Terry's Reviews
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Orca Paramount Home Entertainment – 2004 Directed by Michael Anderson Written by Luciano Vincenzoni and Sergio Donati Starring |
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| Man versus beast. ORCA is about an old craggy sea
Captain Nolan (Richard Harris) fighting for his life against a killer whale that wants
revenge. This all starts after Captain Nolan hooks a female killer whale; then hoists its
dead body over the deck of his ship, when shockingly out pops its dead calf, which spills
out onto the ship’s deck. The male killer whale still swimming close by sees what
happens and then screams out in anguish. This Orca looks closely at the man responsible
and in its own way declares war. As silly as the above storyline sounds, for the most part it works. Though ORCA was made obviously from success of JAWS, the personal battle between the whale and man gives it a slightly different slant. I thought the opening of the film had a little statement against JAWS; when a diver is about to be attacked by a great white shark, a killer whale comes in pulverizing the shark to death. I took this as a cinematic statement along the lines of the one-upmanship we saw from Sam Raimi and Wes Craven with THE EVIL DEAD upping THE HILLS HAVE EYES and then A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET upping THE EVIL DEAD. Michael Anderson’s direction is pretty straightforward and he gets good performances from Richard Harris and Charlotte Rampling. The supporting cast isn’t quite as good but the special effects with the killer whales are surprisingly good and the locations used in the film are simply outstanding. Ennio Morricone’s score really helps establish mood in the film and his use of cymbals clashing during suspense scenes do help create tension. This is a film that would have been nice to see supplements for, though it may not have been financially successful enough to warrant that kind of treatment. |
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