This film just pissed me off
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drjeff21 — 9 years ago(July 18, 2016 07:04 AM)
There is a great deal of fiction in the movie, especially with regard to the showman. The real Merrick's London showman, Tom Norman, was not a brutal drunk like the fictional "Bytes." Norman was a well-respected showman and founder of a temperance society. He and Joseph Merrick were friends and business partners. Norman paid all of Merrick's expenses and split their earnings fifty-fifty. In a few weeks, Joseph saved up fifty pounds, as much as a typical working family made in a whole year. Ever since Treves wrote his memoirs with the character of the cruel showman, the Norman family has been appalled and embarked on a campaign to clear Tom Norman's good name.
Also, Merrick was never abducted from the hospital, as depicted in the film. The despicable night watchman never existed either. Merrick had a peaceful and generally uneventful, if short, life at the hospital. -
ronan-heffernan2 — 9 years ago(August 06, 2016 05:01 PM)
Of course the real monsters in the film are the people who treat Merrick so terribly. People are beep
We can look back to a time like that when people could pay to go see "freak shows" and I think most people watching the film probably think that was disgusting and we live in a morally superior time now. What occurred to me is that some people actually still do quite similar things and just like the people in the film don't realise how repugnant it is. I am thinking specifically of people who go on holiday to North Korea, to gawk at how strange it all is, just like gawking at the "Elephant Man". Taking a holiday in other people's misery. I am sure there are plenty of other examples.
Anyway, great film.