Humans have the capacity for great evil. Oftentimes the public is complicit in this cruelty without their knowledge. One of the cruelest things we do as a species is cage animals and put them on display for the public to gawk at. Zoos of course do have some upsides especially when preserving at risk species, however one animal that should never be caged is the mighty Orca. Orcas are incredibly intelligent creatures as the first ten minutes of the 1977 Jaws rip-off, accurately named ‘Orca’, details in a surprisingly long university lecture. One of the telltale signs of a captive Orca is the curved dorsal fin, something which rarely occurs in the wild but is guaranteed to show up when the creature has been in captivity. For a movie clearing aping Jaws this can present an issue. A fin is the hallmark of a killer shark movie and this movie uses a mixture of captive whales with practical effects to deliver an entertaining yet very weird monster movie. I mention the fins because it is the only way to really determine what is practical and what is real. This movie for all its faults has an amazing set of Orca effects.
Orca is a movie that is definitely made to ape off of the success had with Spielberg’s 1975 classic Jaws, however it has a different tone. Particularly when it comes to its main villain. See the Orca is not a mindless eating machine, the Orca is on a journey of pure unadulterated revenge. This Orca is directly targeting Captain Nolan because Nolan murdered his wife and child. This movie goes straight to Jaws: The Revenge (1987) territory right off the bat as this is a mystical marine beast intent on finding revenge. Nolan himself dealt with great tragedy in his own life as he lost his wife and child when they were hit by a drunk driver. Near the climax of the film, Nolan declares that he is this Orca’s drunk driver, which sort of implies he brutally murdered the driver who killed his wife and kids.
Orca is a movie with a lot on its mind. Mostly “What if Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfuss boned in Jaws?” and “Orca’s celebrate by jumping out of the water at SeaWorld let’s make sure that happens every time he causes wanton destruction in this movie”. The latter is hilarious and the former sees Dreyfuss’s Hooper replaced by actress Charlotte Rampling who plays a university professor who loves Orcas. The weirdest element is the very racist caricature of a Native Canadian played by Will Sampson. The movie dives a lot into the metaphysical which is not something one expects from a movie that features actress Bo Derek getting her leg ripped off. None of these elements work all too well but each have their moments. The rampage to the Nova Scotia fishing village we get is outstanding but we never spend enough time with the village to really understand what the culture is normally like. From the outside it really is just a stereotypical portrayal and lacks the intricacies of say Amity from Jaws. It would have been more effective to see perhaps an innocent become a victim of the mighty beast. Then we could have had an impactful scene like the death of the Kintner boy in Jaws. That scene drives Brody to face his fears and face the beast out in open sea. The closest we get to a similar scene here has the townspeople refusing to let the captain or his crew leave town as they know the only way to save the town is to force a conflict. This leads to a third act in the realm of Jaws but it has very little nuance. Mostly weird romance scenes and crew members slowly going insane. It does feature a great arctic set that really brings the insanity out for the final act.
Orca is a very weird movie but it is not without charms. When compared to the previous Jaws knockoff I covered ‘Tentacles’ (1977) this movie at least has more than one good scene and is never a slog to sit through. It has weirdly been a movie I almost watched dozens of times but it took until this year to finally pull the trigger and purchase it. Jaws 2 (1978) opens with a dead Orca being beached as a sly dig at this film but that’s a bit unfair as it has a very different goal. Then again this movie opens with an Orca eating a Great White shark so I shouldn’t give it too much credit. The Orca has the most character development in the movie and you are meant to heavily emphasize with his plight. The opening scene of the Orca murder is difficult to watch and is very effective. This is lessened a bit when you realize that during the filming of the movie they used captive Orca’s to do some of the stunts which just makes you sad to see them. One of the worst cultural impacts to come from Jaws was the hysteria it caused around sharks and shark sightings. Leading to many senseless deaths of Sharks who were truly just minding their own business. Shark attacks are very rare but the effectiveness of Jaws lead to them having a stigma against them with violent consequences. If only Orca could have had a similar effect. To cause us all to see Orcas as intelligent animals we should not keep locked away in tanks. What we do have however is another Canadian giant monster movie that features way too many ideas but also features some outstanding effects sequences. Jaws: The Revenge it appears was named in the honour of this movie as they finally got their revenge for being ripped off, by ripping of the mighty Orca itself.
