Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau is a painful documentary highlighting the challenges that Stanley faced while trying to mount his ambitious – and no doubt avant garde – reimagining of the classic material. Directed with a probing sense of mystery by David Gregory, this is an info-packed hour and 40 minutes filled with first hand tales of Hollywood idiocy, behind the scenes footage to die for, and enough stories about Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer to choke a horse. The notion that Stanley infiltrated the set post-firing while dressed up in creature make-up and costume is an utter pisser to even contemplate let alone realize actually occurred, and the not-so-fond stories of John Frankenheimer were quite interesting to note. Because I am not a filmmaker and clearly wasn’t there during the middle of this fiasco, all I can do is report on what was presented in this documentary – it’s yet another sad, disgusting, totally backwards tale of studio-led buffoonery that ultimately led to the destruction of someone’s vision. This documentary has that “check out this car wreck” quality where you just have to see what’s going to happen next, because it just can’t get any worse for the people involved. The amount of money that was flushed down the toilet while making this film was staggering, and the amount of time spent on the part of the actors and crew just sitting around and waiting to accomplish something – ANYTHING – would be enough to discourage anyone from making another movie again.
Podcasting Them Softly 