The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, October 10, 1980 Page: 21 of 24
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Film
Believe it or not: Elephant Man is the year's best film
The Elephant Man
Directed by David Lynch
Ripley himself didn't spot the
potential of the true life case of
sideshow freak John Merrick,
"The Elephant Man", as one of the
most powerful "fact is stranger
than fiction" accounts around. He
only devoted a page to him in
Believe It Or Not.
In recent years, Merrick's story
has received more and more
attention. Ashley Montagu's The
Elephant Man: A Case Study in*
Human Dignity reintroduced
Merrick to the limelight in 1923,
and his plight has grown more
popular and meaningful ever since.
Numerous collections of "freak"
biographies have included the
Elephant Man. And last year,
Bernard Pomerance dramatized
Merrick's saga in a Tony-
winning play that is now riding its
popular crest with David Bowie in
the title role.
Now it's made it to the big
screen: David Lynch (creator of
Eraserhead) has adapted Merrick's
biography in one of the most
cogent films I've ever seen.
The producers of the Broadway
play had been planning a film
version for some time before
Paramount released Lynch's film
to beat them to the punch. So, true
to form, the Broadway gang filed
suit to prohibit Paramount from
using "their" title. In the end, they
could only win the disclaimer you
Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) and sideshow owiyr (Freddie Jones)
see on all the advertisements for
the show: "This film has been
based upon the true life story of
John Merrick. . . and not upon the
Broadway play of the same title or
any other fictional account."
Biographies of the deceased, said
the judges, are in the public
domain, whether you use the same
title or not.
Of course, that disclaimer about
"true life" is not meant to imply
that Lynch didn't use some artistic
license in his rendering, but it isn't
the same as the play in its depiction
— one might even say exploitation
— of the Elephant Man's plight.
Whether or not one questions
Paramount's timely use (or
usurpation) of Merrick's story, or
even the very idea of using his
misfortune in a commercial film,
Dr. Treves begins his detailed examination of John Merrick's (John Hurt)
incurable affliction that has condemned him to a life as a sideshow freak.
Lynch's work is remarkably
gripping. It is reassuring that the
Elephant Man's experience has
been exploited so sensitively by
David Lynch.
♦ * *
The tribulations of John
Merrick originally came into the
public eye when he was discovered
by a London surgeon, Sir
Frederick Treves, in 1884. At the
time, Merrick was on display in
carnival sideshows as "The
Elephant Man", touring England
in the most squalid of
circumstances and invariably
being shut down as an immoral
and indecent display.
Treves, a lecturer in anatomy,
was fascinated by Merrick, and
after examining him and
immortalizing him in a medical
paper, the good doctor gave him a
permanent home in the London
hospital. Merrick's condition was
hopelessly incurable, so Treves
contented himself with giving him
a comfortable "home" and treating
his troubled mind.
Through the doctor's efforts to
"normalize" Merrick's interaction
with society, the Elephant Man
soon became the toast of London.
He grew to become a social
phenomenon in all the best circles,
a favorite, eventually, of Queen
Victoria herself.
Records
Music Police want Hoffman and the Rabble
MARK HOFFMAN Am m RABBLE
Leps and Other New Words
Mark Hoffman and the Rabble
M-80 Records
The Federal Music Police want
to arrest Mark Hoffman's ass.
Sources in Washington revealed
that the FMP finds Hoffman's
inane lyrics ,®pd unimaginable
music "twhich, apprently, is
composed under heavy doses of
California sand — great for
beaches, but stupid to snort)
offensive to even the seasoned
veterans that have dealt with disco
and backyard heavy metal. The
FMP plans to remove lead singer
Hoffman's lips with a bulldozer.
Rating/5
—Steve Bailey
Shadows and Light
Joni Mitchell
Asylum Records
On Shadows and Light, Joni
Mitchell finds her way back to a
creative plateau that had been
recently absent. Playing with a
band more synchronous to her
music than ever before, Mitchell
expands her own jazz identity,
escaping the earlier influence of
Tom Scott.
Mitchell released a previous live
production, Miles of Aisles, which
was a good record itself. The
difference between these two
efforts, however, is remarkable.
Shadows and Light easily
surpasses the other on the basis of
musicianship, emotional
performance and overall sound
quality. The addition of Pat
Metheny on guitar and Michael
Brecker on saxophone are a
definite plus. Mitchell's unusual
musical control shows up in the
album's near-complete expression
of her individual artistry.
Shadows and Light contains a
vast array of Mitchell favorites.
Freestyle jazz melodies accented
by delicate rock rhythms make up
the majority. The most enjoyable
pieces include "In France They
Kiss on Main Street", "Edith and
the Kingpin" and "Furry Sings the
Blues."
see Bowie, page 6
Women's. Pavilion
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John Merrick's meteoric rise to
popularity is certainly remarkable
when one considers Treves'
statement that "nervous persons
and Women fly when they see him."
Lynch, like Pomerance before
him, has realized the comic
potential in those obviously
strained encounters between polite
Victorian society and the
grotesque Elephant Man.
Likewise, both the film and the
movie expose the tragedy of those
societal attentions: Merrick was
always hopelessly isolated from his
fellow human beings — he lived
and died a curiosity. Whether in a
low-life sideshow or an upper-
crust tea party, John Merrick
never found the understanding
that every human needs; he was
inevitably greeted with either open
horror, or at best, awkward
compassion. The acceptance and
understanding of love were as alien
bridges — and, to a degree, equates
— those separate realities.
Lynch embodies the "larger than
life" tensions of Merrick's
experience in the form of a black-
and-white melodrama, and that
seems to make the story all the
more convincing - his
expressionism is really suited to
the form. Scenes like the mobbing
of Merrick in the London train
station virtually suspend the
viewer in the panic of the moment.
But Lynch takes his interpre-
tation one step further. The
opening sequence of the film is all
of surreal, a dream-like montage
that reappears as the Elephant
Man's obsessive nightmare.
Striking and disorienting, these
dream sequences are the most
intriguing of the film, and they're
also the most original. That
technique alone adds a whole new
dimension to our understanding of
Traves shows the Elephant Man to the London Psychological Society.
to the Elephant Man as to the beast
for which he was named.
John Merrick's
existence.
t r a u m a 11 c
To accomplish the enormous
impact of his work, David Lynch
uses the medium of film to create
the visual realism that can never be
realized on stage. Merrick (played
by John Hurt) is presented in
monstrous make-up that very
nearly duplicates the photographic
image of the original Elephant
Man. Victorian England, in its
divided sordidness and opulence,
is recreated effectively in grimy,
mechanized sweatshops and lavish
sitting rooms. As the camera
follows Merrick from one world to
the other, the viewer can only
marvel at the "perverse and
degraded version of man" that
The film version of The
Elephant Man is by no means the
definitive account of Merrick's life,
but this handling is so exciting and
fresh that I rank it as a "must see".
The cast is top-flight (including
Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins
and John Gielgud), and Lynch
manages quite successfully to be
both playful and forceful in his
direction.
Ripley may not have realized the
artistic potential in a dramati-
zation of John Merrick's
experience, but David Lynch has
— you can believe that.
—John R. Heaner
I
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The Rice Thresher, October 16, 1980, section 2, page 5
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Dees, Richard. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, October 10, 1980, newspaper, October 10, 1980; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245450/m1/21/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.