David Lynch on The Elephant Man (feat. Mel Brooks)

[@strangemarkings]

You know your first movie is good when Mel Brooks and George Lucas want you to direct their stuff. Plus Stanley Kubrick called Eraserhead his favorite movie.

[@rabit818]

An artist understands fellow artist. Love Mel.

[@jaytorr6701]

Holy crap, a. David Lynch Return of the Jedi would be astonishing

[@marcopederzoli4939]

We had a glimpse of his visionary power in Dune. Maybe with the unlimited money of George Lucas he could have given us the perfect ending of Star Wars?

[@stewmott3763]

I love how Mel Brooks had the self-awareness and humility to take his ego out of The Elephant Man, so that it would have a better chance of finding an audience and doing well, which of course it did. Then he went and did the same thing a few years later, of course, with David Cronenberg's The Fly. He must be a real mensch.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Mel Brooks was involved in The Fly? One of my all-time favorite sci-fi movies!

[@stewmott3763]

@@JustWasted3HoursHere Yeah, his company Brooksfilms produced both of these movies, pretty much independently as I recall. He chose not to put his own name on the credits, though, so people wouldn't think they were one of his usual knockabout comedies. He just wanted to give new young filmmakers a leg-up.

[@stewmott3763]

@@JustWasted3HoursHere Oh, and The Fly is my sixth favourite film of all time. 🙂

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@stewmott3763 I knew he had produced The Elephant Man but had no idea about The Fly. I knew about why he kept his name off the credits too, which makes sense.

[@stewmott3763]

@@JustWasted3HoursHere Like I said - a mensch. 🙂

[@andyhall7032]

mel brooks: "you got two more questions kid get on with it"...interviewer: asks a genuinely interesting question...mel brooks: "let me tell you all about it"

[@stewmott3763]

From anyone else that might have sounded a bit rude, but from Mel Brooks it sounds like a cuddle from your grandad.

[@robhaskins]

I remember the first time I saw The Elephant Man in Baltimore, probably shortly after the NY premiere in October 1980. Looking back, I really feel like I was at the tail end of a period were film could be (but of course didn't have to be) fine art. Sure, there was a story and there were sympathetic characters, but I mostly remember how the film was photographed, composed in a very creative and artistic manner. There have been many great films since, exciting or funny or moving, but very few of them approach the status of art quite in the way that The Elephant Man did. I miss those days. Everything seemed possible.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

When Steven Spielberg was looking for someone to play famous western director John Ford for his biopic "The Fablemans", he asked David if he'd be willing to do it. And he did!

[@Charles12]

Lynch did it in favor of a bag of Cheetos apparently

[@ExtraCheeseProject]

Mel Brooks: This David Lynch character says what he wants to _clearly_ without any ambiguity. Everybody Else: I wonder what this shot means, the symbolism is so ambiguous, Lynch is so abstract...

[@Charles12]

Everyone else thinks too hard. Mel just feels it and understands it that way which is what Lynch wants

[@ExtraCheeseProject]

@@Charles12 👏

[@madahad9]

I imagine Lucas thought he was going to micromanage Lynch in he did accept Return of the Jedi. Just imagine what Jabba the Hutt might have looked like if Lynch had any say in the design. It might have been a distant kin to the baby from Eraserhead.I doubt this collaboration would have lasted very long before Lynch quit.

[@stephengibbons2260]

awesome video. Well done.

[@viewtiful1doubleokamihand253]

"I don't really think George likes to... direct." RedLetterMedia (circa 2007) entered the chat.

[@midnightswim34]

So selfless and self aware on Mel Brooks part

[@mi39471]

I think a big reason David turned down ROTJ is because so much of the world of Star Wars was pre-created by George Lucas. David is a world-builder himself and working on a Star Wars movie would have reduced him to a TV director basically, a director that directs an episode and goes away. Probably explains why he took Dune because Dune didn’t exist on film yet and it gave him a chance to invent an exotic world and how the characters looked from scratch.

[@lilmissgearhead]

“Kill her, Elephant Man!”

[@madahad9]

It was wise to downplay Mel Brooks' involvement, especially with a title like The Elephant Man it could sound comical, especially for those of us who had no idea who John Merrick was and the horrible affliction he had to endure. In those lovely days before the internet there were no leaked images of John Hurt in his make-up and we were shocked when he is revealed for the first time. I saw it in 1980 and it was an unforgettable experience. It was the first David Lynch film I had the opportunity to see. I had read about Eraserhead in a couple books about cult movies but I wouldn't actually see it for a few years later. He was the ideal director for this and really gives this period a gritty and grimy realism.

[@paulsarnik8506]

I never knew Mel produced The E Man 'til yesterday buck figured he did cuz his wife was in it..🤓😎✌🏻

[@Stonecutter334]

Just imagine how much more interesting return of the jedi would have been if David Lynch would have directed it?!?! Pity that didn’t happen.

[@johnp515]

It would only have been interesting if Lucas had let Lynch do whatever he liked, let him have total control over the script etc but that was never going to happen so it would probably become another “Dune”

[@fordprefect80]

Maybe he would have done away with the teddy bears as they let the film down somewhat.

[@msh6865]

@@fordprefect80 the "teddy bears" were originally meant to be Wookies in the script.Then George thought about all the merchandise he could sell if they were lovable little "teddy bears". And that's how Ewoks ruined Episode VI.

[@krisscanlon4051]

Opinion: Brooks could of made movies like Woody Allen however chose not to...made hugely funny films but there is pathos there. Brooks saw a young Hitchcock in his gut. Look at Young Franky...he filmed it authentically...funny as hell though

[@mikearchibald-u6g]

If Lynch had directed maybe they could have gotten rid of the teddy bears. Movie starts with Princess Leia in bondage and boba fett thrown into a pit and ends with teddy bears.

[@lubasmb]

damn

[@petekdemircioglu]

Ahahah

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

My mind is exploding imaging a David Lynch "Return of the Jedi"! It would be radically different, no doubt, but in what ways...who's to say?

[@Gildedowlmedia338]

I think the story would be exactly the same, and I think a lot of the tatooine and Endor stuff would be similar to why we saw. But definitely the death star and Palpatine would be a lot scarier/and surreal.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@Gildedowlmedia338Sounds about right. But imagine if he were making one of the sequel trilogy movies, where the directors are given TOTAL control over not just directing but the story as well. Hard to say how strange it would be, if at all. The original trilogy had one vision because they were written by one man, but the sequel trilogy is all over the place because they were essentially allowed to do whatever they wanted no matter what came before or would have to follow after.