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Orca

Killer Whale "culture of life."

1977

Director: Michael Anderson

Starring: Richard Harris, Charlotta Rampling, BO DEREK!

Why not?

THE SETUP:

A guy kills a killer whale’s UNBORN CHILD, and his “wife,” and so the whale swears vengeance on the guy. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this time it’s personal.

DISCUSSION:

I saw this movie when I was about 12 on TV, and have been intrigued about seeing again ever since. Also, I remembered it as being pretty GOOD. Not just a good story, I remembered it as being a somewhat serious film with a decent script, scenes, tone and characters. Well, I was wrong.

First among the ridiculousnesses are the many "whales in love" scenes, with the over-the-top soundtrack (lovely as it may be). Add to that the fact that most of the whale footage was obviously filmed at Sea World, and that the producers clearly only had ONE shot of a whale jumping out of the water, which gets recycled maybe 10 times throughout the film. Storywise, there's the question of how the whale knows things that only happen on land and it couldn't possibly know, even if it did have the super intelligence it supposedly does. For example, how did the whale know how to start a huge fire on land... that's a bit of a stretch.

Some other high points are the cliché of the "highly spiritual Native American, so, so, so in touch with nature!" character that shows up right on cue, and the use of the old Sea World tricks of waving the whale's tail and fins being used to symbolize the whale saying "he wants us to follow him!" Why not invent something that involves him balancing a beach ball on his nose? Or jumping through a flaming hoop?

Don't get me wrong, this film was totally enjoyable. Of course I do have quite a taste for cheese and killer animal movies... which often go hand in hand. This film also removed any lingering doubts I may have had about whether Charlotte Rampling can act. She cannot. But I recommend a rental for sure... the disparity between the high moral seriousness and solemn tone of the script and direction with the sheer ridiculousness of the story does make for some very rich veins of highly potent cheese. Not to mention the powerful and irrefutable statement this film makes about killer whale abortion.

SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?

For Sure!

 

 

 

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