Disc Reviews

Orca: The Killer Whale – DVD Review

11th Apr 2014

Here we have one of the more forgotten ‘post JAWS’ killer fish movies, re-released on DVD.

Directed by Michael Anderson, and starring Richard Harris, and Charlotte Rampling; Orca: The Killer Whale is the story of a fishing boat captain who foolishly decides to try and capture a live Killer Whale in order to sell to an aquarium. Not having the slightest idea how to properly go about such an endeavour; things go very pear shaped very quickly. Whales die, people die, there’s vengeance and retribution, and blood.

“Find a fish tougher and more terrible than the Great White” – says Dino De Laurentiis when planning a JAWS response.

Orca arrived two years after Spielberg’s blockbuster (just before JAWS 2 in fact), and of course features a Killer Whale as the ‘killer fish’ du jour (yes I know a whale isn’t a fish, sheesh!). It was the obvious choice in terms of a predator ‘fish’ bigger and better than the Great White.

Now, a lot of people (and I’d bet real money some of them didn’t even seen the movie), dismissed Orca as nothing but the shameless cash in on JAWS that the above quote suggests. But like adding milk to scrambled eggs, to do this, would be a grave mistake. However preposterous the premise of a Killer Whale exacting revenge on the human beings who slaughtered it’s mate may, or may not actually be (and because we know whales are very intelligent; suspension of disbelief here is somewhat easier than you’d think), the verisimilitude of the movie’s values, and writing effortlessly hook you in. Harris in particular is fantastically watchable, and his performance is not only beautifully judged and nuanced; but his character develops and evolves in a way that belies the B movie premise, as does Ennio Morricone’s score (more on that later).

Speaking of the premise, ‘B’ movie it may be, but the film is actually imbued with quite powerful and sometimes upsetting themes of morality, and philosophy, and has a deepness of thought woven throughout the narrative in a surprisingly considered manner. Whereas a film about a killer shark, cannot possibly involve much in the way of musing on what the shark is feeling, or why it’s doing what it’s doing; Orca can and does spend considerable time contemplating these very things. The movie allows the viewer to make their own mind up who they think the bad guy is, and a certain ambiguity about that is evident, and embodied brilliantly by Harris and Rampling. It all makes for a very interesting journey indeed.

Of course in amongst the more poignant and heartbreaking scenes, are the more ubiquitous ones of action and gore. The movie is actually quite a tough watch in places, with the initial whale catching scene trumping anything in JAWS at least in terms of gut wrenching, disturbing imagery.

We do however, also have a scene in which you see a Killer Whale effortlessly dispatch…..you guessed it; a Great White shark (an obvious ‘up yours’ reversed and delivered back again in JAWS 2 incidentally). It’s not done in a fun frollicky way though. Orca is just not that kind of movie. This is in no way a criticism either; merely an obvious way in which it differs markedly from JAWS, which even in it’s darkest moments is still fun. Orca is dark, cold, brooding, almost desperately sad, and totally serious in it’s tone.

Tying it all together, is Ennio Morricone’s haunting score, which is still incredibly moving, even if the main theme is a little over used in the film. It is pure Morricone, with echoes of Spaghetti Western masterpieces such as L’estasi Dell’oro from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly subtly woven in to its romance. The composer captures an incredible depth of emotion. It is at once terribly melancholy, spiritual, full of love, and beautifully ‘of the sea’, in that magical way a great composer can evoke such things. It has to be one of the saddest main themes ever written, and can be almost overwhelming. It’s certainly one of those scores that add a good 20% value on to the entire movie. I must say; I don’t care so much for the Carol Connors sung vocal/lyric version (We Are One) which plays over the end titles. It shares the main theme’s essential musical progression, and is very beautiful in isolation; I just always feel that, coming as it does; only at the very end of the movie; it’s a little late to the party. The symphonic score has already ‘had us at hello’, and by the end of the movie, and all out of tissues; We Are One can be just too much to take.

Unfortunately the DVD release is vanilla plain, and doesn’t have any special bonus features to speak of. This is such a shame, as the movie really deserves at least one of those hour long retrospective documentaries. We’re nuts for supplementary material here at Filmwerk though, and would love there to be some insight on the disc. It perhaps simply testament to the film’s relative lack of box office success back in 1977, that a more comprehensive DVD package was not possible. Alas, this maintains a rather enigmatic flavour to the proceedings.

The movie is presented in nice wide 2.35:1, and looks clean and well preserved/restored though.

No, this is definitely not JAWS, and good job too. Orca strikes a path all its own, and remains the one ‘killer fish’ movie other than Spielberg’s to really offer something deeper than you might expect (and it’s not even a fish!).