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Orca (1977)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
5/21
5/21:
It's impossible to watch Orca without thinking of Jaws.
This one has a bearded guy who kind of resembles Richard Dreyfuss. For the fateful trip to hunt down the killer whale
instead of Bruce, it's three men plus a woman. Captain Quint—I'm sorry as I meant to say Nolan—is a reincarnation
of Martin Brody in the spirit of Ahab. Hence, there are too many similarities going on here. Even Quint's boat was called
Orca.
No doubt it's a weird movie with uncharacteristically bad acting by Richard Harris who invokes the name of God every
fifteen minutes. Obviously, his character has to die because there's no other satisfactory conclusion; what sucks is
it took so long to get there. Because of his singular eye, the killer whale has a super fantastic photographic memory.
In all of my life, I don't think I've heard or read a tale about a killer whale taking revenge on a human being. Orcas
can burn down a town because they've understood the concept of gas and fire? To avoid dealing with them, the
accursed person can simply stay put in a landlocked region for many years which can be also said for everybody in
Jaws and the rest of the silly sequels.
The filmmakers keep insisting the setting is in Newfoundland, Canada, yet there are some references to the United States.
Worse is the sight of fake icebergs. They must have done the final act in a water tank with sprayed-on wood objects. Actually, the
location shooting took place in Malta which isn't anywhere near Greenland.
Ironically, a lot of what Richard Harris' character did at the beginning is exactly what contracted fishermen performed
for SeaLand and SeaWorld. In the process, many orcas were accidentally killed while a few of the captured ones, which
were separated by force from their family, had been shipped away to become performers. To know more about how
SeaWorld became a billion-dollar industry is to see the documentary Blackfish.
All in all, if a niche genre had been successfully exploited by one film, then it should end right there.