Poem
written by John Merrick (includes actual photo):Click
Here
Review:The
Elephant Man, in my opinion, is one of the greatest motion pictures ever made.
I saw the film back in the early eighties as a young child, and I can honestly
still recall the experience to this day. The bizarre and eccentric director, David
Lynch (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks), created a dark and bleak experience like few other films
have. John Hurt's (1984, Contact, Midnight Express) acting is absolutely fascinating.
You see Merricks personality and hope emerge from underneath the multiple layers
of deformed costume. Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the
Lambs, Shadowlands, Remains of the
Day, Chaplin) is excellent as always, capturing
the young doctors compassion and confusion. The music in the film is a haunting
mix of carnival music and machinery. In the hands of another director, shot in
color perhaps, this movie could have been entirely different & much worse,
but fortunately Lynch gives us a complicated study on voyeurism and ethics in
this disturbing masterpiece that haunts those it touches. Review by-Aaron Caldwell
