Orca (1977)

Orca (1977)

Directed by: Michael Anderson

Starring: Richard Harris, Charlotte Rampling, Bo Derek

Another one of these 70’s Jaws ripoffs, hooray. Orca isn’t really all that bad of a film, except that the core of the movie revolves around the idea that killer whales are as smart as or (depending on the person) smarter than people. That and there really wasn’t any suspense or anything scary at all in it. And it was really slow paced, making it feel like an eternity in torment. Other than that, though…

Orca documents the natural struggle between the killer whale and it’s natural enemy, the Irishman (Harris). This Irish poacher guy decides to catch hisself an orca, but instead accidentally kills a pregnant one, spilling big jell-o-ey whale fetus all over his boat. He feels really bad about all this, but not as bad as when the mate of the dead whale pushes it to shore and starts stalking him. I mean, come on, whale! He’s sorry already, you don’t have to be a dick and beach your dead mate and then start attacking everyone but this guy as your revenge. Because this is all a scheme by the whale to get the Irish guy to come back out to sea so they can have a fair fight. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, this is NOT the movie for you. Eventually the movie takes a Frankensteinian turn as the Irishman follows the whale to the Arctic (for some reason) and the whole thing ends on an ice floe.

I think they were trying for a sorta half-Moby Dick, half-Jaws sorta feel with this one, but it just fell flat. Really, really flat. I mean, with Captain Ahab, he’s legitimately crazy in his hunt for the whale that took his leg, and that eventual madness drives the whole story. In Orca, the Irish captain guy just demonstrates bottomless stupidity time after time again, making you constantly scream, “JUST SHOOT THE DAMN WHALE AND BE OVER!” When I rented this one, the box toted it as an “action/thriller/horror/drama.” Drama I believe, the rest of it… I don’t really think so. If you like long, boring movies about people speculating about whales, go watch something on the Discovery channel and skip this one. Unless you like Bo Derek. I like Bo Derek.