Daytripper Jan 26, 2020 @Chumley: I love Roger Ebert. He's probably my favorite critic of all time. I watched both "Sneak Previews" and "At the Movies" every single week but didn't remember his review of this film. So I just looked it up on his website. And I have to say, he was way off the mark with this one. In fact, most of the comments on his review don't agree. I frequent his website often looking up various older movies and I haven't seen this many comments before. Here are a few.



"Roger totally missed the point of the movie. It's about having compassion for the less fortunate among us, NOT about Merrick being courageous."



"Exactly! The elephant man shows us how love can heal. It shows how noble one can be (Treves). It shows how some people will mock it and take it for vanity - likely off jealousy.vIt shows that every one of us has dignity and human life always has value. It shows that everyone needs to be loved, especially those who are the most unlovable. And it is also a movie about the borders of villiainy - for some characters, non-existent. For some - far moved, but existent. Think the bullying scenes. Finally, this movie is not about Merrick's courage, not even about Merrick really, Merrick is only a lens through which we observe how we can contribute to someone's life being heaven... or hell. Roger's review is a huge flop indeed."



"I am surprised at Mr. Ebert's apparent hostility to this film, and I agree that he may have missed the forest for the trees in his review. Treves' venal nature is in essence no different than that of Merrick's father: they both exploit Merrick's grotesque illness for their own personal gain while assuaging themselves that they are doing it all for his benefit. But in the end, Merrick remains nothing more nor less than The Elephant Man. I fail to see how that is sentimentality. and I also seem to remember that, at the start, Treves treats Merrick, he repairs his jaw and tries to relieve the more physically painful elements of his disease, which gives Merrick an opportunity to educate himself, which leads to the discovery that, despite his illness, Merrick is a highly intelligent man. I think Lynch successfully infused the film with this aura of exploitation, that. toning about Merrick's life really belongs to him, until the end when he apparently makes the decision, completely on his own, to put an end to the life if The Elephant Man. Anyone else reminded of parallel's to Shelley's Frankenstein in this story?"



"I think Roger was sometimes mean just to be mean. How could you watch a film such as this, and not be moved? I agree with his view on "courage", but he did miss the point of compassion making a difference in one's view and life."