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TechnoTV - Night of the Iguana
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List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $9.00
Your Save: $ 5.98 ( 40% )
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Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Starring: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, Skip Ward
Directed By: John Huston
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301977760
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6301977769
Label: MGM (Warner)
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Release Date: 1994-06-30
Running Time: 125
Studio: MGM (Warner)
Theatrical Release Date: 1964-08-06
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: An unforgettable movie!
Comment: ***This review was copied here from an Epinions review I wrote***
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
I'm not sure I have the mental capacity to do this film justice in a review, it's that good on so many levels.
Entertaining not only with it's humor (mostly due to Richard Burton's excellent portrayal of the "Rev. Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon", recently defrocked for falling prey to his lusty appetites as a man) but also for the depth with which all the characters weave this story of lust, redemption, love, desperation, fear and humanity as both a strength and a weakness.
The story follows the Reverend on his trek in a flat run from himself and his inner demons as he takes on a new position as a trip leader for a bus full of women vacationing in Mexico. His hopes of hiding from his lust and it's consequences are shattered when the only young woman of the tour's group, a beautiful, rather frisky and terribly infatuated underage girl played to the hilt by Sue Lyon, begins to stalk him relentlessly, much to the chagrin of the overbearing and rather frustrated chaperone (Miss Fellowes, played by Grayson Hall) charged with her safe-keeping.
As the movie introduces the viewer to it's characters, we find that T. Lawrence Shannon is a man possessed. Not by the devil, but instead by a conscience and a will to be a good man in spite of his insatiable hunger for life and love. The precision with which John Huston captures the inner struggle of Shannon is breathtaking in it's complexity, not unlike the rest of this movie. Burton rages against himself at every turn with admirable energy and determination, barely able to escape his male drive and lustful urges. The writing of Tenessee Williams gives Huston a great starting place for his characters, while the actors themselves make this movie an absolute gem.
As the young Charlotte Goodall (Lyon) pursues Shannon, he finally realizes that he needs to escape again, this time from the suffocating atmosphere on the tour bus between himself and it's other occupants, so he decides to hijack the group to the nearby resort owned by old friends so that he might enlist the companionship of comrades in his quest for inner peace... or maybe just enlist a drinking buddy.
He is foiled, though, when he finds that his old friend is dead and only his wife Maxine (Ava Gardner, another absolutely excellent performance!) remains. As the wild and free-spirited, no-nonsense Maxine hears from Shannon about his troubles and sees the unruly and thoroughly unwilling would-be guests he brings in tow, she wants nothing to do with the group and tries to send him away. But, as true friends often will, she finally acquiesces and takes the group in even though the resort is shut down for the season.
With Maxine's knowledge of Shannon's past and her insight into his soul, and her no-nonsense style, she acts as the perfect counterpoint to the Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon in his soul-searching journey... until the arrival of a traveling pair; grandfather Nanno, an aged poet and his street-peddler artist granddaughter, Hanna. Their inclusion in this story is omni-important and pivotal to the story itself on many levels, the most ingenious and artful being the wonderfully descriptive and immensely poignant and apt poem that the old man is in the middle of when they arrive.
The symbolism of the old man's poem being his driving force, it's timing in Shannon's life, the poem's beautiful eloquence and structure, and the way Williams put together the struggle of Shannon and the outcome of his search for not just a respite from his demons, but a deeper, more meaningful search for inner courage and the cleansing of his soul itself is absolutely stunning. The poem speaks to Shannon's needs and tells the entire story of the movie all by itself, which is why I'll include it here. If you buy (you want to BUY, not rent, this movie!) the movie, you'll want to have a copy of the lovely words and I don't want you to have to do what I did; stop, play, write, rewind, play, stop, write etc.
As I tend to do, I will not get too far into the story from here, as I think the best reviews tend more toward highlighting the good and bad rather than telling a story. The reader should be enticed or turned off by the review and either get the movie and form their own opinion or go on to something they feel is more suited to their tastes, and not given details that ruin the movie.
With that in mind, the story flows from this point through and endless series of enlightening interactions between Shannon and Maxine, Shannon and his male weaknesses, Shannon and the paranoid and implacable chaperone (who has her own skeletons as well), Hannah and her own demons, Maxine and the beach boys... Well, you get the picture.
While addressing some very risque and taboo subjects for the time (1964), this movie winds through an almost limitless menu of subject matter with a tenderness seemingly unsuitable to the story. Even Burton's genius portrayal of his character, in his frantic search and rescue operation on his soul, is played with a depth of understanding that left me sitting stunned, staring at the television when I first saw the movie, so many years ago. (I first saw this movie when I was about 14 or 15, and was knocked out by it so much that I spent years looking for it on tv to no avail, and only recently was able to find it on video!)
I cannot say enough about this film! It is one of the reasons I collect good movies. It is a work of art, and tells of a time when movies had substance and looked to entertain the mind and make us think. It reminds me of the time I had my then-13 year old daughter watch To Kill A Mockingbird with me, hoping to show her the value of the great movies, and she turned to me in the middle of it and asked, "Dad, why don't they make movies like this any more?" I was floored. And it was the absolute best thing she could have said. I realized then and there that she got it and in that one moment her comment showed me that she would grow up with the ability to understand more than the average, surface layer of life.
This movie is every bit as good as the aforementioned "...Mockingbird", as well as other such classics as The Grapes of Wrath, The Ox Bow Incident, It's A Wonderful Life, The Defiant Ones... any number of old movies that relied on storytelling to delve into the human mind and give us reason to pause and think about who we are, why we are here and to give us reason to revel in our continued struggles through life regardless of pitfalls and failures.
Watch this movie carefully, without interruptions. Watch it a few times, for you'll see things you missed. Burton's repartee is sometimes so fast that you're on to another part of dialog before you realize you only caught half the meaning of what he just said. If you have kids that you'd like to introduce to the wonders of the golden age of cinema, try To Kill A Mockingbird because this is a little heady and mature for younger children.
Here is the poem, in case you view the movie and want to have it to read again...
Poem from Night of the Iguana
How calmly does the olive branch
Observe the sky begin to blanch
Without a cry, without a prayer
With no betrayal of despair
Some time while light obscures the tree
The zenith of its life will be
Gone past forever
And from thence
A second history will commence
A chronicle no longer gold
A bargaining with mist and mold
And finally the broken stem
The plummeting to earth, and then
And intercourse not well designed
For beings of a golden kind
Whose native green must arch above
The earth's obscene corrupting love
And still the ripe fruit and the branch
Observe the sky begin to blanch
Without a cry, without a prayer
With no betrayal of despair
Oh courage! Could you not as well
Select a second place to dwell
Not only in that golden tree
But in the frightened heart of me
The end of this movie is wonderfully written and very sweet in it's addressing the dichotomy that is man's infinite strength coupled with his inherent weaknesses. The irony of life gives those who pay attention more blessings than curses and the lives of our characters take an ironic twist that makes the movie much better for the ending alone.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Night of the Iguana
Comment: Although a classic old movie from 1964, the characters and dialog were surprisingly contemporary. A great play was made into a terrific movie which still resonates today. Great fun to see Richard Burton at his best.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Interesting characters
Comment: We watched this movie when we vacationed in Pureto Vallarta where it was filmed. It was fun to find the statue in town of the director and travel to a more remote location where it was filmed. The Bonus sections added to the interest.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Existential Grand Slam
Comment: Who knows how many films were made that address the deeply troubled and compelling existential questioning of the years roughly 1890 - 1980. The fantastic and the real worlds, as pondered by Richard Burton - only the native Mexican innocents have not reached the bonehead point of having separated them. And, of course, the iguana. Freedom to do what? Have sex, get drunk, write poetry? PREACH THE GOSPEL? Something is rotten, and not just in Denmark.
Ava Gardner's panic attack near the end of the movie is probably the high point, as she tries to convince herself that she can run away from her drunken, lost existence. She overacts a lot, but, here, it's a very real and frightening moment. (Her character is not realistic either, as this vixen suddenly "gets" Dodo's final poem. Vixen's don't do this: her appreciation needs to be more superstitious than knowing.) Anyway, the only thing more untenable than living in a depressing over-the-hill vixen present is trying to dash forward to grasp opportunities that were really only an erotic mirage in the first place, e.g. Sue Lyon's very sexy, very mindless, very vindictive character. Unless you extend yourself to blend with others' selves at the pecularly human level, i.e. grow up, where addictions and compulsions are kept to a minimum, you are doomed to spending the night with the iguana, or worse. This iguana is screwed if you think about it - it is doomed to fatten itself and in effect strangle itself, as the drunken Shannon merely cuts the rope the Mexican boys have tied it to without untying the noose around the animal's neck. Humans doing God's work usually screw it up: reverends almost always do. The iguana's slow exit brings home the point like no other visual could: it is an innocent creature merely following its instinct to be free, which is no sin and, for the most part, the best one can do. This some of the loonies in this movie come to learn and all's well that ends well, as long as you are comfortable in your own skin and try not to hurt anybody. Freedom is broke though and needs some cash to keep it going. Love and kindness are unlimited once discovered, so there is no problem. Shannon's crucifix serves Christ's purpose in "feeding" the enlightened Mrs. Jelkes so that she may continue to be a fisher of men. Shannon will stay with Maxine for some sanity, but Mrs. Jelkes is the real hero, not tragic, but close enough.
The play is different, with downpours of rain and upheld hands - Shannon is black Irish (Spanish blood) but he's Protestant and on the wagon. Williams must have been totally blitzed when he concocted this character. At least he isn't gay too. Anyway, the movie's Shannon is a comic figure, possibly because tragedy works better in plays than in movies and possibly because Huston and Co. couldn't keep Burton sober so they went with what they got. What they got is worth watching.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Richard Burton, fans this movie rocks!
Comment: Okay, I love this movie. He was the most sexist animal out there. The movie is great, and a great cast to go alone with it! Girls those eyes! besides that it is a wonderful move and I recommed it highly. He was a great actor and should of been noticed more for his acting abilities. On stage he was great as well!
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Night of the Iguana may be Richard Burton's finest hour on the screen: beautifully cast as an anguished, defrocked reverend, doomed to his own purgatory in Mexico as tour guide to a group of nattering biddies. (The expression on his face as the ladies warble "Happy Days Are Here Again" on the tour bus is worth a Shakespearian monologue.) John Huston's clean, black-comic adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play is a forceful snapshot of a man down to his last chance, and the superb black-and-white location photography by Gabriel Figueroa captures the end-of-the-world vibe. The women who tempt and taunt the reverend are Ava Gardner (with her maraca-shaking beach boys), Deborah Kerr, and Sue Lyon. The movie--and its backstage publicity, with Burton and Liz Taylor carrying on their Cleopatra affair--put Puerto Vallarta on the map, but it deserves notice for Burton's gutsy acting and Huston's characteristic sympathy for life's losers. --Robert Horton
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