This film really increased my respect for Mel Brooks. I was floored to find out he was a fan of "Eraserhead", and really impressed that he sought out Lynch to direct "The Elephant Man." At the time, Lynch was waiting tables and definitely not a safe bet. Not only that, Brooks was willing to forgo his producer's credit, lest his name on the screen make people think they were getting a goofy comedy, or at least take them out of the somber mood Lynch was creating. How many people in Hollywood would check their ego for the good of the film like that?

That reminds me of a question somebody once asked Joel Achenbach about why stuff in the past was all so much better built. He pointed out that the stuff that wasn't built well fell apart, so all that we have left is the good stuff. That kind of applies to art as well. Who knows what's being produced today will be watched in fifty years?

If only Polanski had made an Oscar winning movie advocating universal health care, he could've raped the girl and then drowned her in his car.