The Elephant Man (1980) on Netflix
Surgeon Frederick Treves finds John Merrick shown as a freak in Mr. Bytes' East End sideshow. He brings the disfigured man to the hospital, where the governor objects to keeping him.
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- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
A London circus sideshow run by Mr. Bytes displays a figure billed as the Elephant Man. He is John Merrick, twenty-one, whose skull and right shoulder are severely deformed; Bytes keeps his head hooded between shows. The surgeon Frederick Treves pays Bytes to bring Merrick to the London Hospital for examination, then presents him to his colleagues. The matron, Mrs. Mothershead, cares for him because the other nurses are afraid. Mr. Carr Gomm, the hospital's governor, objects to housing a man the hospital cannot cure. Treves urges Merrick to speak and discovers that he is articulate, well read, and able to recite the 23rd Psalm, his favorite.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Elephant Man (1980)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Industry protest over the film's Oscar snub for its make-up effects led the Academy to create a dedicated Best Makeup category the following year, with An American Werewolf in London becoming its first-ever winner.
- Christopher Tucker's Merrick make-up was molded from direct casts of the real Joseph Merrick's body kept at the Royal London Hospital's museum; it took seven to eight hours to apply, and John Hurt found the ordeal so grueling that he told his girlfriend, "I think they have finally managed to make me hate acting."
- Dustin Hoffman wanted to play John Merrick, but producer Jonathan Sanger turned him down, fearing viewers would always see Hoffman rather than the character; director David Lynch first considered his Eraserhead friend Jack Nance before casting John Hurt after seeing him in The Naked Civil Servant.
SPOILER
Lynch used Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings to score Merrick's death at the film's end, over the objection of composer John Morris, who warned that the piece would be reused so often in other films it would eventually cheapen the scene.- John Hurt took the role of Merrick during a lull in a different production: he was stuck waiting on the notoriously behind-schedule Heaven's Gate, filmed The Elephant Man in the gap, and then went back to finish Heaven's Gate.
- Bernard Pomerance's stage play The Elephant Man had a successful Broadway run in 1979 and was not used as a source for the film. The producers of the play sued Brooks over the use of the title, and he counter-sued, claiming it was public property.
