I hate most of today's movies. Action movies in particular for the most part bore me to tears. Put a gun in someones hand and add some car chases and usually that is enough of a reason for me to skip your flick. I do however love action movies if the action involves animals. One of my all time favorite movies to watch is Jaws. I love Jurassic Park, Cujo, The Birds even Grizzly. I even loved the HORRIBLE 1998 version of Godzilla with Matthew Broderick. Although I love King Kong I was disappointed in Peter Jackson's version. The Jessica Lange version though bad in some ways was much more enjoyable and had a far deeper emotional punch. Jackson's version was heavy on effect missing out on the movie's key theme.
All of this leads me to Orca. The 1977 flick holds a bit of an emotional connection to me. I remember back in the mid eighties (back when they still had late night movies on network tv), staying up late with a cute baby sitter who allowed me to stay up and watch Orca with her. My parents arrived home before the movie ended but I got to watch long enough to be deeply effected by the beasts pain and tale of revenge.
Last weekend I saw an old VHS copy at one of the local used book/video stores near my home. I had not seen or thought of the movie in years but thought it was time I finished what I started long ago as a kid. The movie was pretty bad, took so many liberties with Orca behavior and some lines were cringe worthy. It was also freakin FANTASTIC! Newfoundland makes a wonderful background. Richard Harris is immensely talented so watchable and Peter Hooten reminds me of James Tupper (currently on Grey's Anatomy). Charlotte Rampling is such a 'movie star' and Bo Derek, in her first role actually keeps her clothes on the entire flick! Can I say I loved Orca, no. Can I say it was great cinema, nah. But it was one of the most enjoyable movies I have seen in awhile. It was nice to finish a memory which started 25 years ago.
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