The Elephant Man by David Lynch

Lynch 's association with warped and perverted Americana makes us forget that his first hit was set in Victorian London featuring top British thespians.This 1980 film is a biographical-history drama based on the life of Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man in 19th century London.  Despite the usual Lynchian tropes of foreboding and a fascination towards grotesque, Lynch shows great sensitivity and restraint in its portrayal of its subject.

It tells the story of John Merrick, the 'Elephant Man', a Victorian period person with severe disfigurement, rescued from a barbaric fairground show by kindhearted physician Frederick Treves and established as a fashionable figure among the society of London. There was a palpable foreboding a of John becoming the posh form of  freak attraction.

John Hurt played Merrick with his distinct, quavering and remarkable gentle voice, while Treves portrayed by Anthony Hopkins is the muscular Victorian man of science. John Gielgud is the sombre hospital chief who becomes an advocate for Merrick. Wendy Hiller is the strict matron, also becomes an advocate for Merrick. Anne Bancroft, played stage star Madge Kendal, the love interest of Merrick.

Lynch's film was celebrated and spoofed in its time.It was spoofed in Richard Curtis comedy 'The Tall Guy', featuring a tasteless musical version of The Elephant Man. 

The movie, while not being on the sentimental radar determinedly tales a wholesome approach towards Merrick's image outside his deformity, of the person who is kind, compassionate and rational , a far divergent approach from ' Eraserhead 'where in body-nonconformity the keynote is of horror . When Merrick recites 23rd psalm from memory or asks Treves 'can you cure me?' and on his candid reply , says quietly 'I thought not', the movie touches on the strings of our hearts.

The Victorian London in the movie is realistic unlike other fetishised Hollywood depictions. Lynch and his editor Anne V Coates subverts the narrative pattern by ending a scene on a line or a note that is usually considered a climatic point. The movie explores the outside the realm of ordinary sympathy for Merrick, showing us his relationships with other circus folks and revealing the mysterious universe outside ourselves. While both approach clash at times but the totality of the narrative is satisfying and absorbing.