The Elephant Man 1980

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: This is a tale of redemption and transcendence, of the hunchback of London Hospital, of the noble phantom who wanted to go to the opera, of Beauty and the Beast. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: What we eventually see underneath this shell is not 'the study in dignity' that Ashley Montagu wrote about, but something far more poignant, a study in genteelness that somehow suppressed all rage. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: The picture itself is a strange trade-off between Lynch's personal themes -- the night world of obscure, disturbing sexual obsessions -- and the requirements of a middlebrow message movie. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Lynch's powerful depiction of Merrick (played by John Hurt) moves a viewer from revulsion and fear to empathy and tenderness. That's the very movement of the story itself. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I kept asking myself what the film was really trying to say about the human condition as reflected by John Merrick, and I kept drawing blanks. Read more

Tom Milne, Time Out: A marvellous movie, shot in stunning black-and-white by Freddie Francis. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Director David Lynch has created an eerily compelling atmosphere in recounting a hideously deformed man's perilous life in Victorian England. Read more