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An orca whale seeks vengeance on a fisherman (Richard Harris) and his harbor community for killing its pregnant mate in this Jaws cash-grab from producer Dino DeLaurentiis that distinguishes itself in remarkable ways. Charlotte Rampling co-stars as the biologist who cautions Harris that orcas are highly intelligent and emotional animals, but Harris proceeds to accidentally kill one of the creatures in attempt to capture it. This kicks off a series of vengeful attacks by the surviving mate. It even follows Harris to harbor and wreaks havoc on the town in clever, if preposterous, ways, turning the superstitious community against Harris and his team. Harris’ character develops a sense of impending doom, acknowledging his reckless behavior is essentially a sin against nature, and ultimately decides to let the orca lead him into remote arctic waters for a potentially suicidal showdown.
Screenwriters Luciano Vincenzoni (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) and Sergio Donati (Once Upon a Time in the West) lend Orca a heightened, mythic quality. The film is more a dramatic morality tale than a Jaws-like thriller. The death of the female orca is horrifying. After she’s harpooned, she tries to commit suicide by repeatedly running into the ship’s propeller. Once Harris hoists her bleeding body up onto the deck, she gives birth to a stillborn baby. Director Michael Anderson (Logan’s Run, Around the World in 80 Days) then cuts to the male orca, screaming in the water at the death of his family. The sequence haunts the rest of the film, causing the audience to identify with the whale as much as, if not more than, Harris and the human characters.
Orca also distinguishes itself by presenting a complicated male protagonist who slowly dismantles his façade of macho confidence and indifference as the story progresses. The whale’s death wears on Harris’ character. He asks a preacher if he has committed a sin, and later confides in Rampling’s character that he relates with the widower whale, having lost his pregnant wife in a car crash years earlier. It gets to a point where Harris contemplates suicide, not just to stop the remaining whale’s attacks, but to assuage his guilty conscience. When Harris lets the whale lead him to the location of their final showdown, Orca becomes a psychologically sophisticated, full-blown tragedy. We feel for the man and the whale, both trapped in a revenge cycle they cannot escape.
Harris and Rampling deliver serious performances that give credibility to a film that could easily have been a straight exploitation horror film. Will Sampson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Outlaw Josey Wales) co-stars as a Native American man who advises them, and Bo Derek (10, Tarzan the Ape Man) makes her acting debut as one of Harris’ crew members. As great as the script and acting are, the film struggles with the execution of several special effects. Judicious editing saves most of these moments. The Newfoundland locations are a beauty to behold, as is Ted Moore’s widescreen cinematography. The underwater photography of live orcas is also very striking, especially when accompanied by maestro Ennio Morricone’s mournful scoring. His end title song, “We Are One”, is a gorgeous finishing touch to the film, encouraging us to be good stewards to the animal kingdom. To this end, Orca is far from a Jaws rip-off. It’s the Anti-Jaws.
With Keenan Wynn and Robert Carradine.