Iguana

Iguana is a 1988 drama and thriller set in the nineteenth century. Its central figure is Oberlus, a harpooner whose severely disfigured face has earned him the nickname Iguana and the cruelty of his shipmates. He flees the whaling vessel and settles on a remote island, where he proclaims himself its ruler and declares war on humanity. Anyone who reaches the island is held under his brutal rule, and those who resist are broken into submission.

The film was directed by Monte Hellman, his sixth feature, arriving seventeen years after Two-Lane Blacktop and marking his return to filmmaking after a long gap. The screenplay was written by Steven Gaydos, Hellman and David M. Zehr, and Franco Di Nunzio produced this Spanish-Italian co-production, made for about three million dollars. Everett McGill plays Oberlus, with Fabio Testi as Gamboa, Michael Madsen as Sebastián, Jack Taylor as Captain "Old Lady II", and further roles for Michael J. Bradford and Roger Kendall among a credited cast of twenty-four.

Released in April 1988, the film runs eighty-eight minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.1 from 641 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6 out of 10 from a much smaller tally of twenty votes. The two are close, suggesting a modest but settled reception among those who have seen it.