The Elephant Man

“A true story of courage and human dignity.”

John Merrick (John Hurt) wants only to be left alone, but he is shown for coins in a Victorian London side-show, his keeper's property. The surgeon Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) takes him into a hospital, expecting a case study, and finds a man of real intelligence and sensitivity. David Lynch shoots it in black and white, with the grit and industrial noise of the city pressing in on every room.