STAN-MADE MONSTERS
THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (1996) Blu-ray Starring Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer and David Thewlis
Directed by John Frankenheimer Written by Richard Stanley and Ron Hutchinson Warner Bros.
The Island of Dr. Moreau should have been awesome: it had an intriguing
director in Richard Stanley (Hardware, Dust Devil), big star power with Mar- lon Brando as the titular Doctor, and Stan Winston Studio handling makeup effects. Instead, the 1996 big-budget adaptation of H.G. Wells’ science fic- tion novel is one of the most infamous cases of behind-the-scenes chaos. For starters, star Val Kilmer, playing Moreau’s assistant Montgomery, was
allegedly so unmanageable on the Australian set that the studio chose to fire Stanley after just three days due to his inability to control the actor. Vet- eran John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate, Black Sunday) was brought in to direct and heavily rework Stanley’s script; Rob Morrow, playing the UN diplomat who stumbles upon the island and serves as the narrator, quit just after production started and was replaced by David Thewlis; and both Frankenheimer and Brando clashed with Kilmer just as badly as Stanley had. The result was an insane film marked by bizarre performances from
Master Of Illusion: (top) Winston and his team wrangle a full-size Alien Queen puppet on the set of Aliens, and (below) Winston surrounded by masks created for The Island of Dr. Moreau.
called Pumpkinhead – felt comfortable enough to try directing his first feature film. “He said, ‘I’ll do the effects but you have to let me direct it,’” recalls Matt.
“They said yes, and then he got to do a very low-budget film with very im- pressive creature effects because he knew how to shoot them. He pulled it off and pulled out great performances from his actors. It had a memorable story and it was a real high point of his life and his career. It meant a lot to him that, even though it didn’t do well theatrically, it has become this cult film that is well re- garded. It has spawned some not so well-regarded sequels, but Pumpkinhead stands as a much-beloved monster still to this day.” Much has changed since the pioneering era of practical effects in the ’80s, though,
with many moviegoers arguing that cinema has lost a bit of its magic since CG de- sign has become the go-to solution for almost any effect. And yet, the biggest project of Winston’s career, Jurassic Park, is a prime example of how it is not the CG itself that’s an issue, but how it’s used. “One of the main reasons Steven Spielberg approached Dad to do Jurassic Park
was because, on Aliens, he had created the full-sized Alien Queen puppet,” explains Matt. “Aliens was what made Steven believe that you can do animatronic character puppets on a large scale. … Seventy-five percent of the dinosaur shots in Jurassic Park are live puppets. Not to take away from the CG work, but that is what makes the film work and hold up today over current films with newer technology. Not because of CG, not because of the puppets, but because of the blend. With Dad, the CG always matched the puppet, not the other way around.” It’s precisely these kinds of teachings that, upon
Winston’s passing, inspired his family to found the Stan Winston School of Character Arts last year. Partnering with major Hollywood studios and effects artists, they have produced an entire curriculum of creature effects video tutorials to preserve the fun- damentals that Winston worked so hard to pioneer and perfect. “The school started out as the family’s way of
keeping Dad alive in our lives,” says Matt. “We are sharing his knowledge with the world. Our mission is to preserve, promote and teach the art of char- acter creation. Dad was known for the practical ef- fects side of things but he was also very heavily into CG; he co-founded Digital Domain [a visual effects
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Brando, who turns his Colonel Kurtz character from Apocalypse Now into a kind of doting father to the man-made beasts, and Kilmer, who is more fratboy than mad scientist co-conspirator here. Although the movie perplexed audiences and was torn to shreds by critics, the one thing about it that continues to be praised is the disturbing creature creations by Winston’s crew. Studio veterans Shane Mahan and Michael Smithson
were assigned with the task of inventing an entire popula- tion of man-beasts, using full body and hair suit designs, plus animatronics. Some of the more impressive creations
include the hyena-man, who leads a rebellion against Moreau, and the Sayer of the Law, a goat-man hybrid, appropriately played by Ron Perlman. Unfortunately this “Unrated Director’s Cut” is nothing but a missed op-
portunity. The disc is simply a high-def version of the one released ages ago (the sound and image transfers are fine, though unspectacular), with the same extra four minutes of footage that add little to the story. The biggest crime, however, is the near absence of content about Winston’s creations, save for a few seconds of a five-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. Though far from a classic, The Island of Dr. Moreau remains a fascinating
curiosity due to its production history and the sheer extent of Winston’s ef- fects. Unfortunately, both stories seem destined to remain mired in the jungle of history.
AARON VON LUPTON
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