This movie obviously owes its existence to Jaws, but shows only ingratitude by having Orca, the killer whale, gobble up a Great White shark in the very first scene. After that, the undisputed ruler of the seas -- no mindless eating machine, he -- goes on to demonstrate a fine sense of personal honor, familial devotion, and blind justice. Richard Harris, happily rejuvenated, is the reckless fisherman who offends the noble beast and who gradually loses his swagger as he tries to comprehend the magnitude of his sin against nature (this simple Irish Catholic has to absorb some pretty mind-boggling lessons from a pedantic female oceanographer: "Herman Melville believed if God comes back to earth, he'll come back as a whale"). In general, a slick job by director Michael Anderson and cameraman Ted Moore. Ennio Morricone's romantic musical accompaniment to the whales' graceful aquabatics is not bad, but a very interesting, spooky soundtrack could, and probably should, have been composed of nothing but natural whale noises. With Charlotte Rampling. (1977) — Duncan Shepherd
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