A film that prompted many to wonder "who I am." Very few paintings can be placed next to him in this regard. The Elephant Man didn’t make me ask who I am. It seems that people are willing to ask themselves. The most amazing and valuable thing is that the basis of real life. The biography of Joseph Merick is reliably shown. It does not make sense to state that he was not subjected to such humiliations and abuses during this or that period of his life. It is clear that both of them fell to his lot.
There are many important topics in cinema that are masterfully touched upon. Joseph Merrick was born the most ordinary boy in Victorian England. So he knew what it meant to be normal. He had to find out the opposite. At the age of five, Merick began to develop a serious disease that caused progressive deformity. You can imagine the desperation and pain of parents who saw what was happening to their child. Not a rare story in all generations. Having become disabled due to his illness, Merik could survive participating in freak shows at fairs, but eventually ended up in the hospital, where he lived his last years and even became a kind of celebrity, a living example of unhappy people who need help and sympathy.
One of the main themes of the film is the consciousness of Merrick himself. How does he see himself? He knows that those around him are disgusted and fearful when they look at him. He wears a bag on his head to hide his head. I mean, Merrick knows for sure he's disgusting to people, and he needs to fence himself off from them. The real Merrick has seen hundreds of shocked faces at fairs in his life. He knew those who wanted to help him. He tried to adapt to his condition as much as possible and continue to live. Not only that, Merrick turned out to be talented. He probably wrote his autobiography with some help. The models created by him are still stored.
Another topic is how Merika is seen by other people. For some, it is an object of cruel entertainment. Others see him as someone who has compassion for them. Back in the first half of the 19th century, the public was shown ugliness for entertainment, including the famous Chang and Eng, who were known by their circus name "Siamese twins." Public consciousness in the Victorian era rapidly shifted toward greater humanity. In the second half of the century, freak shows were banned. Conditions for mentally ill persons have improved significantly. For example, such a dubious clinical method as beating patients has ceased to be used. Schools were opened for the blind and deaf. Merick simultaneously received support from English society and encouraged it to change. Had he been born a century earlier, he would have died early in the animal kingdom.
But who was Merick to London's high society? Perhaps it was interested in the “elephant man” for the same purpose: to look at ugliness in a courteous manner. Interest was present, but still in the cinema and in life people tried to treat Meric humanly. That's exactly what he needed. The film is staged so well that in some scenes the ugliness of the hero begins to seem ordinary. The emphasis shifts to character dialogue rather than a mutilated head.
Merik died at 27. Perhaps the most amazing thing about his short life is how much he gave to people. He is remembered, and he still awakens compassion and understanding of humanity. His skeleton can be seen in a museum and try to imagine what it's like to live with such a disease. Merik is dead and the elephant man lives on the bright side of humanity. And a great movie contributes to that.
p.s. The film has a somewhat open ending. Merik gets even closer to other people, which was his dream. In life, it killed him, but from the movies it is not clear.
