{"id":722,"date":"2016-07-02T12:41:27","date_gmt":"2016-07-02T12:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/?p=722"},"modified":"2017-01-23T08:46:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T08:46:44","slug":"david-lynch-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/07\/david-lynch-film.html","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: A David Lynch film"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Elephant Man<\/em>: This choice of film for director David Lynch was something of a departure from his debut Eraserhead two years earlier.<\/p>\n

Eraserhead was truly independent film-making, but The Elephant Man <\/em>(1980), set in Victorian England, was a mainstream drama.<\/p>\n

After The Elephant Man<\/em>, Lynch then directed Dune, a science fiction blockbuster that turned out an interesting misfire.<\/p>\n

His next was the well-received though controversial Blue Velvet. It was turning heads in 1986 as it dealt provocatively with the so-called underbelly of everyday existence.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s that word: existence. The Elephant Man<\/em> is existentialist, in part. That means life does not fit easy explanations. In fact, life may seem meaningless. That is a theme in Lynch’s films, including The Elephant Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Elephant Man\u2019 John Merrick has an extremely rare disfigurement. Then he is mistreated and displayed in a \u2018freak show\u2019!<\/p>\n

There are attempts at explaining his condition, but they seem futile. The attempts at explanations are incomplete, but sincere and sometimes clinical.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve left asking, why him and not me, but glad it is not yourself.<\/p>\n

Despite this, there is still a strong sense of compassion, rather than disillusionment with reality.<\/p>\n

John Merrick is given a better taste of life because of the compassion of a doctor. He is able to enjoy life because he is given the opportunity to.<\/p>\n

This makes John Merrick feel centered as a human being rather than an object of stigma and fun.<\/p>\n

I was first introduced to this film from a movie book. The movie struck me as unique because of the rare subject matter and it stood out among the other ones presented.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt it\u2019s a subject worth dealing with. The subject deals with objectifying a disfigured body. But it shows ways of showing kindness and compassion, rather than being afraid of this \u2018monstrosity\u2019 and subjecting a person to disturbing acts of unkindness.<\/p>\n

All the same, this film is gut-wrenching to follow through to the end. It is cold, clinical and disturbing to follow though compassionate. It may make you a bit edgy. It is like being immersed in an atmosphere of something horrible, but with moments of relief.<\/p>\n

Just enduring what this man had to go through is too much to bear at times, although I recommend this film. It\u2019s one that can\u2019t be dismissed.<\/p>\n

Says Merrick: \u201cI am not an animal! I am a human being!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Notes<\/strong>: In black and white, Starring: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, Freddie Jones, Director: David Lynch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Elephant Man: This choice of film for director David Lynch was something of a departure from his debut Eraserhead two years earlier. Eraserhead was truly independent film-making, but The Elephant Man (1980), set in Victorian England, was a mainstream drama. After The Elephant Man, Lynch then directed Dune, a science fiction blockbuster that turned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":602,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,322],"tags":[61,156,33,46,8,10,9,154,40,16,7,155],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dramas","category-justice-fairness","tag-classics","tag-david-lynch-movies","tag-drama","tag-existentialism","tag-film","tag-film-commentaries","tag-film-reviews","tag-john-merrick","tag-justice","tag-life","tag-movies","tag-the-elephant-man"],"yoast_head":"\nFlashback: A David Lynch film - Life at the Movies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For a film of compassion, The Elephant Man (1980) is still disturbing.Why does \u2018Elephant Man\u2019 John Merrick have an extremely rare disfigurement?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/07\/david-lynch-film.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flashback: A David Lynch film - Life at the Movies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For a film of compassion, The Elephant Man (1980) is still disturbing.Why does \u2018Elephant Man\u2019 John Merrick have an extremely rare disfigurement?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/07\/david-lynch-film.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Life at the Movies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-02T12:41:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-23T08:46:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"pveugelaers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@peteswriting\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Flashback: A David Lynch film - Life at the Movies","description":"For a film of compassion, The Elephant Man (1980) is still disturbing.Why does \u2018Elephant Man\u2019 John Merrick have an extremely rare disfigurement?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/07\/david-lynch-film.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Flashback: A David Lynch film - Life at the Movies","og_description":"For a film of compassion, The Elephant Man (1980) is still disturbing.Why does \u2018Elephant Man\u2019 John Merrick have an extremely rare disfigurement?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/07\/david-lynch-film.html","og_site_name":"Life at the Movies","article_published_time":"2016-07-02T12:41:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-23T08:46:44+00:00","author":"pveugelaers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@peteswriting","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/07\/david-lynch-film.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/07\/david-lynch-film.html","name":"Flashback: A David Lynch film - Life at the Movies","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-07-02T12:41:27+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-23T08:46:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/#\/schema\/person\/130d91946aab7658f3eb78312dec28a9"},"description":"For a film of compassion, The Elephant Man (1980) is still disturbing.Why does \u2018Elephant Man\u2019 John Merrick have an extremely rare disfigurement?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/07\/david-lynch-film.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/07\/david-lynch-film.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/07\/david-lynch-film.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Flashback: A David Lynch film"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/","name":"Life at the Movies","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Peter Veugelaers","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/#\/schema\/person\/130d91946aab7658f3eb78312dec28a9","name":"pveugelaers","description":"I\u2019m a blogger, and writer for faith-based, mainstream, and alternative publications, in the form of articles, inspiration, and film reviews and commentaries. I enjoy catching up with sport, listening to music, buying a coffee, and keeping an eye on current events. First \u2018awesome\u2019 movie moment was Raiders of the Lost Ark. Amadeus, first \u2018serious\u2019 film. A 3 star rating out of 5 stars is above average from me.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.peteswriting.wordpress.com","https:\/\/x.com\/peteswriting"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/author\/pveugelaers"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/602"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1586,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions\/1586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}