Orca the Killer Whale – 4K UHD

As a cinephile who has spent countless hours immersed in the celluloid world, I must say that Orca, the Killer Whale is a fascinating relic of Hollywood’s monster movie boom of the late ’70s. Having grown up during this era, I remember the thrill and anticipation that surrounded these films, with their larger-than-life creatures terrorizing unsuspecting communities.

Following the massive triumph of Jaws, which pioneered the summer blockbuster genre, film studios hastened to produce their own movies featuring terrifying animals. The year 1976 brought Grizzly, but by 1977, they had developed a steady stream of deep sea monster films. Tentacles was the first of these, a low-budget Italian production that boasted an A-list cast including John Huston, Henry Fonda, Claude Atkins, and some rubber tentacles. The Italians took the lead in this genre, and producer Dino De Laurentiis certainly kept pace. Having made his mark in Hollywood with the compelling thriller Serpico, he also created ‘Death Wish,’ a film that would forever be associated with Bruce Willis, an actor whose visage grew increasingly reminiscent of a twisted monkey scrotum. However, De Laurentiis was also responsible for an expensive King Kong remake, and the monster movie trend persisted with Orca, which capitalized on the craze for giant killer fish films.

The storyline for Orca revolves around Captain Nolan’s (Richard Harris) relentless pursuit of a giant white shark. However, during this chase, he inadvertently slays a pregnant orca. Enraged by this act, her partner retaliates by wreaking havoc on a nearby fishing community with a series of lethal attacks and devastation. Recognizing that only he can halt the violence, Nolan embarks on a perilous journey to confront his adversary, which lurks in the ocean’s depths…

The story of a killer fish out for revenge was obviously ludicrous as so well illustrated by the nonsense that was 1987’s Jaws the Revenge but the Orca script had been crafted by Sergio Donati and Luciano Vincenzoni both of whom had worked with the great Sergio Leone on his spaghetti westerns. The Orca script, was low on thrilling set pieces a la Jaws but nevertheless was not without its merits with an environmental theme that was years ahead of its time. De Laurentiis had assembled a decent crew headed up by veteran London born director Michael Anderson with an impressive array of films that included the classic The Dambusters, Around the World in 80 days (1956), and Logan’s Run and was more than up to the job of handling action spectacle. To this was added composer Ennio Morricone, editor John Bloom (who would later edit and win an Oscar for Gandhi) and the cast was no less impressive with the late Richard Harris who was growing increasingly disenchanted with Hollywood, Charlotte Rampling who had made an impact with the controversial The Night Porter a few years previously and fledgling actress Bo Derek in what was her first big screen role before she hit major stardom in Blake Edwards smash hit comedy, ‘10’.

The filming of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was infamously challenging, with tales of an overrunning schedule and a malfunctioning mechanical shark being widely spread. To keep costs under control, producer De Laurentiis opted to use footage of killer whales with rubber prop fins swimming on the water’s surface instead of the faulty shark prop. This approach proved more convincing than the struggling rubber shark in Jaws. Director Anderson also used a series of striking shots, such as an orca leaping over the sea surface against a backdrop of an exploding seaport, which complemented model work depicting Captain Nolan’s port-side house on stilts being destroyed by the orca. This combination would later be replicated in Shane Black’s scripts for Lethal Weapon 2 and Iron Man 3.

In the summer of 1977, I found myself on the big screen as Orca, aiming to capture the same audience that Jaws 2 would later target. Although it didn’t quite reach the heights of Spielberg’s masterpiece, Orca was still a respectable film and managed to earn $14 million globally – a significant difference from the staggering $477 million earned by Jaws.

The Orca movie now features a fresh 4K restoration as part of the Cult Classics Collection. The video quality is superb, just as anticipated, but it’s lacking in bonus features. The sole extra is an interview with Philippe Guedj (a name we’re not familiar with), discussing the film, which is mostly informative but tends to get overly poetic at times. It would have been great if director Anderson, star Harris, and producer DeLaurentiis were still around to provide commentary. Unfortunately, only Rampling could have done so, and even a standalone interview with her would have been beneficial. Fans might have appreciated a brief interview with Bo Derek, given her limited screen time in the film. Besides this one interview, the Blu-ray version includes four art cards.

In just 92 minutes, Orca emerged as one of the top predator films, riding on the wave of popularity left by Jaws.

Here’s the Orca the Killer Whale trailer…..

2024-08-31 02:24

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