At the beginning we see Merrick's mom in some freak hallucination with real elephants, and later we see it again when we peak through Merricks hole in sheet not only that we see many factory workers plus pipes which looked like they were straight out of Eraserhead? It's so weird because the rest of the movie is very grounded, but those scenes were as Lynch as you can get.
shareYes this is a Lynch film. What is your point? My theory was that his mother got scared by elephants, I mean I wouldn't but some people have really strange phobias, I mean I witnessed people acting really really strange. So all this stress got into her child and the rest is history. I love Lynch and I love this movie.
shareThe myth they used for his disfigurement was that an elephant raped his mom. I thought it was symbolic of that.
shareThat is correct. I believe this is what Lynch was implying with the opening footage. In reality, the mother was scared by a circus elephant and landed stomach-down while pregnant with Joseph Merrick, which led to people speculating the traumatic womb injury is what caused his condition.
share"we see many factory workers plus pipes"
A true reality for workers in Victorian times.
There are three Lynchian moments. The opening, the dream sequence and the ending. The rest is pretty straight forward. His most accessible film.
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