Island Of Dr. Moreau
The depiction in cinema of the descent of a society into all out absolute anarchy within the confines of a motion picture is not the easiest thing to do most of the time, simply because so many movie sets are so tightly scripted and controlled that the urge to allow anything and everything to possibly happen in front of the cameras is usually suppressed by the controlling hand of the director in charge. But sometimes, just sometimes, a movie with a story that intends to show just that very thing happening can have their chances at authenticity improved if the PRODUCTION itself is plagued by anarchic insanity, as most noted in this 1996 release which almost overnight became infamous as one of the most notoriously chaotic shoots in history and yet at the end of the day still held its head up high with its brilliant metaphors and message while being able to translate all that craziness onto the screen. The story begins with the ballad of Richard Stanley (a guy who had only done low budget B horror movies at this point), a guy obsessively working to adapt H.G. Wellsâ original novel and bring it to the screen as his lifelong dream project with himself as director, but upon doing so, within a couple of days found himself completely overwhelmed by working with his first big budget and group of big name stars (including arguably the biggest of them all), so the studio wound up firing him and replaced him with respected veteran John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate), even as Stanley endeavored to sneak back onto the set as an extra in full makeup with nobodyâs knowledge and still subversively keep track of the making of a movie that had once been his. Likewise, some of the actors showed up carrying major baggage: Val Kilmer found out right before shooting began that his wife was divorcing him and, emotionally devastated, demanded to be taken off the picture so that he could be with his kids. After being told no for contractual reasons, he then demanded that he have a reduced role in the picture, which with him being the lead character, was deemed impossible until a compromise was reached where he would switch parts from that of the hero to the smaller one of what was basically Moreauâs henchman, the once brilliant neurosurgeon Montgomery (even as the advertising still teased at him being the hero instead of a secondary villain). Marlon Brando likewise, came to work in an abject state of grief, having just lost his only daughter to suicide and was said to be just drifting through his part, even wearing a radio earpiece that would feed him his lines. Still the problems continued, as Kilmer was said to be starting shit with everyone on set, while everyone seemed to be starting shit with director Frankenheimer, newly cast lead actor David Thewlis (best known as Knox Harrington, the âvideo artistâ from Big Lebowski) broke his leg while filming, thought of Frankenhemer as being a racist (and later didnât hold back on his feelings even after the man had died), and was said to have hated working on the film so much that he refused to attend the premiere and has personally never viewed the film himself. As if all that wasnât enough, beautiful female star Fairuza Balk was so traumatized during the filming that she actually managed to âescapeâ the set before being caught at the local airport by production personnel and had to be coaxed into coming back. Unfortunately, despite all this craziness everywhere in sight, the majority of the blame was laid at Kilmerâs feet, perhaps unfairly despite his reputation for being âdifficultâ and his tendency to stand up to directors who donât have a clear artistic vision. Even then, while many criticized his performance here, he actually manages to be the most interesting character in the film, playing Montgomery with an aloof, detached arrogance as a guy who has totally lost his own way as a scientist but seems to enjoy dabbling in drugs and acting as kind of an enforcer on the island to the various creatures before he himself descends into his own state of madness based partially out of indifference. The film opens with Thewlis (a UN diplomat who has just survived a plane crash) being the last man standing on his lifeboat at sea before being picked up by Kilmer on a barge and brought back to the island, where he encounters Brandoâs âchildrenâ (including being entranced by the catlike beauty of Balk) who kind of serve as the âroyaltyâ on the island over the less cultured creatures, realizes that Moreau (driven from The United States by animal rights activists) has insanely created these various breeds by fusing human genes with their own animal DNA while adopting a strict set of âlawsâ mostly of the moral variety which are preached by Ron Perlmanâs Sayer Of The Law and enforced by a remote control mechanism that triggers off implants within the creatures that cause them immense pain, and finally encounters Brando himself, well into the obese stage of his career and making a grand entrance while covered in white powder to protect him from the sun and even audaciously offering Thewlis a gun just in case he ever feels threatened during his stay. Brandoâs Moreau as seen in private conversation is obviously so warped that heâs not only on his own planet, but practically his own solar system, even having a little companion with him at all times (Nelson De La Rosa) that resembles something like a walking infected blister (the original inspiration for Mini Me in The Austin Powers Series). The film does well enough setting up the story and characters for the first half, until one of the meaner creatures around known as the Hyena Swine (Daniel Rigney, who died young shortly after making this from a brain hemorrhage) finds a way to rip his implant chip out of his chest so that he canât be zapped into painful convulsions anymore (translation: he is free) and leads a rebellion on the island which brings us to the brilliant second half, where nothing but utter mayhem and chaos breaks out everywhere on the island and in the story itself, a situation that is so unstable that NOBODY is safe (even the most likable characters) as all hell breaks loose in what can best be described as a literal apocalypse for these characters and the world in which they have created, even though we still get an amazingly touching scene between Brando and his daughter played by Balk while he bizarrely wears an ice bucket on his head as Kilmer flips out completely possibly under the influence of narcotics. Indeed, this whole second half of the film is breathtakingly mindboggling, with the Hyena Swine forming a shaky alliance with Brandoâs power hungry âsonâ (Temuera âJango Fettâ Morrison, wearing a dinner tux through most of the movie) as he leads them to the islandâs automatic weapons stash and really brings out the heavy artillery and firepower, which leads up to a finale and resolution that at the end of the day against all odds winds up being quite thought provoking in how Moreauâs ideas about bringing the so called âhuman elementâ into the consciousness of these animals was so completely wrong headed and misguided (besides the obvious ethical boundaries) because of the fact that it is humans themselves who are actually imperfect, capable of deception, unneeded violence, and questionable morality, while animals, who live and survive on instinct and pure necessity, are essentially the most blameless of Godâs creations, as the addition of human intelligence and emotions is that which corrupts THEM. Pretty nifty stuff, but the fact that Frankenheimer managed to pull it all together as well as he did is something to be commended (nothing short of miraculous really), and Stan Winstonâs extensive creature FX work just fills in the rest of the gaps, driving home the fact that Moreauâs creations have not been blessed to have been worked on by him, but rather turned into sadly misbegotten beings whom we can only hope in the end can have a quick, painless âregressionâ back to their original selves so that they can get on with the business of having a better and simpler life. Overall, a genuinely surprising, underrated achievement, along with being a guaranteed cure for boredom for almost any kind of crowdâŚ
9/10