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.
Comment
04/30/08
The Elephant Man (1980)
91 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 34
Fresh: 31
Rotten:3
Average Rating: 8.2/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: David Lynch brings his own dreamlike style to the heartbreaking yet somehow uplifting story of John Merrick (John Hurt), a hideously deformed individual dubbed the Elephant Man during his years in a circus freak show in Victorian... [More]
Starring: John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, John Gielgud, Anne Bancroft
Director: David Lynch, Jonathan Sanger
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Reviews for The Elephant Man
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.
04/30/08
Top Critic Director David Lynch has created an eerily compelling atmosphere in recounting a hideously deformed man's perilous life in Victorian England.
04/30/08
Top Critic It's an amazing story about the human spirit that's told with great sensitivity.
04/23/07
One of the year's best films. Only DeNiro could take the Oscar away from John Hurt.
12/14/06
Revisiting a terrain similar to Eraserhead, albeit in different style, Lynch exposes undercurrents of metaphysical anguish along with an emotionally accessible tale of Merrick's nobility--a Victorian morality play disguised as an elegy to freakishness
06/22/06
Has the look and texture of an authentic document, elevated by the hand of a artist with a singular vision
06/07/06
This black-and-white film already includes several Lyncian benchmarks: hissing noises, nightmare sequences, and moments of deadly quiet.
05/26/06
A marvellous movie, shot in stunning black-and-white by Freddie Francis.
01/26/06
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.
10/23/04
Top Critic The Elephant Man is a memorable film about human survival and a powerful commentary on human exploitation.
03/16/04
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