Review: IGUANA

Title: IGUANA

Year: 1988

Director: Monte Hellman

Writer: Monte Hellman, Steven Gaydos, David M. Zehr

Starring: Everett McGill, Fabio Testi, Maru Valdivielso, Michael Madsen, Roger Kendall

IGUANA is one of the strangest and most interesting releases to hit bluray courtesy of Raro USA. It’s the heartbreaking story of a disfigured harpooner named Oberlus (Everett McGill) who has been dubbed Iguana by his shipmates aboard a whaling ship in the 19th century. Oberlus is severely mistreated by his fellow sailors due to the disfiguration of his face.

One of the men most responsible for the torture of Oberlus is Gamboa (Fabio Testi). Gamboa leads the men in tormenting Oberlus. His issues with Oberlus seemed to be about more than just his disfigurement, they appeared to be more personal. It’s almost as if Oberlus’ deformity is a direct attack on Gamboa. 

Unable to stand the torture any longer, Oberlus escapes from the ship one night and claims a remote island as his own. Once on the island he declares war on mankind, vowing to get back at the society that has cast him off as something less than human.

For the unfortunate few that wash up on the remote island, they now serve as slaves to Oberlus. If they disobey, Oberlus does not hesitate to chop off a finger, or a head, depending on the severity if the "crime." In an interesting term of events, most of those that do end up on the island were former shipmates of Oberlus. As you can imagine he takes great pleasure in making these men his slaves and finally getting back at them for all the pain they dished out over the years.

Along with turning his former shipmates into slaves, Oberlus captures a young Spanish girl named Carmen (Maru Valdivielso). His intentions with Carmen seem a bit conflicted. He’s clearly in awe of her beauty and wants to make her his bride. Oberlus has lacked any type of affection and desperately seems to want it. However, instead of expressing feelings for Carmen in hopes of gaining her affection, he treats her quite awful, basically using her as an object. 

In general Oberlus treats everyone pretty bad. There’s even a few of his slaves that begin to come around and seem willing to help Oberlus in various ways. And Oberlus wants their help. He notices one of the slaves writes a journal so he wants that slave to teach him out to read and right. Oberlus is unable to express this desire in a way that doesn’t involve death threats.

IGUANA is quite the interesting character study. For the most part, Oberlus is a bad person. He treats people horribly. It's easy to hate him. At the same time, however, you kind of want to see him succeed. He's had a less than great life because of the way he was born. People treat him like some sort of freak show. You understand where he's coming from but still know that he's wrong in the actions he chooses to take.

I highly recommend checking IGUANA out. It's a tragic look at how society treats those that are deemed different.

RATING: 4/5

**IGUANA is out now on bluray from Raro USA.