynch's finest moment -- Both disturbingly odd and surprisingly humane.

| Original Score: 5/5

David Lynch does a neat turn with a straight drama.

| Original Score: 4/5

Spectacular

| Original Score: 4/5

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

The Elephant Man is a memorable film about human survival and a powerful commentary on human exploitation.

Full Review | Original Score: 91/100

What we eventually see underneath this shell is not 'the study in dignity' that Ashley Montagu wrote about, but something far more poignant, a study in genteelness that somehow suppressed all rage.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Beautifully acted and photographed in absolutely gorgeous wide-screen black-and-white, the results are rarely less than stunning, despite the lapses into the melodramatic.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

My apologies to the fans of the absurd, but I'd call this David Lynch's one true masterpiece.

| Original Score: 5/5

This very interesting and moving film challenges us to examine the complex nuances of benevolence and the potential of the human spirit to transcend genetic impairments.

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