Aren't we human? H.G. Wells is a wonderful science fiction writer of his time, he wrote more than one good work, but it is “The Island of Dr. Moreau” that is my favorite.
Plot.
Andrew Braddock, a mechanical engineer from the wrecked ship “Lady Wayne” half-live, on a lifeboat, gets to a certain island. There he is picked up and nursed by a certain Dr. Moreau, with his assistant. There he meets strange people like animals, and animals like people. Gradually, Braddock will have to find out who they are, and what secrets Dr. Moreau’s island hides.
Review.
For me, The Island of Dr. Moreau is not just a book, but a world with an amazing atmosphere. This is a mysterious jungle, where dozens of curious eyes are watching you from the twilight. Who do they belong to, what do they expect from them? These are the night cries of animals coming from behind a closed door, in which unbearable pain is read, and unbearable torment. What's going on with them? This is an amazing society of human beasts with instincts of wild animals, which are connected with a kind of code of “human” laws. It is a shaky order, based only on fear and pain, then turning into unstoppable chaos, destroying everything in its path. And of course, these are the hardships and reflections of the protagonist, and man-beasts who so want to be like people, but can not resist the call of nature, which makes them experience mental and physical agony.
I wanted to see the 1977 film adaptation because I heard it was more in line with the book than the 1996 film. However, I was disappointed. No, it's not a bad movie. For his age, he looks great, except that he is a little naive, but it is not scary. Good acting, great makeup, beautiful scenery. But the atmosphere is not the same.
This is more a film based on the book than a film adaptation. In the film, a slightly different beginning, and another end, in the film, why, apparently for beauty, added a female character, which was not at all appropriate. Even the doctor’s methods in the film were more humane. A person who has not read the book may not understand the meaning of the phrase “house of pain”, and what man-beasts found so terrible in it. And the thing is that Dr. Moreau turned animals into people, not by injecting them with some gene code, but transformed them by vivisection, that is, by surgical intervention on the living, without anesthesia, giving them terrible suffering. It was on this fear and pain that all the shaky order on the island was built, which then led to fatal consequences. And of course, Moro never experimented with the main character, who, by the way, is called by another name.
And by the way, another drawback I would note is the storytelling. It seems to jump, there are no intermediate scenes in it, all the scenes are the main ones, and visually it feels like the film is crumpled.
Result.
Don't think I'm the kind of nerd who did nothing but look for inconsistencies between the movie and the book. No, just in such a wonderful story, it could have been a really great movie if the director had stuck to Wells rather than his visions of the plot. If you unconditionally liked the film, then do not be lazy, read the book, get a lot of positive emotions.
6 out of 10