October 24
I don't think I could tell you if I remember seeing all of
Orca as a child, but there was one scene that did stick with me that was from this film, and it is the early, fateful death of the female killer whale. There's little in this scene that isn't pitched like one of the most horrific events ever shown on film, culminating in an absolutely unforgettable conclusion that involves its fetus being forcibly breached through and dropped onto the deck of the ship of the people that captured it in the first place. Even after all this time, that whole scene still boasts an effectiveness that few films of its kind could hope to match. While the rest of the film is doomed to have to live up to such a shocker (especially as it comes fairly early on in), there's definitely a lot of positive qualities to
Orca that helps it secure a status as being one of the better direct
Jaws ripoffs out there. A lot of that is helped by establishing early on that our male whale is more hero than villain, doing a bit of good as he's wreaking havoc on our offending crew with some environmentally helpful collateral damage along the way, including a big "you have to see it to believe it" moment in which it finds a way to destroy an oil refinery. Having as much footage of real killer whales also lends a nice bit of authenticity that few films had at the time (save
Tintorera, though that had the misfortune of killing most of them at the same time), capturing their natural beauty as well as finding good ways of making them look fierce. The cast has a lot of heavyweights in it, though I did find that they were let down by their writing more often than not. The biggest victim is Richard Harris, whose character of Nolan goes through a lot of extremes throughout that makes it hard for the sympathetic elements of the character to stick, which is an issue when he's the main character, though he does give it his all. Director Michael Anderson also seems to struggle throughout with maintaining a consistent tone: he can handle the more horrific elements rather well as I mentioned, but it's a film that also has to deal with some really campy elements and serious stabs at drama, and it never seems to really all exist in the same film, which leads to something of an anticlimactic conclusion, despite the spectacle surrounding it. In a way, it goes for the same kind of emotional resonance that
Jaws had in spades, but as is often the case for Dino Di Laurentiis productions, there's just too much of an emphasis on the money being thrown at the screen that makes it fall flat in that regard. That being said, it is a solid film from an entertainment perspective, with some strong technical qualities and a great Ennio Morricone score to go along with the other pluses I mentioned, and I can't think of a film that has ever suffered as a result of the lovely Charlotte Rampling being featured so prominently as she is here. As far as
Jaws ripoffs are concerned,
Orca is one of the better ones and certainly deserves credit for the good things it does manage to pull off. The early scene in which a great white shark is dispatched by our heroic whale is writing a check that it can't quite cash, but a cheeky little stab at the competition never hurt anyone.
Piranha is a shameless B-movie riff on
Jaws and isn't afraid to admit it. With its primary goal of giving the audience exactly what it wants, it's filled with the blood, gore and T&A that you really couldn't get in a more mainstream production, never really concerning itself that much with anything else. That isn't to say it's a workmanlike production, as Joe Dante is clearly having a lot of fun behind the camera with his great use of quoting and sight gags (some of the newspaper and magazine article headlines are real winners, as well as a terrific jailbreak moment of extreme courteousness), along with a surprisingly hilarious script from John Sayles, who puts in a lot of wonderful little lines that liven up the whole thing. The who's who of B-movie staples is also greatly appreciated, and while it's tempting to go right to Dante staple and lucky charm Dick Miller as a standout, it's Paul Bartel's amusingly aggressive summer camp director that gets the biggest laughs; it's hard to wrong with any of them. It doesn't flow as well as one might hope, with some scenes going on a bit longer than they should, and the ending feels surprisingly anticlimactic in its execution. Dante does also run into some tone problems throughout, with the attack scenes pitched pretty seriously, only to come up at odds against the more light tone of the film at every turn. It's good B-movie fun at the end of the day, and while it's not a knockout, it's punching above its weight at nearly every opportunity, showing off a promising director who would go on to do great things and certainly being a much better
Jaws film than the one that did come out the same year. Thank you for picking the right horse to bet on, Steven Spielberg.
Films for October 25: The final week of October kicks off in grand fashion with not one, not two, but three vampire films! The main attraction of my 70s marathon comes in the form of
Daughters of Darkness, a retelling of the infamous Elizabeth Bathory tale in a modern day setting. But thanks to the awesome folks at Fathom Events, they've put together another neat little Universal Monsters double feature again, this time offering up two sides of the same coin, in the form of the one that started it all for them in
Dracula, as well as the Spanish-language
Drácula, shot on the same sets and considered by some as a superior film. It's a jam-packed day, and one that's sure to be a highly memorable one!
