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THE ISLAND OF DR.MOREAU
Kelvin HaAlso see THE CLASSIC STORY & THE PRODUCTION WHICH RUINED IT by Jack Choo, and ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS by Michelle Tan.
Directed by : John Frankenheimer
Screenplay by : Richard Stanley & Ron Hutchinson(based on the 1896 H.G.Wells Book)
Cast : Marlon Brando (Dr. Moreau), Val Kilmer (Montgomery), David Thewlis (Douglas), Fairuza Balk (Aissa), Daniel Rigney (Hyena-Swine), Temuera Morrison (Azazello)
Produced by : New Line Cinema
Running Time : 1hr 40minutes
Rating : ** out of *****
APOCALYSE NOW MEETS PLANET OF THE APES.
The jungle is where society stops and the law of nature takes over. Many works of art have tried to dramatise this distinction between civilization and the wild, and in 1980, Francis Ford Coppola made APOCALYPSE NOW to showcase man's bestial nature run wild deep in the jungles of Vietnam. That film starred Marlon Brando as the elusive Colonel Kurtz who had escaped civilization and run into the jungles where he became king of the natives through force and violence. Now in ISLAND, Brando plays Dr. Moreau, a Nobel prize winning scientist who takes refuge from civilization on a faraway island to create a species of people closer to animal than man.
It is no coincidence that these people call him Father in the movie. Colonel Kurtz of APOCALYPSE NOW once again emerges as Dr. Moreau in this film as we see Brando play the man who renounces the world and retreats into the jungle to purge evil only to be eventually overwhelmed by it.
There is more than this fact that ties THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU to APOCALYPSE NOW. For one thing, they both star the same actor, Marlon Brando, who has since put on three times his body weight. Both films were also based upon early novels. Ford's film was based on Joseph Conrad's "Heart Of Darkness," while MOREAU was based uppon H.G. Well's novel of the same name. Again, in both films, the location is southeast Asia. APOCALYPSE takes place in Vietnam/Laos, while Dr. Moreau is situated on a remote island in the Java Sea. In both films, a retreat to man's natural state produces the inborn tendencies of violence and bestiality, and in both films there is also a sacrifice scene to signify this. In APOCALYPSE, the sacrificial animal was a water buffalo, while in Dr. Moreau, the ape-like creatures kill a rabbit to signify their thirst for blood and the end of their innocence.
Both films also contain an orgy scene somewhere near the end, and the main characters responsible for all this -- Brando's character in both films-- gets killed by his own creations. In ISLAND, it is his own creatures, the ones that call him father which kill him in the end.
ISLAND generally disappoints despite the presence of Kilmer and Brando. The storyline may be exciting, but it is not well executed, and the film does not push the abilities of it's stars at all. Despite its budget, it resembles a B-movie more than anything else, and when it ends, one finally heaves a sigh of relief at the end of the nightmare world of the film.
The Flying Inkpot Rating System:
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha!
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
Kelvin Ha enjoys snails and pickles, and who's to say he's wrong?
Other film reviews by this writer can be obtained from the InkVault by doing a key word search with this writer's name.Other film reviews by other writers can also be obtained from the InkVault through key word searches.
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