Review of The Elephant Man (1980)
David Lynch (director).
In Victorian England, a doctor finds an extremely deformed man at a freak show and demonstrates the man’s features to a lecture hall full of medical professionals. Pity leads the doctor to protect the physically repulsive man when his “owner” abuses him. A search begins for some trait that could motivate caring for the incurable, such as profound intelligence.
Mainstream philosophical drama. More conventional than most of Lynch’s work, though set in much the same sort of bleak industrial maze as Eraserhead (1977). The topics raised are interesting and well treated, with great finesse. A large part of the attraction, however, is the doctor, brilliantly played by Anthony Hopkins.
References here: Dune (1984).