| Orca: The Killer Whale | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster byJohn Berkey[1] | |
| Directed by | Michael Anderson |
| Written by | |
| Produced by | Luciano Vincenzoni |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Ted Moore |
| Edited by | |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures[2] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 92 minutes[2] |
| Countries | United States[2][3] United Kingdom Italy |
| Languages | English[2] Italian |
| Budget | $6 million[4] or $7.5 million[5] |
| Box office | $14.7 million[6] |
Orca (also known asOrca: The Killer Whale) is a 1977thriller film directed byMichael Anderson, from a screenplay byLuciano Vincenzoni andSergio Donati based on a novel byArthur Herzog, and starringRichard Harris,Charlotte Rampling,Will Sampson,Bo Derek,Keenan Wynn andRobert Carradine. The film follows a maleorca tracking down and getting revenge on a fishing boat and its captain for intentionally killing the whale's pregnant mate and their unborn calf.
Executive producerDino De Laurentiis commissioned the project to cash in on the blockbuster success ofJaws. Filming took place inNewfoundland and Labrador andMalta, with many of the orca scenes shot at theMarineland of the Pacific and theMarine World theme parks.[7]
Upon release, the film was a minor box office success,[8] but received mostly unfavorable reception from critics and audiences alike due to its similarities toJaws, released two years prior.
Nolan is anIrish Canadian fisherman living inNewfoundland, who catches marine animals in order to pay themortgage on his boat,Bumpo, and eventually return toIreland. Nolan's crew is looking for agreat white shark on behalf of a localaquarium, but the shark targets the aquarium's representative, Ken. Anorca intervenes and kills the shark, saving Ken's life.
Nolan switches targets to the much more valuable orca. He attempts to harpoon the creature but accidentally strikes a female orca instead, leaving her with a fatal wound. Nolan and his crew get the orca on board, where she subsequentlymiscarries. The captain hoses the dead fetus overboard as the male orca, the female’s mate, looks on and screams in anguish.
The enraged male tries to ramBumpo. Nolan's first mate, Novak, cuts the dead female loose to distract their attacker, but the orca jumps the boat and takes him with it under the ocean. The following day, the orca pushes his dead mate onto the shore. Nolan agrees to kill the male, as the presence of an angry orca is causing the fish that are vital to the village's economy to migrate. The orca continues his vengeance by sinking several fishing boats and rupturing underwater oil pipes that deprive the villagers of fuel.
Rachel Bedford, a colleague of Ken and an experiencedcetologist, shows Nolan how similar orcas are to humans. He confesses that he empathizes with the orca, as his own wife and unborn child were killed in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. Nolan promises Bedford that he will not fight the orca, but that night the whale attacks his home, resulting in crewmember Annie losing her left leg. After seeing her in the hospital, Nolan recruits his only other remaining crewman, Paul, along with Ken, Bedford, and Jacob Umilak, aMi'kmaq hunter, to pursue the orca.
The crew chases the orca after he signals Nolan to follow him. Ken is leaning over the side when the orca surfaces and grabs him, killing him. They follow the orca until they reach theStrait of Belle Isle, but when Paul loses his nerve and tries to flee in the lifeboat, the orca smashes it, and he drowns. The next day, the orca maneuvers Nolan to collide with an iceberg. The captain harpoons the whale just as he and Bedford escape from the sinkingBumpo, but Umilak is crushed beneath an avalanche of ice after sending anSOS.
Nolan and Bedford hide on an iceberg, although Nolan slips onto another one to separate them and potentially save her life. The orca jumps onto the ice, causing it to tilt and sending Nolan into the water before catching him with its tail and hurling him to his death against the ice. A helicopter is seen coming to rescue Bedford. Meanwhile, the orca drowns himself by diving below the ice as the credits roll.
Writer-producerLuciano Vincenzoni was first assigned to give the film a head start after being called byDino de Laurentiis in the middle of the night in 1975. Upon admitting that he had watched the filmJaws, Vincenzoni was instructed by de Laurentiis to "find a fish tougher and more terrible than the great white". Having had little interest in sea life beforehand, Vincenzoni was directed to killer whales by his brother Adriano, who had a personal interest in zoology.[7] This was Vincenzoni's only film as a producer, as he was mainly a screenwriter.
Because neither Vincenzoni nor his co-writerSergio Donati were native English speakers,Robert Towne was hired as an uncreditedscript doctor to touch up dialogue.[9][10]
Location filming took place in the town ofPetty Harbour, about 20 kilometres south ofSt. John's.[11] The scenery meant to represent a remote polar region of Labrador was fabricated inMalta by designerMario Garbuglia.[7]
According to Vincenzoni, Richard Harris had begun to drink heavily on set after reading a tabloid magazine and seeing a photograph of his wifeAnn Turkel on a beach with a younger man. He reportedly intended to stop performing and fly toMalibu in order to kill them, relenting only after getting into a brawl which resulted in Vincenzoni getting a black eye.[7] The 46-year-old Harris insisted on performing his own stunts in the polar sequences and was nearly killed on several occasions.[4]
The underwater photography was supervised by J. Barry Herron, credited with "special photography contributions."[2]
The main orcas used for filming, calledYaka andNepo, were trained animals fromMarineland of the Pacific andMarine World/Africa USA, though artificial rubber whales were also used. These models were so lifelike that several animal rights activists blocked the trucks transporting them, confusing them for real orcas. The shark used early in the film was captured by noted shark hunterRon Taylor.
In 2004,Paramount Home Entertainment releasedOrca on Region A DVD. In 2017,Umbrella Entertainment releasedOrca on Region B Blu-ray with a new 4-minute interview with Martha De Laurentiis.[12] On June 30, 2020,Scream Factory releasedOrca on Region A Blu-ray with an improved video transfer.[13] Studio Canal released Orca on 4K UHD in Sept 2024 featuring a brand new remaster.Studio canal released Orca on Blu-ray with a Brand New Restoration & 4 Artcards on September 15, 2024 in the UK.
The film grossed $3.5 million from 775 theatres in its opening weekend[14] and went on to gross $14,717,854 in the United States and Canada.[6]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 8% based on 37 reviews and an average rating of 3.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Content to regurgitate bits of better horror movies,Orca: The Killer Whale is a soggy shark thriller with frustratingly little bite."[15] A contemporary review published byVariety called the film "man-vs-beast nonsense", and lamented that "fine special effects and underwater camera work are plowed under in dumb story-telling."[16]Richard Schickel ofTime wrote that the filmmakers behindOrca "thumbed heavily through the literature of the sea in their search for dramatic cliches", and called the film "inept" and "suspenselessly shot".[17] Gary Arnold ofThe Washington Post criticized the film's special effects and referred to it as "essentially a rehash of an earlier De Laurentiis hit,Death Wish, with the killer whale inCharles Bronson role."[18]
Orca has been unfavorably compared toJaws. Both Schickel and Arnold drew comparisons between the films, andBob Thomas of theAssociated Press called it "just another attempt to copyJaws".[19]Dave Kehr of theChicago Reader called the film an "incoherent blend ofMoby-Dick,King Kong, andJaws, hindered by what appears to be extensive reediting".[20] However, Richard Harris enjoyed his experiences during filming and took offence at comparisons betweenOrca andJaws.[4]
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