History Film / TheElephantMan

** Dr Frederick Treves is seen at the start of film entering a freak show and is intrigued by Bytes’s Elephant Man and decides to have a look after getting information from a messenger boy where he is located. Had Treves not entered the freak show or went to Bytes’s lair he may never have met John Merrick and the rest of the film wouldn’t have had happened.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: After Merrick collapses during Bytes’s latest freak show in Belgium, Bytes in a drunken rage punishes Merrick by leaving him to rot in a cage next to some baboons after accepting he is no longer any use to him.

* TheAlcoholic: Bytes is continuously seen hitting the bottle and abuses Merrick in a drunken manner.

* BodyHorror: Sort of. Merrick's physical anomalies seem ever less-repellent as his kindly personality is revealed.

* CutHimselfShaving: When Treves is summoned to treat Merrick, Bytes claims that Merrick's injuries came from falling down. Treves sees Bytes's heavy walking stick, and is not fooled.

* TheFreakshow: Where Merrick is exhibited by Bytes.

* HeelRealization: Dr. Treves is shaken by the Head Nurse's observation that the arrangement he set up for John Merrick, which include receiving respectable callers, means he is still being treated as a freak on display, albeit in a high class cushy style.

* PromotionToLoveInterest: Mrs. Kendall is treated as a love interest for John, in a very chaste sort of way. In real life, it's doubtful they ever met, and his autographed photo of her was actually delivered by her husband.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Carr Gomm, Treves' boss.

* TakeOurWordForIt: For the first chunk of the movie, we never get a good look at John. It helps build the suspense as we only see the reactions of others to poor Merrick's [[BodyHorror physical deformities]]. To make it even more effective, the film averts TrailersAlwaysSpoil- both the posters and the trailer only show Merrick with his head covered or in a position where you can't clearly see him. You have to watch the movie in full to find out what the main character actually looks like.

* LittlePeopleAreSurreal: Invoked but averted, with a pair of little people (one of whom is Creator/KennyBaker) working at the Belgian circus who help John escape. They're portrayed as very normal, good people. Lynch would later play this one [[Series/TwinPeaks famously]] [[Film/MulhollandDrive straight]], though.

** Had Bytes not physically abused Merrick when the latter returns from the hospital, Merrick wouldn’t had been back there with Treves as his friend, carer and tutor.

** Had Merrick not surprised both Treves and the chairman of the board Mr Car Gon by reciting the third psalm he may have been sent elsewhere.

** Jim the cruel night porter invites his friends for a fee to witness Merrick at the hospital as well as Bytes. Had Bytes not been invited he may never have got Merrick back for his freak shows.

** Had Merrick not been set free by the other freaks he may never have returned to the hospital in London and would had likely died in the cage.

* DrivenToSuicide: John sleeping in a normal human position instead of sleeping sitting up.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: Bytes accuses Treves of being just as exploitative of John. Treves is troubled by the fact that Bytes may have a point, however disgusted he may be by Bytes himself.

* PassedInTheirSleep: The title character has a large tumor [[BodyHorror that greatly disfigures his face]] and causes him to be [[HumansAreBastards mistreated by the public.]] When he finally decides to go to sleep like a normal person(laying down instead of upright,) he ends up [[TearJerker/TheElephantMan dislocating his neck as he sleeps and dying.]]

* DreamIntro: The film begins with a creepy, surreal vision of elephants striking down Merrick's mother and then hearing the wailing of a baby. It's very likely that this opening scene is Merrick dreaming the way he was conceived, basing it on Bytes' melodramatic presentation whenever he explains the origins of the Elephant Man during freak shows. The movie has more {{Dream Sequence}}s that showcase Lynch's signature MindScrew tones.

* DreamSequence: Provides the surreallism, since most of the film avoids the MindScrew Lynch is known for.

* BaldOfAwesome: Dr. Carr-Gome grows into this role as he becomes more supportive of John.

''The Elephant Man'' is a 1980 historical drama film directed by Creator/DavidLynch, adapted from a play itself [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory loosely based]] on the life of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Merrick Joseph Merrick]], a 19th-century Englishman born with severe bodily deformities and nicknamed "the Elephant Man". It is notable for being a routine choice for [[TearJerker one of the saddest films ever]], as well as one of the few Lynch films not steeped in MindScrew and SurrealHorror.

[[caption-width-right:310:''"I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I...AM...A MAN!"'']]

->'''Madge Kendal:''' Oh, Mr. Merrick.
You're not an elephant man at all.

->'''Madge Kendal:''' Why, Mr. Merrick, you're not an elephant man at all.
->'''John Merrick:''' Oh, no?
->'''Madge Kendal:''' Oh, no... no... you're a Romeo.

->'''Mrs. Kendel:''' Why, Mr. Merrick, you're not an elephant man at all.
->'''Merrick:''' Oh, no?
->'''Mrs. Kendel:''' Oh, no... no... you're a Romeo.

''The Elephant Man'' is a 1980 historical drama film directed by Creator/DavidLynch, adapted from a play itself [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory loosely based]] on the life of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Merrick Joseph Merrick]], a 19th-century Englishman born with severe bodily deformities and nicknamed "the Elephant Man". It is notable for being a routine choice for [[TearJerker one of the saddest films ever]], as well as one of few Lynch films not steeped in MindScrew and SurrealHorror.

* NotSoDifferent: Bytes accuses Treves of being just as exploitative of John. Treves is troubled by the fact that Bytes may have a point, however disgusted he may be by Bytes himself.

Music/MichaelJackson often cited it as his favorite movie.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Merrick dies. But he dies on the happiest day of his life, and dies doing what he wants to do: to sleep like he's normal.]] It does not count as a DownerEnding.

* CreatorCameo: David Lynch is in the mob chasing Merrick around a London train station.

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Merrick is disappointed when Treves admits that he can't cure him. And John eventually dies after deciding to lay down and sleep like a normal person.

''The Elephant Man'' is a 1980 drama film and the screen adaptation of a play itself [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory loosely based]] on the life of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Merrick Joseph Merrick]], a 19th-century Englishman born with severe bodily deformities and nicknamed "the Elephant Man".

Basically, [[TearJerker one of the saddest films ever]], and one of Creator/DavidLynch's few non-MindScrew SurrealHorror movies, depicting Merrick (here called John, and played by Creator/JohnHurt) and his struggle to leave an abusive circus sideshow, while meeting Dr. Frederick Treves (Creator/AnthonyHopkins), who takes him out of that place and gets him into the London Hospital, where he--being an educated and kind person but still with the outward appearance of a freak--becomes the focus of London's attention, raising the question: is Merrick just moving from one circus to another?

Produced by Creator/MelBrooks's Brooksfilms studio, and nominated for eight UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s (although it didn't win any), the film also stars Sir Creator/JohnGielgud, Dame Creator/WendyHiller, Creator/AnneBancroft, and Hannah Gordon. Creator/DonLaFontaine narrated the trailer, using lines he wrote himself, and called it his favorite of his numerous trailer works. Music/MichaelJackson often cited it as his favorite movie.

* EveryoneHasStandards: The onlookers in Belgium are very disgusted by Merrick's treatment.

* CircusOfFear: They are bad places, especially the second one after Merrick has been spirited to Belgium.

* BodyHorror: Sort of. Merrick's physical anomalies become ever less-repellent as his kindly personality is revealed.

* EveryoneHasStandards: The onlookers in Belgium were very disgusted by Merrick's treatment.
* TheFreakshow: Where Merrick was exhibited.

* LighterAndSofter: Played with in regards to the rest of Lynch's repertoire. There's no violent crime, murders, NightmareFuel, [[MindScrew general mindfuckery]] or swearing in ''The Elephant Man'', but it's also '''by far''' the [[TearJerker saddest]] film that Lynch has ever made, perhaps one of saddest ''ever'' made.

* PassedInTheirSleep: The title character has a large tumor on his face [[BodyHorror that greatly disfigured his face]] and causes him to be [[HumansAreBastards mistreated by the public.]] When he finally [[TemptingFate tries to go to sleep like a normal person]] (laying down instead of upright) he ends up [[TearJerker/TheElephantMan dislocating his neck as he sleeps and dying.]]

* SmarterThanYouLook: Merrick is initially assumed by Treves and the other hospital staff to be an imbecile only capable of understanding basic instructions; the slow revelation that he is a gentle, under-socalized man of normal intelligence comes as a shock. As Treves admits to Fox early on, part of him wanted to believe the assumption because he didn't want to imagine what it would feel like to [[AndIMustScream be cognizant but trapped in such a body]].

* LighterAndSofter: Played with in regards to the rest of Lynch's repertoire. There's no violent crime, murders, NightmareFuel, [[MindScrew general mindfuckery]] or swearing in ''The Elephant Man'', but it's also '''by far''' the [[TearJerker saddest]] film that Lynch has ever made, if not ''anyone's'' ever made.

This 1980 drama film is the VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory saga of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Merrick Joseph Merrick]], a 19th-century Englishman born with severe bodily deformities and nicknamed "the Elephant Man".

[[caption-width-right:310:''"I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I... AM... A... MAN!"'']]

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_elephant_man.jpg]]

This 1980 drama film is the VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory saga of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Merrick Joseph Merrick]], a 19th-century man born with severe bodily deformities nicknamed "the Elephant Man".