Orca (film)
From Freepedia
| Orca | |
| Image:Orcamovie.JPG | |
| Directed by | Michael Anderson |
| Written by | Luciano Vincenzoni Sergio Donati |
| Starring | Richard Harris Charlotte Rampling |
| Produced by | Dino De Laurentiis Luciano Vincenzoni |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date | July 22, 1977 |
| Runtime | 92 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | |
| IMDb page | |
Orca is a 1977 horror film directed by Michael Anderson and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and starring Richard Harris and Charlotte Rampling. The film was one of a long line of marine-related horror-disaster films that followed the success of 1975's Jaws. In this film, the antagonist is an Orca "killer" whale.
Contents |
Plot
Nolan (Richard Harris) is a crusty sea captain who is offered a large pay day by a local aquarium if he can capture a killer whale. He goes out to sea with his crew and captures a whale, which he strings up vertically aboard his ship on the way back to port. Unfortunately, the whale dies on its way back to port. The whale happens to be pregnant and its mate seeks vengeance for her death, killing one of Nolan's shipmates. The situation deteriorates as Nolan and the whale fight a deadly battle and local professor, Rachel Bedford (Charlotte Rampling), tries to bring Nolan to his senses before everything goes awry.
Production
Like Jaws two years earlier, filming scenes with real whales seemed impractical, so Anderson used a combination of stock footage and animatronics to portray the killer whale. The stock was taken at Marine World in Redwood City, California, and the animatronic whale was filmed off of Malta (the film was an Italian production) and Newfoundland.
Reception
Orca was poorly received by critics who panned the film as a Jaws "rip-off" (which in many ways, it was), and for its poorly conceived special effects work. Many scientists also panned the film for many of the same reasons they criticized Jaws. Scientifically, the film was very flawed, as whales, even orcas, very rarely attack humans. The film was also criticized for a gory sequence in which a whale in its death throes aborts a fetus. When released in July of 1977, the film found only minor success, but over the course of thirty years has achieved a cult following among fans of the eco-horror sub genre. It's often seen as superior to Jaws: The Revenge, another film about personal revenge against a vicious sea creature.
Trivia
There are many comparisons betweeen Orca and the Jaws series. Orca was the name of Quint's ship in Jaws, and was found wrecked in Jaws 2. Orca contained a scene where the killer whale mauled a great white shark to death, and in response, Jaws 2 contained a scene where an orca was found dead on the beach, possibly by a shark attack.
Cast
- Richard Harris as Captain Nolan
- Charlotte Rampling as Rachel Bedford
- Will Sampson as Umilak
- Bo Derek as Annie
- Keenan Wynn as Novak
- Robert Carradine as Ken
