100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #68: The Elephant Man (1980)

Directed by David Lynch. Starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins.

An encounter with suffering is at the heart of the Catholic faith, but to recognize suffering as a gift is a challenge even for the greatest saints. When we see someone who has undergone great sorrow, do we recoil in discomfort and try to ignore the suffering in the world, or do we encounter the one who suffers with a compassionate presence? From those two options, the Christian response is obvious, but how difficult this remains for many of us when the suffering person appears beyond help. As David Lynch’s powerful true-life drama The Elephant Man demonstrates, a person who appears beyond help does not eliminate our responsibility towards our fellow man. Rather, it increases that responsibility to care and walk alongside the weak and the unaffirmed.