Every David Lynch Film Ranked From Worst To Best
7. The Elephant Man
Almost oppressively bleak, the monochromatic cinematography of The Elephant Man (1980) mirrors the unbearable plight of its protagonist John Merrick.
Lynch uses black and white not merely as the mandated, smoky aesthetic of Victorian London, but to convey also the grimy morality surrounding the perception of the subject, one that unites the classes in their morbid curiosity - a theme of nihilism that unites also this linear, classic, Academy Award-beloved work with the terrifying, surreal fringes of Lynch's wider filmography.
Conveying the subject matter with the requisite sensitivity, it is a film designed for a singular viewing, in that it is relentlessly upsetting and utterly iconic, from the indelible prosthetics shaped around the head of marvellous lead John Hurt to the immortal line of dialogue "I am not an animal! I am a human bearing" - the pathos derived from which borders on the agonising. In a meta sense, too, the thought of revisiting the film evokes within the audience a self-reflexive shudder. The devastating denouement, in which Merrick dies the instant he lives what even he perceives as a normal life, is a well-earned, beautifully-filmed tearjerker devoid of ironic cynicism.
It is a great film, but not necessarily a great David Lynch film.