The Elephant Man

Joseph Merrick is a tragic figure in British history. Born with severe physical deformities during a time when such conditions were poorly understood and even less treated, he spent much of his life as an exhibit at a freak show under the stage name of “The Elephant Man.” His journey through life, including his later years living at the London Hospital, was chronicled by surgeon Sir Thomas Treves, who wrote a book on the subject, The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences, upon which a play and later a film were partially based. Many of the details, as they are known, are fictionalized for the sake of drama, but the emotional core is intact as is the reflection on our own humanity and what it is to be a part of the human race. 

At its center, this is a story about a man who is treated like a wild beast most of his life. The film opens with imagery of a woman being injured by elephants, with their bodies superimposed over a close-up of her face. We learn later that this is Merrick’s (in the film he has been renamed John) (John Hurt) mother and that supposedly this injury led to his deformity. Later it will be stated that he had a severe case of Proteus syndrome, although in reality that diagnosis has never been proven conclusively. The name The Elephant Man was given to him by Mr. Bytes (Freddie Jones), who uses Merrick as a sideshow attraction and tells tales to the paying audience of how Merrick’s mother was sexually assaulted by elephants, resulting in the creature before them. 

Mr. Bytes is an alcoholic who abuses his attractions, including Merrick, whom he beats and leaves locked away, barely clothed and in squalor. It is in this condition that Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) finds him. This initial meeting brings a tear to his eyes, and he makes arrangements for Merrick to be brought to the hospital for examinations. There, Merrick is presented before a group of doctors, who look at him with as much fascinating interest as the gawkers at the freak show. Treves, himself, misdiagnoses Merrick as an imbecile before discovering that he is far from it. The growths all over Merrick’s body make it difficult for him to speak, to move, and prevent him from lying flat on his back lest his airway be blocked and he choke to death. This latter detail will be mentioned again later, foreshadowing the ending of the film.

Treves treats Merrick with more respect than he has ever received, but begins to question his own motives. He has been using Merrick to advance his own career and to gain a certain degree of notoriety. For his part, Merrick is grateful for the doctor’s compassion and determination to provide a place for him to stay. But not all is rosy at the hospital. Jim (Michael Elphick), an unscrupulous hospital worker, sells tickets to people on the streets to come and gawk at the “monster.” Eventually, this builds up to a full-on assault that only ends when Mr. Bytes comes and takes Merrick back to his freak exhibition. 

One of the many themes on display in The Elephant Man is the basic dignity of being a human being. It’s human nature to gawk at abnormalities and be frightened by extreme differences. We walk down the street and see someone missing a limb, having a massive birthmark on their face, or even something self-inflicted like covered in tattoos,  piercings, or other body modifications, and we can’t help but stare or divert our eyes away. The best of us can look at that person and only see a person just like us. Merrick cries out, “I am not an animal! I am a human being! I am a man!” Yet people look at him like he was some monster that just crawled out of the sewers. The man at the beginning of the film would not have spoken up like that, but time spent with those who treated him like a person has shown him that he can and should speak up for himself; that he doesn’t deserve to be treated like he is different. Treves may be questioning his motives for helping Merrick but not the results. Merrick has learned that there is value to his life and that there are people out there that can see past his physical appearance.

One of those people is Madge Kendal (Anne Bancroft), an actress of the stage who hears of Merrick and desires to meet him. But she doesn’t treat him like a sideshow freak; instead, she speaks with him like an equal, listening to him, comforting him, and even giving him a picture of herself to keep on his bedside table to cherish. Towards the end of the film, she even arranges for him to attend a performance of hers and dedicates the play to him on behalf of the whole cast. He is visibly moved by these kind gestures. Likewise, he is moved to tears when he first meets Dr. Treves’ wife, Ann (Hannah Gordon), who is the first beautiful woman he has ever met that treats him with dignity. Ann is kind to him and sympathetic, but even she struggles at first to hide her initial reaction to his appearance. 

John Hurt is unrecognizable underneath all the makeup transforming him into John Merrick. Initially, the character was supposed to be virtually inaudible, as was the actual Merrick, but the choice was made to give him a voice and allow the actor to speak. This was the right choice, as to do otherwise would practically rob the actor of any real semblance of a performance. Anyone can go through the motions, but it takes an actor to overcome all that makeup and sell the human behind all of that. Being able to speak aids that and allows us as the audience to connect with him better. The make-up effects are brilliantly realized, and had there been a makeup Academy Award at the time, it would have won. That award didn’t exist until the following year. Still, honorary awards had been given out for makeup effects in the past, yet that wasn’t done for The Elephant Man.

Still, there is a sense that we, as the audience, are no better than those who paid their coin to see the sideshow freak. After all, that is what we do when we buy our ticket or rent a DVD to watch it. Director David Lynch was aware of this and hints at that throughout the film. By the time Merrick is making his declaration that he is a man and not an animal, we should be already thinking the same thing and feeling the same shame those in the film are feeling. The words are roughly spoken, but the message is loud and clear.  Lynch was not above making statements like this, even this early in his career.

The Elephant Man wants us to see Merrick for more than just his physical appearance. It wants us to see the man inside, a man who deserves better than the life he was given. People born with his condition rarely live long lives, and we’re told at one point that he is dying. Even knowing this, when he chooses to go out on his own terms, it feels unjustified. Perhaps he felt it was better to end things quickly and not drawn out, burdening those around him. His choice was to put an end to his suffering, and he dies peacefully in his sleep, a picture of his mother and of Madge beside him next to his bed. The film doesn’t go into it, but the indignity of this man didn’t end with death. Mercifully, the film doesn’t touch on that.

This is a profoundly moving picture that makes us step back for a moment and be grateful for just how blessed we are in our own lives. It brings with it a degree of compassion that we should all feel when we see someone struggling with a disability or physical deformity. Our first instinct is to shrink away, yet we should be feeling empathy for people who cannot help how they were born or what has happened to them to make them the way that they are. They are not animals. They are human beings. They deserve dignity and respect. They shouldn’t see in our eyes unease or cruelty. Seeing someone being treated like that should elicit an emotional response from us. A friendly gesture and a smile may be all we can offer, but it can go a long way towards helping someone like Merrick feel their worth to the world. There are always going to be people like Jim who mock and try to profit off of the miseries of others. This film teaches us that more value can be found by not going down that path. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Jonathan Sanger

Best Director: David Lynch

Best Actor: John Hurt

Best Adapted Screenplay: David Lynch, Christopher De Vore, and Eric Bergren

Best Art Direction: Stuart Craig, Robert Cartwright, and Hugh Scaife

Best Costume Design: Patricia Norris

Best Film Editing: Anne V. Coates

Best Original Score: John Morris

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Release Date: October 10, 1980

Running Time: 123 Minutes

Rated PG

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, Freddie Jones, John Gielgud, and Wendy Hiller

Directed by: David Lynch