The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

The Island of Dr. Moreau is one of those films where the stories of its conception and filming are much more interesting than what made it to the screen.  The original script was by Richard Stanley, known at the time for the cult films Hardware and Dust Devil, and was the culmination of a number of years of effort to bring to life his version of the 1896 novel by H. G. Wells.  Stanley was able to secure funding, get Stan Winston's company to do the effects and secure Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer in lead roles.  After all of his effort he was fired less than a week into filming.

The director that took over was John Frankenheimer, a director most famous for The Manchurian Candidate over 30 years prior.  Where Stanley was often known for his unique vision in the films and videos he made, Frankenheimer was one of the remaining old-school Hollywood directors whose focus was on getting through the project rather than making an statement.  His traditional approach to making movies and lack of compassion for his actors led to frequent clashes with Kilmer and other members of the crew, with some of the actors staying on simply to avoid the stigma of breaking their contracts.  The result was a mess and big-budget flop whose biggest contribution was an interesting side character on South Park. 

Edward Douglas (David Thewlis) is one of the few survivors of a plane crash.  After the other two people in the life raft go crazy and die while fighting each other, Douglas is rescued by an Indonesian merchant ship and brought back to some semblance of health by a man named Montgomery (Kilmer).  Due to tension on the boat Douglas, rather than continuing on, is brought to the island research station where Montgomery works with Nobel-Prize-winning scientist Dr. Moreau (Brando).  He also becomes quickly enthralled with a woman named Aissa (Fairuza Balk), who claims to be Moreau's daughter.

It turns out Dr. Moreau has many "children" on his island due to his experiments with combining human and animal DNA in an effort to create the perfect being.  Moreau, of course, is far from that, keeping his creations in line with implants that cause pain if they misbehave or break any of his laws.  After a cat hybrid named Lo-Mai (Mark Dacascos) is executed for breaking Moreau's laws a creature named Hyena-Swine (Daniel Rigney) begins questioning the law and, after removing his implant and encouraging others to do so, starts to realize both freedom and a desire to be the new god of the island. 

As usual in Brando's later roles he refused to learn his lines, which were fed to him through radio.  This led to him sometimes repeating radio and communications broadcasts that were picked up locally.  Despite this he still does a decent job, although many of the eccentricities that Moreau has in this film seem to have been suggested by Brando himself out of boredom, as after Stanley was fired he quickly realized the dumpster fire the production and movie was going to be.  Val Kilmer wasn't any better, often bullying cast and crew due to both his ego and his own personal problems.  He also didn't bother much with the script, which was constantly rewritten anyway. 

David Thewlis and Fairuza Balk seem to be the only ones outside of some of the actors and stuntmen in the creature costumes trying to give it a go, although they were aware of what was going on as well, with Balk only staying on after being told she would be blacklisted if she quit.  The actual makeup work is the star of the film, even though that also had to be rigged in many ways and was done on short notice due to the general chaos surrounding the entire production. 

Despite all that the first part of the movie isn't that bad.  Kilmer isn't any good in this, but he can be ignored, as after they get to the island it's mainly Thewlis, Balk and the creatures, including Ron Perlman as the Sayer of the Law, until Brando makes his appearance about a third of the way in.  After that it turns into campy fun for a bit, but one realizes that the movie has gone off the rails by the time he and a small creature named Majai (Nelson de la Rosa) are having a piano duel.  The movie then takes a turn away from the previous film versions that results in some action combined with aimless meandering toward the end.  

Still, it is a watchable bad movie, and rarely gets boring.  It is quite bloody for PG-13 and, like most of Stanley's films, was conceived as much more dark and violent than Frankenheimer's version.  That it got made was a testimony to the latter's work ethic, and that it got released at the time was probably due to the fact that too much money hand been sunk into it to just put it on the shelf.  It's still not a movie that I would like to see again; I never thought I would give it another viewing after seeing it back in 1996.  It earns its reputation, but there has still been much worse. 

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

Time: 96 minutes

Starring: David Thewlis, Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, Fairuza Balk

Director: John Frankenheimer