for it's frighteningly accurate depiction of the sheep-like scum that most humans are today. Anyone else who just couldn't help but get incredibly enraged at the way some of the people were treating the poor guy? The fact that such humans actually exist in real life just makes me feel sick and depressed,
shareHi Pinnacle - I admit that aspect of the film really made me angry and sad too, but at the same time other characters in the film (I'm specifically thinking of Ms Kendle) showed such compassion and tenderness towards John Merrick that it made me extremely happy that people can be capable of such kindness.
sharei remember michael elphick - the night porter, was in a tv show in the 80's about a private detective, i absolutely loved it.
i finally saw the elephant man in about 1989 and after i watched it i hated michael elphick until the day he died based solely on his characters actions in the film.
"Hey, don't point your fokken tentacles at me"-Wikus Van De Merwe - District 9
Mike Elphick is also in Withnail + I, starring as Jake the poacher...
"A film is-or should be-more like music than like fiction..." Stanley Kubrick
I know what you mean, I sometimes think that there are two species running around this ball of rock and iron both claiming to be human beings. At least we recognize it for what it is.
Peace.
Very well said. Some people have empathy. Others do not. I worry about how many "others" there are.
shareRemember guys if you'd been born and raised in that time period you probably would have viewed the elephant man as a freak. its the same way people were racially divided decades ago but now almost everyone is for racial equality. people back then are the same as us, its just that we were raised in less ignorant times
shareYou have to remember when and where the film is set. Children in London were used more or less as slaves around that period. London was a cruel unforgiving place. That said there is also kindness and compassion in the film.
There are cruel spiteful people in this world. Its just one of those things unfortunately. Don't get depressed about it.
The first time I watched this film, I spent the entire movie with silent tears falling down my face because I couldn't handle how horribly the elephant man was treated by everybody. I also knew nothing about the true story of Joseph Merrick and I was convinced the movie was going to end with a lynch mob forming and brutally killing him. I was quite sure that's what was going to happen when he is kidnapped by Bytes and then sent to another place by the other circus people. Instead, he is returned to Treves and in one of the most monumentally moving scenes I have ever witnessed, Treves comes running up to him and hugs him. He is so happy to have his friend back. That moment is so powerful to me that I tear up a little just thinking about it.
Upon second viewing, I saw this as a much happier movie, because I knew that Merrick died with some dignity and had some good friends. It's still hard to watch the first half of the movie or the horrible part where all those people torture him, but the movie itself is a lot easier to take knowing that it's about a mistreated man who is finally allowed some respect and some dignity. The kindness of people like Treves and Ms. Kendle, to me, is more powerful than the evil of the other characters.
"Mr. Bond, you defy all my attempts to plan an amusing death for you."
[deleted]
To Alex_Mcceachern, My friend, I gracefully disagree. You pegged it right for connecting this movie to how slave holders kept other human beings in shackles (for 400 years?!!?) and allowing themselves to passively believe that these fellow human beings were less than human to justify their financial (and sexual!!!) exploitation.
But if you think that this horrible, evil thinking has subsided today, listen to your fellowman during: 1) American national elections, 2) When a cop kills a black person (usually a child) i.e. Ferguson MO, or even when...
3) a historical movie replaces a person of color of history with a contemporary caucasian actor or from an artistic source that had a person of color (i.e. fill in the blank: Exodus, gods and kings/Noah/Katniss in the Hunger Games *beep* movie) johnny depp as tonto etc. the list is too long).
You and I and well meaning decent people of the world are for racial equality but there are an uncomfortable amount of people, just like those depicted in this film, who think, behave and act shamefully toward others they "perceive" as to be different from them. But unlike the dignified, gentle but hideous elephant man, black people (and people of color) are beautiful!
You gotta focus on the positive in life, otherwise you're screwed. The glass is half full.
shareI literally squirmed in my seat during the scene where the Porter takes those people into see him, it was disgusting the way they treated him like that.
shareYes. I also was very disturbed when I watched this movie for first time. Even when I watch it again I feel sad and angry at the same time. Same with the movie Green Mile , probably I will never re-watch Green Mile again, is one of the heaviest movies that I've watched. Elephant Man is great impact to me too. One of the best scene in the cinema (at least for me) is the end of the movie (you should watch it to understand) the music of Samuel Barber, and the scenes are amazing and very very sad and in the same time relived.
I am agree with the OP , it has too many monsters in this world masked as people. This is so disturbing. I am glad that still have some great people that understand that and avoid being "monsters". Elephant Man shows both light and dark side of the humans. Great movie.
The human race is a *beep* stain on this earth. I'm disgusted by how many genuinly evil *beep* there are in this world. I absolutely hate that humans do the things they do, that they are the same spieces I am. People raping and torturing others for YEARS on end, burning and maiming them, it's absolutely disgusting and heart wrenching. I have a very heard time seeing the positive, I know there are alot of good people, maybe even the majority but it's the evil ones that makes the biggest impact on this world. I just wish everyone would be born with empathy for all life.
shareI understand how you feel, christofferj16... sometimes the injustice is too much to bear. I remember seeing the movie "Taken" and feeling the same way, thinking about the sex slave trade. People like to say "How can God let bad things happen," but it is the free will of uncaring men and women who create those bad things. The bigger mystery is how does God put up with humans, and why did Jesus bother giving up his life for us. I guess because of always having hope for people, and for the good things that people do for each other. We have to try to be thankful for what we have, and to share what we can with each other. I wish people would stop being so critical of each other and try to help one another instead.
shareThis movie is incredibly sad to me as well. I do think that there are still people of the low caliber that are seen in this movie, but it is not socially acceptable now to make fun of people with physical deformities, so we don't see it as much. It is even instilled in the people who would have been part of the nasty mob in this movie had they lived in that time, so they actually behave like human beings the majority of the time.
One example that still makes me sad is the way that people who are mentally ill are treated. I have a friend who suffered from depression and OCD, and people who under normal circumstances were the friendliest and most polite people you would ever meet treated her like absolute dirt for it. She had sorority sisters who made a game of tormenting her and spread rumors about her around campus, a roommate who actually called her a horrible person and attacked her moral character multiple times, neighbors who screamed at her and called her psychotic, and landlords who threatened and blackmailed her. Some of these people actually KNEW she had a mental illness and STILL treated her like that, disgustingly. NO ONE nowadays would treat a cancer patient like that, but it's considered "okay" to treat a person with a mental illness like they're not even a human being. She almost committed suicide twice because of the way people were treating her. She did eventually recover, but only because she got the hell away from those people and surrounded herself with people who were supportive and loving and encouraged her in her recovery rather than treating her like a sideshow freak.
Funny thing is, this girl is brilliant and talented in so many different ways. I'm betting infinitely more so than any of the people who treated her like dirt and likely believed they were better than she was. She just happened to be sick, and it was exacerbated by a bunch of ignorant lowlifes.
I just watched the train station scene, where that mob full of *beep* corners him and he cries out "I AM NOT AN ANIMAL! I AM A HUMAN BEING!" Just absolutely heartwrenching, and it DISGUSTS me that human beings have the capacity to be so cruel. I doubt that someone with that sort of physical condition would be treated like that nowadays (the worst that people would do is point and whisper), but we can still see the sickening lack of humanity in the same sorts of people today when we look at how the mentally ill are treated and made fun of.
RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH! - Eric Cartman
Of course the film pissed you off, the one-dimensional *beep* who treated Merrick like crap were there solely to piss off audience members and feel sympathy for Merrick. I'm more pissed off with how one note this film was.
share[deleted]
I wanted to beat the guy who "throws a party" at Merrick's "home" so badly, that I nearly crushed my remote control. Damn...
shareThere is a great deal of fiction in the movie, especially with regard to the showman. The real Merrick's London showman, Tom Norman, was not a brutal drunk like the fictional "Bytes." Norman was a well-respected showman and founder of a temperance society. He and Joseph Merrick were friends and business partners. Norman paid all of Merrick's expenses and split their earnings fifty-fifty. In a few weeks, Joseph saved up fifty pounds, as much as a typical working family made in a whole year. Ever since Treves wrote his memoirs with the character of the cruel showman, the Norman family has been appalled and embarked on a campaign to clear Tom Norman's good name.
Also, Merrick was never abducted from the hospital, as depicted in the film. The despicable night watchman never existed either. Merrick had a peaceful and generally uneventful, if short, life at the hospital.