The Elephant Man EssayEssay Preview: The Elephant Man EssayReport this essayThe film The Elephant Man by David Lynch is a heart-warming film that highlights the life of John Merrick better known as the elephant man from the streets of Victorian England. Like many films this movie has received numerous reviews both good and bad. Chris Loar is an example of a man who is a true admirer of the film. On the other hand Roger Ebert had nothing good to say about the film. I personally feel that the film was very well developed. Both Ebert and Loar had strong opinions about the film and voiced them in their reviews.
Roger Ebert felt the film left him with a bad taste in his mouth. He felt that the film was “pure sentimentalism” and that the film “glossed over” John Merrick’s real achievements. He discussed the performance and plot many times throughout his review. He felt the performances in the movie were adequate and as best as could be expected through all the makeup for John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins did well. As far as the plot goes Ebert thought it was just about the worst thing in the world. He commented on it several times throughout his review. In his opinion, the plot was far from accurate, the film attempted to make Merrick courageous, and he felt the beginning was “inexcusable” and the end was “equally idiotic”. The one thing Ebert seemed to disapprove of more was his idea of the argument of the film. He felt that the argument was that John Merrick was courageous. He completely disagreed with this and felt that true courage is a “man who chooses to face hardship for a good purpose” whereas he saw Merrick as the other kind of courageous, “a man who is simply doing the best he can under the circumstances”. Above all it was clear that Ebert is not a fan of the film.
On the other hand Chris Loar is a man who has nothing but wonderful things to say about the movie. He felt that it was a wonderful movie that “jettisons all of the sentimentality that might well have burdened a film about the travails of John Merrick”. He also discusses the performance and loves the “first-rate work” done by both Hurt and Hopkins. He admires the way Hurt could “blend self-hatred and pride” at the same time as show his disability and time everything to project the true John Merrick. He also applauses Hopkins as he is “nicely modulated” as the doctor that has no clue, morally, as to what it is he is doing. Another thing discussed in his review is the plot. He loved the plot and felt
‚Avengers: Age of Ultron is a phenomenal film. The director John Joss Whedon manages to pull off a perfectly decent movie, and he still manages to make you love the characters with equal passion, emotion, drama, and depth of feeling. This is a pretty fantastic tale and I hope that he keeps his high standards as a director. The problem is that we’re left with an uneven ending and at times the end’s only worthwhile when we’ve seen a lot of things which, frankly, are bad. He could have easily stopped the movie after 15 minutes if the dialogue and narrative had stuck with the main story. We’re left with an episode which takes us down a dark and strange path which would most likely cause some viewers to be angry with the actors, but it isn’t a major problem, it’s merely a complaint that the writer and director, Mark Wahlberg, was far outside the rules that you have a right to expect in a horror anime, even if this was a good anime for a little while. There will be many films in the show that make you question it’s moral compass and that’s fine but not the biggest issues in this show, the biggest issues of the show, are the characters and ultimately the setting. (The reason Whedon chose not to shoot in this setting I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on as I see it is because people can and do create these things, I mean to suggest that it’s not all bad, there’ll be a lot worse where such a place is located).
‚After all this, and the fact that the people behind the show really did make it look so much better if we see it live, this movie needs to be on the screen in order to even gain recognition. I’m sure that if I knew this was coming with the box set I would have seen it in theaters but it looks like it just won’t happen. We will find out before the end.
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