The Island of Dr. Moreau (1997) - A Crappy Film Review

It's National Cinema Day (2nd September) and I thought I'd share with you, my friends, one of my favourite films.

It's the 3rd remake of the island of Dr Moreau (1997). This version is loosely based (very loosely) on the HG Well book of the same name. The long short is about a mad scientist on a remote island who splices animal DNA with human DNA and experiments on the island's captive inhabitants even his own daughter (spoiler sorry). This specific film was a clusterfuck from day one, the prospective director (Richard Stanley) used a Warlock Doctor to get the green light on it. I'm not joking.

H.G. Wells published 'The Island of Dr. Moreau' in 1896 which can be interpreted as a commentary on Charles Darwin's ' Origin of the Species' and very early concepts of evolution, eugenics, genetic mutation, and how far can Man push the boundaries of science, much in the same way Mary Shelly did with Frankenstein. The Island of Dr Moreau explores the relationship between Man, Nature and Religion through the Godlike figure of Moreau and asks the questions: "What is humanity?" and "What makes civilisation?".

From a sociological perspective, I know that civilisation is a social construct and varies from culture to culture, but there is one thing that binds the human race together and that is the innate notion of good and evil, creativity, innovation, and hierarchy.

Having been chased out of the British Scientific and Medical elites due to his controversial ideas, Moreau takes his experiments to a remote island to continue his work unabated. There he creates the beast people, humans spliced with animals. Are they genetic miracles and ahborations?

In 1932, this H.G. Wells classic was committed to film under the name "Island of Lost Souls" and featured Bela Lugosi as one of the Beast Men. As expected the film didn't stay 100% true to the original plot, it was still a contentious piece of writing, but with a few alterations, it became more palatable to a viewing Audience. One of those is the romantic addition of the panther lady, and overall this version of the film did quite well.

In 1977, it was remade under the title: "The Island of Dr Moreau" and kept somewhat close to the 1932 plot and retained the panther women. Talent such as Burt Lancaster and Michael York were cast for the roles of Moreau and the Castaway, but unfortunately was a little bit of a flop at the box office.

1993: Que Richard Stanley.

Stanley was best known for his breakthrough indie horror art films: Hardware (1990) and Dust Devil (1992). He was known for being a dystopian horror director and being in his late twenties and early thirties and by industry standards considered 'green', even though he had managed to get cameos from rock legends Iggy Pop and Lemmy Kilmister in Hardware. Stanley's early works are regarded with a cultish level of enthusiasm.

Richard had more great ideas for this Dr Moreau reboot, he wasn't going to adhere totally to the H.G. Wells novel, as he understood that the Panther Lady/ castaway love story was great for cinema. Coming from a Horror art house background he envisioned that Dr Moreau would be much in the same vain: gorey and a little gross. He saw the outward aesthetics of the Island to be a paradise much akin to the Garden of Eden, but underneath this picture of tranquil civility of the Island's Mutant inhabitants, there was a ghoulish reality. It can be argued that Stanley's vision draws some parallels with Jim Jones's idyllic Jamestown in Panama, where he kept hundreds of people captive within his cult of personality. However, unlike the unfortunate people at Jamestown, the beast people manage to liberate themselves from their Godlike Captor.

Stanley intended to use the Island and the main house where Moreau lived to serve as a metaphor for Heaven and Hell, as there was an elevator which dropped down seven levels and as you descended you could be a whole slew of hideous goings on. Once the beast people had liberated themselves from Moreau's rule, the narrative was to switch to the notions of Sodom and Gomorrah. Finally free from their forced civility they were to be able to act upon their beastial instincts - human or otherwise. .

Having grown up a H.G.Wells fan Stanley developed a script for 'Dr Moreau' with the hopes of landing a modest Hollywood deal with the rights to be showrunner and director - something he was used to; having full creative control of a project...And it half worked! New Line Cinema jumped on it and said they would take the script - however, they didn't want Stanley... at all. They made that very clear and did everything they could to cold-shoulder him out of the project. Executives thought he was 'unusual' and 'goofy' because he asked for 3-4 sugars in his coffee and wore a Panama hat. Management offered the directing job to Roman Polanski, as expected this did not go down well with Stanley... who called his Warlock Biochemist Friendo who did him a very lovely favour of a blood ritual to help him get what he wanted: the director's chair.

It might have been the blood magic, or it could have been because Marlon Brando took a shine to the Young Stanley and intervened and threw his weight about a little (something that he continues to do throughout filming). How's that for a bloke who likes 4 sugars in his coffee?!

Polanski was out!

Right let's jump to the prospective cast list:

Dr Moreau: Marlon Brando

Montgomery: James Woods

Castaway: Bruce Willis

Panther Lady Arissa: Fairuza Balk

Makeup SFX - Stan Winston

Bruce ducked out due to family problems, was replaced by Val Kilmer. Val complained about the hours - he just didn't want to do it. James Woods was booted for Val. The Castaway role was taken by Rob Morrow ... and everything was fine... NO.

Kilmer and Brando got into a feud onset and tried to outdo each other on who was the biggest diva and who held the most clout when it came to the executives the Legend Brando, or the most wanted actor in the industry at the moment: Kilmer. They took every opportunity to try to derail production by telling execs, writers, producers, and even Stanley to change things on a whim.

This did have an effect on Stanley and his leadership skills as he had never been used to such a large crew, nor had he been undermined so completely and at every turn by his main actors. All these difficulties had a knock-on effect on every part of the production ... however, Stanley will tell you it all started with a Hurricane that hit the remote filming location and that Warlock Biochemist had contacted necrotising fasciitis through some sort of radium insistent at work. I think he died ... and with that so did the filming of Richard Stanley's "Island of Dr Moreau".

Due to the constant complaining from Kilmer and Brando, the terrible weather conditions on set, and the hedonistic, debauched, and just downright silly antics of the Australian Crew and Extras - New Line Cinema put The Island on Hiatus. The crew and talent were not to leave the set until a resolution was found - Morrow bailed halfway through shooting because he couldn't tolerate the crazy working conditions, and allegedly had a full-blown breakdown. He was quickly replaced by popular English actor David Thewlis, who was known for indie art house films such as 'Resurrection' and Mike Leigh's 'Naked'. Thewlis doesn't often ... or at all, talk about his time on set, which to me says everything that needs to be said about this role... but... but...

I found a magazine (The Face) from 1998, and he states: "one of the worst films made in history" - Thewlis

Stanley was fired and given a a full severance and told not to come near 40 ft of the set ever again. His Job was given to John Frankenheimer, known in the industry as a film fixer; he didn't care for the film, or the story and just wanted to get it done, get paid, and say he worked with Brando.

Stanley being the eccentric he is decided to camp in the Australian rainforest with circus hippies who were also extras on the film... and would sneak back on set from time to time in the disguise of a dog-faced man. You know... he was officially considered a missing person in Australia at the time because of all this. It was Cast Extra and Buffalo man David Hudson who found him in the outback as he heard rumours of an "Unusual Guy" complaining that "Val Kilmer had ruined his life" was camping out there.

Stanley once said that when Fairuza found out about him being axed from the production she threatened execs that she would "cut her own heart out with a sushi knife" which I have to say would be on brand for 1996 Fairuza... but She said she has no memory of saying this. So take that with a pinch.

Brando, finding out that Frankenheimer was only there to work with him decided to fuck with him totally and completely... while also proving to Kilmer once and for all that he had the most clout on set. Brando requested that an ice bucket hat be made for Dr Moreau, that he be painted white while in the sun and wear exclusively white linens, demanded peacock feathers for his tank palanquin, and suggested Moreau wear a hat all throughout the film just to take the hat off at the end to be revealed as a dolphin. That last request was not given to him.

However, before Stanley went into hiding in the woods around the set, Brando requested Nelson Dela Rosa be given a larger part. Nelson was 27 years old and was at the time the world's shortest man - standing at 17 inches. It's alleged that Brando described Dela Rosa as a living work of art. Nelson's promotion to Moreau's defacto sidekick from this point on had the effect of demoting the man-servant character of M'ling, played by Marco Hofscheider down to a non-part within the script. Fun fact: Dela Rosa punched Marco in the nuts for no good reason, other than he could. I mean, are you gonna take on Brando's Bestie?

The roster of acting talents is amazing: David Thewlis, Fairuza Balk(The Craft) [check out American Perfekt], Ron Pearlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy), Marco Hofscheider (Europa Europa), Marlon Brando, and Val Kilmer.

The film is chaotic and is so good because the shooting and direction is so delightfully unhinged. Don't feel bad More Richard though, he's done pretty well for himself since then. He's made a few more strange Hollywood friends, one of them being Nicolas Cage (Color out of Space 2019). He's still making his weird and intriguing horror with 2011's Lovecraft-inspired short film "Mother of Toads" which can be found in the Theatre Bizarre Horror Omnibus.

So, if you can, watch this doomed masterpiece!