Orca 4K 1977

The movie, which was released in 1977 and became a box-office smash, really shook me up. I remember, after the first viewing, being overwhelmed by the touching and, at the same time, bloody drama that unfolded between a killer whale and a man in the cold Arctic.

Director Michael Anderson created an impressive, tear-jerkingly exciting ecological thriller, in which orca killer whale takes revenge on whalers for the murder of his girlfriend and unborn calf. The plot itself is somewhat fantastical, but the director skillfully turns fiction into reality, thus giving the movie mystery and internal tension. This makes the movie “Orca” more advantageous.

It is worth noting the excellent work of Ted Moore, who, skillfully mastering the art of camerawork, very accurately showed this cruel struggle between animal and man. In the film the shots of the cold Arctic are fascinating, the play of light and color is successfully combined with the general background of the northern silence, and the touching, sometimes heartwarming, music of the famous Ennio Morricone (by the way, in the film “Orca” I got acquainted for the first time and forever loved the work of this composer) is organically woven into the main theme of the film.

Continuing to talk about Michael Anderson's movie in enthusiastic tones, it is impossible not to mention the brilliant acting, first of all, Richard Harris as Nolan's whaler captain and Charlotte Rampling as Rachel Bedford.

Nolan, an old sea wolf whaler who knows neither pity nor mercy for the sake of achieving money, is the first to transgress the “law of nature” and engage in an unequal battle with a whale. Harris, as always, is magnificent. He very authentically conveys all the tragedy of his hero, all his mental emptiness, and in the final battle-conscientious epiphany.

Heroine Charlotte Rampling, on the contrary, human, kind and always ready to come to the aid of nature. The heroine tries to convince Nolan in the futility of the fight with nature, she wants to delay the bloody finale of this fight, but Nolan and the orca are undisputed enemies, stubbornly going to each other, thus bringing the tragic end of this story....

At the end I will note once again: Michael Anderson's movie “Orca” - a stunning film canvas of the struggle between good and evil, revenge and forgiveness, the struggle for the right to exist on this planet Earth.