Studio Canal are releasing a gorgeous 4K restoration of Michael Anderson's ORCA on all disc formats, with the UHD getting the steelbook treatment as follows:
Newfoundland fisherman Nolan (Richard Harris) dreams of paying off his mortgage with the money he hopes to make capturing marine creatures which he can then sell to aquarium attractions. However, when he attempts to trap an orca things go horribly wrong. The whale is a pregnant female that spontaneously aborts and then dies, all of it witnessed by her life partner.
It takes both the science of cetologist Rachel (Charlotte Rampling) and the superstitions of both native American Umilak (Will Sampson) and the local fishing community for Nolan to understand the whale has sworn vengeance on him and his crew and will stop at nothing until they are all dead. The only thing Nolan can do is chase the whale out into iceberg-filled waters for a final showdown.
Produced (by Dino De Laurentiis) in the wake of JAWS with the intention being very much to capitalise on that film's success, it's perhaps unsurprising that the popular press of the day dismissed the film as a ripoff of the Spielberg film. However, while Jaws is a superlative example of a monster movie, Michael Anderson's Orca is a different beast altogether, and perhaps has more in common with Michael Winner's Death Wish (another film where a man goes after the people how destroyed his family) than a shark movie.
It's far more of a downbeat affair as well. There's nothing of the camaraderie we see in JAWS. Instead Nolan is a man who knows he is journeying to his inevitable death, and as the film goes on it becomes progressively sadder and more doom-laden.
Studio Canal's 4K restoration is a thing of beauty, allowing DP Ted Moore's beautiful compositions of sea and land, and the shots of the orcas, to look their very best. Get the UHD disc if you can. Extras are limited to a 30 minute discussion of the film by French film journalist and director Phillipe Guedj, who offers background to the movie as well as his own interpretation of it. The disc also comes with four art cards.
Michael Anderson's ORCA - KILLER WHALE is out from Studio Canal on DVD, Blu-ray and 4KUHD on Monday 2nd September 2024
At last! I saw this one on TV a very, very long time ago- and it has lurked just beneath the surface of my conscious memory ever since. I have just ordered the bluray on the back of your review. Many thanks.
ReplyDelete