10 Movie Biopics That Lied To Your Face

Directed by one of the strangest artists in cinema, it’s no surprise that 1980’s Joseph Merrick biopic The Elephant Man plays fast and loose with the truth. Eraserhead director David Lynch may have seemed like an odd choice, but he proves more than up to the challenge of bringing this moving tale to life.

Telling the tragic story of the eponymous Victorian era circus performer who was born with an extremely rare disorder that gave him a distinct and unusual countenance, the film features one of veteran John Hurt’s finest performances.

However, it’s inaccurate in a way few viewers would guess, with this Mel Brooks-produced movie exaggerating how little agency Merrick had in his life. The film’s heart-breaking melodrama is adapted from a widely read biography of its subject and it hews close to the book’s details.

However the book omits the fact that Merrick was his well-spoken, articulate self with his employer, negotiating a solid pay rate, and that he saved a significant sum from performing in side shows, an employment which he actually undertook by choice to earn money rather than under duress. This is not to dismiss Merrick’s genuine struggles and the poverty pervading his home country at the time, but to note that he was a self-sufficient and incredibly impressive figure.