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| Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, John Gielgud,
Wendy Hiller, Freddie Jones, Anne Bancroft |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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John
Merrick (John Hurt): I am not an animal! I am a human being! I am
a man!
A
doctor in Victorian England takes up the care for a grossly deformed
man.
 The
fact that America's cinematic wild card David Lynch directed The
Elephant Man always seems to come as a rather surprising afterthought
to most people. When viewed alongside such titles as Eraserhead,
Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Lost Highway, this
sensitive examination of a gentle soul trapped in a deformed body does
seem like a bit of an anomaly. But close examination of Lynch's regular
themes - both visual and narrative - reveal The Elephant Man
as a remarkable film that does fit right in with the director's other
work.
What is most remarkable about the movie is that it never shirks back
from the gritty and sometimes gruesome details of its story and historic
setting. Instead of the usual rich and colorful period film design,
Freddie Francis's gorgeous black-and-white widescreen cinematography
makes nineteenth-century London a sometimes frighteningly realistic
place. From the filthy, cluttered back alleys to the gas-lit hospital,
The Elephant Man presents by far the most impressive cinematic
interpretation of this remarkable age. Supported by the near-constant
roar of industrial machinery, this vision is very much akin to the nightmare
world of Eraserhead, though the real-life fable presented here
is a much more accessible dream vision of Lynch's. |
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Available
for Region 1 from Paramount with a director-approved transfer and sound
design, as well as several good extras [see separate
review]. At the director's insistence, the DVD has no chapter stops.
A Region 2 release is available in the UK from the Director's Chair
series, with a lesser soundtrack, mediocre transfer and fewer extras
(but with chapter stops). An identical release is distributed in The
Netherlands by RCV, which served as a basis for this review.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx.
2.35:1. The densely textured black-and-white cinematography has made
for a problematic transfer, in which many shots are unstable and jittery.
This is most noticeable in the many shots of rain-soaked cobblestones,
but it's a problem that haunts the transfer throughout the presentation.
Black levels are solid however and the source print is in excellent
condition, but the instability of the transfer makes for a disappointing
presentation.
The two-track stereo soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 without
any Surround or ProLogic channels matrixed in. But even without the
rear activity or .1 LFE enhancement, the simple stereo sound design
remains quite powerful and detailed, and is much more satisfactory than
one would expect.
The
fairly limited extras include a photo gallery that consists of
around twenty production stills and the original theatrical trailer. The
main menu screen has an exquisitely animated background incorporating
the elephant herd dream sequence and other sequences from the film, accompanied
by music from the score.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Elephant Man.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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