“ORCA The Killer Whale” (1977) Commentary - Film Discussion Watchalong Retrospective Podcast Review
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Mike and Adam Long of Movie Geeks United discuss the underrated classic, Orca from 1977 in this film audio commentary.
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Orca (1977 film): Orca (also known as Orca: The Killer Whale) is a 1977 American thriller film directed by Michael Anderson and produced by Dino De Laurentiis, starring Richard Harris, Charlotte Rampling and Will Sampson. The film follows a male orca whale tracking down and getting revenge on a boat captain for killing the whale's pregnant mate and their unborn calf.
CAST:
Richard Harris as Captain Nolan
Charlotte Rampling as Rachel Bedford
Will Sampson as Umilak
Bo Derek as Annie
Keenan Wynn as Novak
Robert Carradine as Ken
Peter Hooten as Paul
Scott Walker as Al Swain
Don "Red" Barry as Doc Worker
Yaka and Nepo as The Orca
Theatrical release poster by John Berkey
Directed by Michael Anderson
Written by:
Luciano Vincenzoni
Sergio Donati
Produced by:
Dino De Laurentiis
Luciano Vincenzoni
Cinematography:
J. Barry Herron, Ted Moore
Edited by: Ralph E. Winters, John Bloom, Marion Rothman
Music by: Ennio Morricone
Production Company:
Famous Films
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date: July 22, 1977
Running time: 92 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget $6 million
Box office: $14.7 million
Upon release, the film was a minor box office success, but received mostly unfavorable reception from critics and audiences alike due to its similarities to the film Jaws, released two years prior.
In 2017, Umbrella Entertainment released Orca on Region B Blu-ray with a new 4-minute interview with Martha De Laurentiis. On June 30, 2020, Scream Factory released Orca on Region A Blu-ray with an improved video transfer.
Captain Nolan is an Irish Canadian living in South Harbour, Nova Scotia who catches marine animals in order to pay off the mortgage on his boat and eventually return to Ireland. Nolan's crew is currently looking for a great white shark for a local aquarium, but a marine biologist named Ken is targeted by the shark. An orca intervenes and kills the shark, saving Ken's life. This switches Nolan's target to the orca. Later while hunting with his crew, Nolan tries to capture what he believes to be a male orca, but mistakenly harpoons a pregnant female. Nolan and his crew get the orca on board, where she subsequently miscarries. The captain hoses the dead fetus overboard as her mate looks on, screaming in anguish.
Seeking release for his near-dead mate, the male orca tries to sink the ship. One of Nolan's crew members, Novak, cuts the female off the ship, but the male leaps up and drags him into the sea. The following day, the orca pushes his now-dead mate onto the shore. Al Swain, representative of the local fishermen's union, berates Nolan for his actions after finding the dead whale. Nolan denies responsibility, but Swain and the villagers eventually find out his involvement. The villagers insist that he kill the orca, as the whale's presence is causing the fish that are vital to the village's economy to migrate. The orca terrorizes the village by sinking fishing boats in broad daylight and then breaking pipelines, thus destroying the village's fuel reserves.
Nolan promises Bedford that he will not fight the whale, but the orca attacks his seafront house where his injured crew member, Annie, is staying. The house starts slipping into the sea, and the whale bites Annie's left leg off. Nolan decides to fight the orca, but with Novak dead, and Annie maimed and unable to help, Nolan and Paul are now the only crew members left to take up pursuit. Bedford and Ken join the pursuit, along with Jacob Umilak, a Mi’kmaq enlisted for his ancestral knowledge on orcas.
The crew begins to follow the whale after he signals Nolan to follow him. Nolan manages to harpoon the whale just as he and Bedford escape from the boat, but Umilak is crushed beneath an avalanche of ice just after sending out an SOS.
