The Elephant Man (film) me hate acting." Because of the strain on the actor, he worked alternate days. Lynch originally wanted Jack Nance for the title character. "But it just wasn't in the cards," Lynch says; the role went to John Hurt after Brooks, Lynch and Sanger saw his performance in "The Naked Civil Servant" as Quentin Crisp. Lynch bookended the film with surrealist sequences centered around Merrick's mother and her death. Lynch used Samuel Barber’s "Adagio for Strings" to underline the end of the film and Merrick's own death. The film's composer, John Morris, argued against using the music, stating that "this piece
One Lucky Elephant Elephant" as, "simple enough to delight a child and complex enough to baffle a philosopher," then poignantly and perceptively notes, "A larger question coils beneath the surface of the film. What happens to an elephant that is "trained"? Are the chains, ropes, prods and other training tools kind to the creature? Should any wild animal be trained in such a way?" Sherri Linden of the Hollywood reporter said, "Bottom Line: A timely, emotionally engaging look at interspecies bonds;" while John Anderson of Variety call the film, "A parable of pachydermish proportions, ""One Lucky Elephant"" is a bittersweet story of man,