Orca: The Killer Whale (1977)

 

You never would have expected it, but after a little film called 'Jaws' was a monster success a ton of studios and producers wanted their own slice of the cake and came up with a slew of 'copycat' films; some of them horrendous ('L'Ultimo Squalo', anyone?), some hilariously clever ('Piranha') and some that try but ultimately miss the mark just a bit. 

Like this one.

Some of the things they state about orcas here turned out to be correct, but there is also quite a bit of false information and the irritating thing is that no matter how hard you try, you can't turn an orca into a real monster, as reality has proven time and time again that wild orcas just aren't that. Only orcas in captivity have actually killed people, as they tend to become psychotic.

Who wouldn't, being stuck in a minute pool all your life? 

But back to the story at hand. 

We're pretty much thrown in right away, with Charlotte Rampling's marine biologist researching orcas coming into sort of a conflict with Richard Harris' captain Nolan, who is hunting for white sharks in order to sell them. When the orcas kill a shark, his interest is picqued and he discovers aquaria pay big bucks for such a whale, so he changes his strategy. Unfortunately, his first attempt goes horribly wrong and he kills a pregnant female, leading the male to a murderous revenge quest. 

They constantly try to give the male this evil vindictive trait, but again: it's hard to think of him as evil, because you will probably feel most sympathy for the whale anyway. 

They also try and draw the parallel between a drunk driver killing Nolan's wife and unborn child and the stituation with the whale now. To be fair, Harris does play it well and he is probably the best performer in the entire film. Charlotte Rampling is rather miscast and thanks to some cuts in the footage she comes across as highly cold and aloof and she just doesn't even look the tiniest bit invested. 

Really, the plastic orca acts better than her in this film. Yikes. 

The orca terrorizes the small fishing village, prompting the villagers to oust Nolan and his remaining crew for a showdown at sea, which so happens to be somewhere near the North Pole. Only there will the male orca and Nolan settle their score once and for all.

Well, the whale does and during the ending credits swims off only to die under the ice, as it planned to drown itself after its vengeance was completed. 

As a 'Jaws'-rip-off, this isn't terrible, but it does have its share of problems. The almost soap opera-like dialogue and yapping does nothing for the tension, which is mostly absent except for some parts during the first act and most of the actors aren't that convincing. You will also need to suspend your disbelief, as it is often blatantly obvious which orca shots were done in a tank, when it's a model and when it's legitimate. Of course, they had to make do and in the end it's fairly okay, even if some of the composited shots are a bit iffy. 

But the biggest issue will always remain that the orca is constanty presented as a vengeful creature, yet you can't help but feel sympathetic towards the animal instead of the people. Heck, you won't even care about the couple of people that do die. 

So as a creature feature you could say it's above average, even though it's a bit slow and not that much happens. But they did try to make this a bit different from the average shark-inspired flick. It has its faults, but if you like this sort of thing you either have already seen it or need to. 

Sidenote: if you saw this as a kid, you will have a bigger emotional reaction and even more feelings of sympathy toward the orca. Ennio Morricone's music tugs at the heartstrings just a little too much.