Directed by David Lynch
Written by Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren and David Lynch from books by Frederick Trever and Ashley Montagu
1980/UK/U.S.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
John Merrick: If only I could find her (his mother), so she could see me with such lovely friends here now; perhaps she could love me as I am. I’ve tried so hard to be good.
I find this movie hard to watch despite its great beauty.
The plot takes place in Victorian England and is based on the true story of John Merrick (John Hurt), a young Englishman who was born horribly deformed and spent most of his life abused and exploited as a sideshow freak.
Inside, Merrick is a sensitive, sentimental man with a great weakness for beauty, especially feminine beauty. He is rescued by physician Frederick Trevis (Anthony Hopkins) and becomes a favorite of London society, including actress Mrs. Kendall (Anne Bancroft) This does not prevent him from being continually under the threat of kidnap and cruel jokes.
The acting in this film is phenomenal as is the camerawork of cinematographer Freddie Francis. I’m not big fan of watching cruelty and there is so much of it here that I’m not sure if I will give it another rewatch. Definitely some kind of masterpiece though.
Yes, hard to watch but absolutely worth it.
It is fitting that it should be Lynch who made this movie. In anybody else hands this would have been a very different an most likely lesser movie.
It probably would have been cheap melodrama in other hands.
I think about John Hurt in this probably once per week. One of my favorite tragic performances.
It was Robert DeNiro’s year I guess.