Word: elephantitis
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A more pitiful existence than that lived by John Merrick, the Elephant Man, could not be imagined. Born with a deteriorating disease that infected his body with gruesome deformities, he was treated by Victorian England first as a freak show amusement and then as a society oddity. His story is...
If ever a movie begged to be loved, this is it; it's so shamelessly manipulative, we feel guilty for rejecting it, but The Elephant Man is so simplistic and disjointed, we're left with no other choice.
However, what truly keeps The Elephant Man impoverished is its refusal to create flesh and blood characters. People are either saints or devils, no one has a duplicitious thought or action. As Victorian England was one of the most "layered" of all societies, this simply renders the story banal.
It's a shame too, because the cast assembled for this film is quite remarkable. Anthony Hopkins is more than capable of showing a complex man at work. Dr. Treves, it shouldn't be forgotten, made his name in English society thanks to his "discovery" of the Elephant Man. Why...
The film also leaves many questions unnecessarily unanswered. How did Merrick learn to read? What happened to Merrick's mother? Why is his spine deformed? The answers (not given in the movie): he was taught to read in the workhouse where his mother sent him, age 3, because she couldn...