Directed by David Lynch, The Elephant Man is a black and white film based on the life of Joseph Merrick (renamed John in the film), a 19th Century Englishman with a congenital disease that left him facially disfigured.
Classification Issues
- Threat and horror
- There is a prolonged sequence in which a disfigured man is humiliated by a crowd of people. Women are pushed towards his bed, a man forces him to consume alcohol, and another uses a mirror to draw attention to his appearance. There are also scenes set in a Victorian 'freak show' in which a showman bullies and beats the disfigured man. In other sequences, the man is chased and cornered in a station toilet, and a woman is impressionistically attacked and trampled by a herd of elephants but without visible injury detail
- Injury detail
- An operation is performed on a man whose chest is badly burned. In another scene two women fight in a pub, resulting in cut and bloodied faces.
- Additional issues
- There are discriminatory references to a man's physical deformity, including being described as a 'freak' and 'a monster'. However, these references are not condoned by the film as a whole. There is also infrequent mild bad language ('bastard').
Cinema classification
The Elephant Man was first submitted to the BBFC for cinema classification in 1980. After some internal discussion of whether an A rating was possible, the film was classified AA for its initial release. The AA rating barred admission to under 14s, while the A had the same basic meaning as the modern PG.
Video classification
When the film was first seen on VHS in 1987 it was passed PG for home entertainment release in the UK, for issues including mild horror and scenes of mild violence. It has retained the PG on all subsequent home entertainment submissions, most recently in 2007.
Cinema re-classification
In 2020, the film was submitted again for cinema classification, in a new 4K restoration, ahead of a fortieth anniversary re-release.
The BBFC updates its Classification Guidelines every four to five years based on extensive public consultation to ensure its standards continue to reflect the views of UK audiences. The Guidelines had been refreshed three times since The Elephant Man was last seen in 2007.
Accordingly, when the film was considered under the Guidelines in effect at the time, the BBFC determined that it was no longer suitable for classification at PG, primarily due to the intensity and emotional impact of scenes in which Merrick is cruelly humiliated and abused by other people. However, it was noted that while certain scenes might be disturbing, the overall tone of the film was not and its ultimate message was one of compassion and understanding.
The Elephant Man was therefore reclassified 12A on film, for moderate threat, upsetting scenes and injury detail.
