Orca (AKA Orca - The Killer Whale)

Dir: Michael Anderson

1977

****

Orca pretty much flopped when it was released due to it being a shameless Jaws rip-off and not being as good a film as Jaws. However, I would argue that all these years later, with so many shameless Jaws copies and ‘Sharksploitation’ now a sub-genre, Orca is the second best film of its ilk after Steven Spielberg's classic. It is better than Jaws 2 for sure. Producer Luciano Vincenzoni was first assigned to give the film a head start after being called by Dino de Laurentiis in the middle of the night in 1975. Upon admitting that he had watched Jaws, Vincenzoni was instructed by de Laurentiis to "find a fish tougher and more terrible than the great white". de Laurentiis was famous for taking over franchises later on in his career such as King Kong, Amityville and Halloween, and while not all of them were great, some of them are now bona fide cult classics. During his career he produced La Strada, Barbarella, Serpico, Blue Velvet and Army of Darkness so credit is very much due. His King Kong remakes are amazing. The film is about Captain Nolan ( played by the brilliant Richard Harris), an Irish Canadian who catches marine animals in order to pay off the mortgage of his boat and eventually return to Ireland. Nolan's crew is currently looking for a great white shark for a local aquarium, but a scientist named Ken (Robert Carradine) is targeted by the shark. In a thrilling sequence, an orca intervenes just in time and kills the shark, saving Ken's life. This switches Nolan's target to orca. Later while hunting with his crew, Nolan tries to capture what he believes to be a bull orca, but mistakenly harpoons a pregnant female. Nolan and his crew get the orca on board, where she subsequently miscarries. The captain hoses the dead fetus overboard as the male orca looks on screaming in anguish. Seeking release for his near-dead mate, the male orca tries to sink the ship. One of Nolan's crew members, Novak (the wonderful Keenan Wynn), cuts the female off the ship, but the male leaps up and drags him into the sea too. The following day, the orca pushes his now dead mate onto shore. Al Swain (Scott Walker) berates Nolan on his actions after finding the dead whale. Nolan denies responsibility, but Swain and the villagers eventually find out his involvement. The villagers insist that he kill the orca, as the latter's presence is causing the fish vital to the village's economy to migrate. The orca then terrorises the village by sinking fishing boats in broad daylight and then breaking fuel lines, thus destroying the village's fuel reserves. Dr. Rachel Bedford (Charlotte Rampling), a colleague of Ken and a whale expert, shows him how similar whales are to humans and tells Nolan that, "If he (the orca) is like a human, what he wants isn't necessarily what he should have." Nolan confesses to Bedford that he empathises with the whale, as his own wife and unborn child had previously been killed in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. Nolan promises Bedford not to fight the whale, but the orca attacks his sea-front house, containing an injured crew member of Nolan's, Annie (Bo Derek) within it. The house starts slipping into the sea and the whale bites Annie's left leg off. Nolan decides to fight the orca, although with Novak dead and Annie maimed and unable to help, Nolan and Paul (Peter Hooten) are now the only crew members left. Bedford and Ken join the pursuit, along with a Native American man, Jacob Umilak (Will Sampson), enlisted for his orca knowledge. The crew begins to follow the whale after he signals Nolan to follow him. Ken is leaning over the side when the whale surfaces and grabs him, killing him in the process. They follow the whale until they reach the Strait of Belle Isle, though when Paul starts to get into a lifeboat, the orca knocks Paul out of the boat and drowns him. The next day, the whale shoves an iceberg into the boat and starts to sink it. Nolan manages to harpoon the whale just before he and Bedford escape from the boat, while Umilak is crushed beneath an avalanche of ice just after sending out an SOS. Nolan and Bedford hide in an iceberg, although Nolan slips onto another. The orca separates the icebergs, trapping Nolan. The whale jumps onto the ice, causing it to tilt and sending Nolan into the water. The whale lifts Nolan up with his tail and throws him onto another iceberg, killing him. Bedford looks on as Nolan slips into the water in a cross shape. With his revenge complete, the whale swims southward under the ice, while a helicopter is seen which presumably will rescue Bedford. As the credits begin to roll, the orca is shown swimming beneath the thick arctic ice and butting his head against it, attempting unsuccessfully to surface for air. Though his fate is ultimately uncertain, it is suggested that the orca will likely drown beneath the ice, his revenge having cost his own life as well. Having had little interest in sea life beforehand, Vincenzoni was directed to killer whales by his brother Adriano, who had a personal interest in zoology, who I can’t help but think encouraged him to make something of a more well-balanced story. If you’re going to make a nonsense story of revenge, then you might as well give it some poignancy. Filming took place largely in Newfoundland during the fishing season. The main orcas used for filming were trained animals from Marineland of the Pacific and Marine World Africa, though artificial whales made of rubber were used also. These models were so lifelike that several animal rights activists blocked the trucks transporting them, confusing them for real orcas. They looked a hell of a lot better than ‘Bruce’ – the fake shark used in Jaws. The then 46-year-old Richard Harris insisted on performing his own stunts in the polar sequences, and was nearly killed on several occasions. Harris was said to have really enjoyed his experiences during filming, and took great offence at any comparison between Orca and Jaws and for good reason. They really are totally different films. Jaws attacked for no reason and only sought revenge (or at least her kids did) in the sequels. Orca’s revenge was far more understandable, man is the real bad-guy here but in the end revenge didn’t prevail for anyone. The sequence that saw the baby Orca die is heart-breaking and, as much as I love Richard Harris, I was kind of on the Orca’s side. That is the beauty of Orca, it was like a modern day Moby Dick. Jaws was scary, it had everyone on the edge of their seats and made them jump more than once but Orca haunts you long after you finish watching it. Orca is the ultimate ‘Man vs nature’ horror, it’s eerie and disturbing and made me feel quite uneasy. It’s a crime that it is still mistaken for a cheap Jaws knock-off when it is actually rather poetic and beautifully written/directed. The Ennio Morricone score is also superb.