You might be unfamiliar with the name Monte Hellman. Monte is a film director and producer, mostly known for his excellent film 'Two-Lane Blacktop', which is in the Criterion Collection. He also made 'Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 3', was a producer on Quentin Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs', and directed some of the big action scenes in the original 'Robocop' film, which was right before he made this interesting film called 'Iguana'.
Based on an actual guy, which was then turned into a Spanish novel, then adapted into this film.'Iguana' tells the tale of a man who has been treated poorly his whole life because of his ailment, but then enters a position of power where he uses this power to torture, kill, and rape anyone who comes in his path. The film follows a man named named Iguana Oberlus (Everett McGill), who works on a 19th century whale boat. The crew and captain all make fun of him and treat him like dirt because half of his face is covered in reptile like scales.
His whole life, he has been ridiculed and beaten because of his looks and when some men on the boat try to attack him, he jumps ship and swims to a nearby island. One on the island, he declares himself king of the island and anyone who comes into his path, rather it be people lost at sea, or a woman named Carmen (Maru Valdivielso). Oberlus is not a kind man. In fact he believes that since he has been harassed and beaten through his whole life, this is his revenge on all humankind for the horrors that he has endured. He forces his prisoners to do manual labor as he has a weapon by his side at all times in case people get out of line.
In that case they are maimed, tortured, and even killed. When Carmen comes along, he rapes her consistently. Iguana tries to do the best he can with all that he knows, meaning he treats his prisoners with some sort of decency, but has no mercy or remorse if anyone gets out of line. It seems like Oberlus always wanted a chance to succeed and be liked, but that was never afforded to him, so he is taking out his hate and vengeance on innocent people he comes in contact with, because on this island, he feels that he is the all powerful one. And just like an all powerful one, he can giveth and he can taketh away. And that's just what Oberlus does.
Make no mistake about it, Iguana is a monster. Whatever kindness and true human soul is long gone from him, but there are flashes of a gentle person deep inside him somewhere. What the film 'Iguana' suffers from is in its story telling and acting. The movie is to overly melodramatic and relies on telling things in an introspective manner rather than a literal one. It gets a little tedious and slow for what it could have been. The characters are also very one note here as well, always showing all their cards from the get-go, which hinders the suspense of the film. 'Iguana' has a good premise, but the execution doesn't stick the landing.
Based on an actual guy, which was then turned into a Spanish novel, then adapted into this film.'Iguana' tells the tale of a man who has been treated poorly his whole life because of his ailment, but then enters a position of power where he uses this power to torture, kill, and rape anyone who comes in his path. The film follows a man named named Iguana Oberlus (Everett McGill), who works on a 19th century whale boat. The crew and captain all make fun of him and treat him like dirt because half of his face is covered in reptile like scales.
His whole life, he has been ridiculed and beaten because of his looks and when some men on the boat try to attack him, he jumps ship and swims to a nearby island. One on the island, he declares himself king of the island and anyone who comes into his path, rather it be people lost at sea, or a woman named Carmen (Maru Valdivielso). Oberlus is not a kind man. In fact he believes that since he has been harassed and beaten through his whole life, this is his revenge on all humankind for the horrors that he has endured. He forces his prisoners to do manual labor as he has a weapon by his side at all times in case people get out of line.
In that case they are maimed, tortured, and even killed. When Carmen comes along, he rapes her consistently. Iguana tries to do the best he can with all that he knows, meaning he treats his prisoners with some sort of decency, but has no mercy or remorse if anyone gets out of line. It seems like Oberlus always wanted a chance to succeed and be liked, but that was never afforded to him, so he is taking out his hate and vengeance on innocent people he comes in contact with, because on this island, he feels that he is the all powerful one. And just like an all powerful one, he can giveth and he can taketh away. And that's just what Oberlus does.
Make no mistake about it, Iguana is a monster. Whatever kindness and true human soul is long gone from him, but there are flashes of a gentle person deep inside him somewhere. What the film 'Iguana' suffers from is in its story telling and acting. The movie is to overly melodramatic and relies on telling things in an introspective manner rather than a literal one. It gets a little tedious and slow for what it could have been. The characters are also very one note here as well, always showing all their cards from the get-go, which hinders the suspense of the film. 'Iguana' has a good premise, but the execution doesn't stick the landing.