Iguana

Iguana (1988)

A grotesquely disfigured harpooner called Iguana is severely mistreated by his fellow sailors on a whaling ship in the 19th century. One night he escapes and takes up residence on a remote island. He makes himself ruler of the island and declares war on mankind. Anyone unfortunate enough to wind up on the island with Iguana is subjected to his cruel tyranny.

Date of release
1988-04-01
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (20)
Runtime
1h 28m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
Monte Hellman

Casting

Interesting facts

Iguana is a 1988 American adventure crime film directed by Monte Hellman and starring Everett McGill in the main role. It is based on the novel by Spanish author Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa, itself based on the life of a real Irish sailor called Patrick Watkins. The film was mainly shot on location in Lanzarote. Monte Hellman won Bastone Bianco Award for this movie on the Venice Film Festival in 1988. Iguana premiered in theaters on April 1, 1988, and was released on DVD on January 30, 2001, via Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film ends with the titles "For Warren" as Hellman dedicated the film to his friend Warren Oates.

Production

The film was based on Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa's novel. It was partially based upon the Irish sailor Patrick Watkins, also known as Oberlus. Watkins, in 1807, spent two years in one of the islands of the Galapagos archipelago during which he captured and enslaved other sailors. In the literature, the life of Oberlus was initially described in sufficient detail in The Encantadas by the American writer Herman Melville.

Most of the material was filmed in Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. It was chosen because of its vast tracts of land covered with basalt and volcanic ash, which are similar to the Hood Island, where the action of the film takes place. All cave scenes were filmed in Rome.

According to the memoirs of Monte Hellman, Franco di Nunzio's extreme penny pinching caused the film's shooting period to extend from six to nine weeks, due to constant delays in the delivery of props and equipment; the first three weeks of shooting had to go without lighting equipment.

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