Orca by Arthur Herzog

Title: Orca

Author: Arthur Herzog

Year: 1977

Publishing Details: Original Pocket Book edition, June 1977, a Simon and Schuster Division

Genre: Science Fiction, Horror

Topical Category: Sea Monster, Animals Attack!

Synopsis and Background:

Once upon a time there was a movie called Jaws. Released in 1975, it was based on a bestselling novel from the previous year by author Peter Benchley and directed by a relative unknown, 29 year-old Steven Spielberg. Jaws was made for a budget of about 9 million dollars.

It made over 270 million dollars at the domestic box office. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a cinematic landmark for it’s style and success. As such, it spawned a heap of imitators of varying quality.

Soon after Jaws was released to critical acclaim, an Italian director named Dino De Laurentiis called up his friend Luciano Vincenzoni in the middle of the night and demanded: “Trovami un pesce più fetente e terribile dello squalo bianco, scrivi una sceneggiatura e se mi convince ti faccio fare anche il produttore!” (As described in his autobiography Pane e Cinema by Luciano Vincenzoni (2005).)

Or, roughly, Dino asked “Find me a fish more disgusting/stinking and terrible than the great white shark, write a screenplay, and if it convinces me I will let you be the producer!”

Somewhat excited but knowing nothing about fish, Luciano asked his brother Adriano, a zoology major, for suggestions and learned the the orca or killer whale was “più spettacolare e temibile dello squalo bianco”. More spectacular and terrible than the great white shark. 

And so Dino and Luciano set out to make a movie, Orca: The Killer Whale (1977).

To tie-in to the release of this movie, a novel was released written by the author of The  Swarm (1978), Arthur Herzog.

…I don’t know why the finished movie and the finished book vary so wildly in plot and quality, but if it is indicative of Herzog’s art generally then my sympathies to anyone who reads his work.

Jack Campbell is our ‘hero’ (if he can be called that) and he starts off the book by mocking Jaws saying he ‘fell asleep’ during it. Wow. Considering what is to come next that is the saddest attempt at a burn I have ever seen.

Jack runs a marina and is suffering from “drinking and womanizing…apathy, pessimism, and bitterness” so his sister Annie has dragged him to the Seaquarium to improve his mood. And he immediately ruins any sympathy you may have had for him three pages into the book when he decides to ogle his sister and contemplate how good she is in bed.

I can only assume the author wants us to hate the main character. Or is too inept to realize why you should not have your protagonist do this. 

Anyways, Jack is impressed by the orcas at the Seaquarium and then makes the brilliant decision to go out and catch a great white shark to sell to a Japanese aquarium and reverse his fortunes. Do we learn that he has any prior shark catching experience? No. What we do learn is he is a sex maniac who likes to drink straight gin and that his future-brother-in-law Paul is an idiot who ‘would like to brand his initials on a live shark’ (like a cow? I guess?). 

So off go Jack and Annie and Paul and first mate Gus to catch a great white shark. During their quest, they proceed to almost mow down a pair of scuba divers, one assistant in a raft and one underwater. And then Jack decided the best way to deal with that situation is calling the female diver a ‘stupid bitch’. Ken, the diver’s assistant is then almost eaten by a great white shark and saved at the last minute by an enormous forty-foot orca with a notched fin. Jack, being a compassionate man, decides to repay the whale by capturing it to sell to the Japanese instead of the shark. 

Turns out the female diver is Professor Rachel Bedford of Cornell University who Jack loses no time in ogling, insulting some more, and then appalling with his half-baked whale capturing plan. Using his deep emotional competence and ability to read the room, he then propositions her, she refuses, and he tells her to, “Go to hell, Bitch!” Charming.

Jack proceeds to get the corrupt Newfoundland authorities’ permission to catch and pen the whale. He is then almost bribed with a prostitute by the local fishermen and makes a variety of racist comments about Chief Umilak, a native authority that Dr. Bedford brought to speak to Jack to persuade him that the big orca is sacred and should not be harmed.

In search of the big whale, Jack captures another orca, a calving cow. He then proceeds to screw up so enormously that the female and the unborn baby both die.

Having seen Jack murder his pregnant mate and unborn child, the giant nicked-fin orca swears revenge and starts out by eating Gus the first mate. Annie also breaks her leg in the scuffle.

Dr. Bedford proceeds to have what I can only assume is some kind of personality shift brought on alien mind control and starts becoming attracted to Jack after he tells her she’s frigid cause she relates to fish better than men and starts calling her ‘baby’. Jack capitalizes on this by…sleeping with a prostitute the guy fixing his boat pimps out to him. Meanwhile the orca starts sinking ships in the harbor, sending Jack a message.

While on the lookout for the whale in the harbor, Jack and Dr. Bedford have sex. Outside. At night. On a rocky peninsula. Meanwhile, the townsfolk are riled by the whale chasing away the fish, sinking their boats, lighting the pier on fire, etc. etc. They form an angry mob to force Jack to leave and fight the whale on the high seas. But only after the harbor house on stilts our main characters are staying in gets knocked over by the whale and ‘Nickfin’ bites off Annie’s broken leg does Jack decide to get serious.

Jack and Dr. Bedford, Paul and Chief Umilak set off to battle the whale and see who will prove the most determined predator, man or orca?

(…Oh and then Paul decides he ‘doesn’t want a one-legged woman’ and flees on a bus leaving his place to be filled by a philanderous French-Canadian. On brand for this novel.)

SPOILERS BELOW

My Thoughts:

The orca was still little known in the 1970s, so its characterization as ‘the most ferocious animal in the world’ can probably be forgiven. As can a lack of knowledge regarding their matriarchal social structure, mating, and feeding. The sperm whale is their principle prey? Really? Also the finding of fifteen seals, thirteen porpoises, and human remains in the stomach of a single orca is pure fantasy. But I can excuse wanting to beef up your chosen monster to make your story more monster-y (a good example of the ridiculousness you can get away with in this regard is the movie Anaconda (1997).)

What is not excusable is this trashy mess of a book. Eegads. 

The characters are a mess. From Jack being a sad sack and overall despicable human being to his sister Annie being a college student who doesn’t know that whales are not ‘fish’, to Paul the almost-brother-in-law who yells ‘Yahoo’ when spotting sharks and smokes weed at inappropriate moments, to Dr. Bedford who apparently thinks getting called a bitch repeatedly means that they just have ‘bad chemistry’. No it’s cause Jack is an asshat. 

It is not impossible to have a good book with unlikable characters, heck the original Jaws novel has plenty people you just want the shark to eat and be done with. But Jaws had some other markers of quality, creativity, tact…Orca does not. On top of the terrible characters, annoyingly glib misogyny, and terrible dialogue, the ending is also deeply unsatisfying. Did Jack win? Did Nickfin the orca give up his revenge? Did he decide his wounds were too severe and go North to die like Frankenstein’s monster? No idea. I would also say ‘we don’t know if Jack and Dr. Bedford survive’ but quite frankly I don’t care. 

The number of times during my reading marathon a pointless sex scene does nothing to advance the plot:  3 (Thank you, Arthur Herzog, for making me read this ‘love scene’ dialogue. Blargh.)

Rating:

1/3 Entertainment Value: Well…there were no long boring stretches of exposition or dialogue. Everything was pretty to the point and related to the plot. That said, I did not have fun. I would not read this book again for enjoyment.

1/3 Quality: This book features some truly ridiculous prose, here are a few examples:

“Which sea dragon did they belong to?” (Neither sharks nor orcas are ‘sea dragons’?)

“The great white shark, master of menace, aquatic enigma, hungry Hun of the deep, Beelzebub from below– the shark grinned its famous death smile. Pig-eyes glittering, the head reached the surface.”

(The only title missing here is ‘Clown Prince of Crime’. Also, pig-eyes? Great Whites are famous for their onyx black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. Pigs are not. The orca is also described latter with ‘porcine’ eyes. Make up your mind.)

“A dolphin is like the womb of the sea, the womb of all creation!” (And this lady is a whale biologist?!?)

“In the meantime there was his crotch to contend with” (…)

2/3 Originality: This was a Jaws knock-off, true. But the use of the orca as antagonist was original. And the setting of the final battle on an ice floe where killer whales are notoriously capable predators was inspired. There is a lovely book called Killer (1979) by Peter Tonkin that  I will review later that does so much more with this premise. Just read that instead.

0/1 Exceeds Expectations: Worse than I was expecting. Grown women are referred to as ‘girls’ and ‘bitches’ frequently. There is mention of the ‘Japs’, references to police as ‘pigs’, racist comments about Native Americans including a joke about the ‘rain dance’. Even for the time this is a tone deaf pile of stereotypes. And of moments where a character admires how tight his sister’s jeans are on his ‘girlfriend’s’ butt. Classy.

Total Score: 4/10

Best Quote(s):

“The town’s being terrorized by a monster and all you can think of is sex.”

DISCLAIMER

The book Orca is horrible. The movie on the other hand…

Title: Orca: The Killer Whale

Director: Dino De Laurentiis

Year: 1977

Starring: Richard Harris, Charlotte Rampling, Will Sampson

Genre: Science Fiction, Horror

Topical Category: Animals Attack!, Revenge Fantasy

Synopsis and Background:

A peaceful family man lives happily with his wife. They are expecting their first child. One day, acting as a good samaritan, he saves a man’s life. In return, his wife and unborn child are brutally murdered before his eyes.

There is no law to give him justice, he must become his own law. Call him a vigilante. Or call him a hero. When violence rules the ocean. When the coast guard can’t stop it. One whale will. His way.

In 1974, the movie Death Wish became the latest in a line of revenge fantasy movies. Mild mannered architect Paul Kersey comes home to find his wife and daughter brutally assaulted. His wife dies, his daughter is left catatonic. The police can do nothing to catch the criminals who destroyed his family. So he decided to become his own law and goes out to the streets of New York to solve the problem himself. Almost 50 years later and the revenge fantasy genre, boasting the likes of Kill Bill, Taken, and John Wick, is still going strong.

Orca: The Killer Whale is in some ways the story of a washed up fisherman trying to make it back to Ireland and instead making a terrible mistake. It is also the story of a marine biologist determined to save a whale, and a man. And the story of a small fishing town trying to survive. But at its core, Orca is about a whale and his quest for revenge on the man who murdered his family. And nothing will stop him. 

It is Death Wish but with a killer whale.

While it shares some story beats with the novel, the film version of Orca is 110% better. The characters are given some depth and dignity. Instead of starting with bored Jack at the Seaquarium ogling his sister’s ‘assets’, the movie begins with two solid minutes of Mr. and Mrs. Orca living free and happy in their natural habitat, very much in love. 

But of course tragedy will soon strike. Captain Nolan is out hunting for a great white shark and witnesses the orca save a man from getting chomped. He proceeds to try to capture and orca and kills Mrs. Orca and her unborn calf. From then on it is the story of the whale’s drive for vengeance, at any price.

SPOILERS BELOW

My Thoughts:

Yes, the science is ridiculous. 45 foot orcas recorded my foot. They get the scientific name in the wrong order. It’s Orcinus orca. And no one has ever said that the whale “has a profound instinct for vengeance”*. But darn it. This is an entertaining film. And the talented cast give it much more dignity than it probably deserves. Compared to the novel, it is like night and day. The score is intriguing and memorable (is that a theremin in places?), Keenan Wynn and Bo Derek make up parts of the supporting cast. 

The orca blows up a whole oil storage tank and then leaps out of the water in spiteful glee. And the final combat between man and whale is wonderfully executed. The animatronic whales and composites of stock footage are well accomplished. The love story is still pointless, kinda sexist, and superfluous. But nobody calls Charlotte Rampling a bitch. Richard Harris gives the role some actual pathos and charm and his character has a teeny bit of sympathetic backstory so you don’t get sick of looking at him. 

Finally, the character parallels between Captain Nolan and the orca that hunts him are interesting and the ending is thought provoking.

The orca got his revenge. Completely. As we watch him swim away, alone, we wonder: did revenge bring him peace? Or did it simply deaden him inside?

Rating:

3/3 Entertainment Value: Go watch this movie!

3/3 Quality: The effects work is excellent and it appears actual money was spent on both sets and props and competent actors.

2/3 Originality: See my score above for the novel.

1/1 Exceeds Expectations: For a movie with a kind of stupid premise, there is a lot of poignancy I did not expect when I saw the sensationalist trailer for this film.

Total Score: 9/10

Best Quote(s):

“I understand what that whale is feeling because the same thing happened to me.”

“He loved his family more than I loved mine.”

*NOTE: I stand corrected. A small pod of orcas has been attacking yachts off the Strait of Gibraltar as of November 2023 (https://www.npr.org/2023/11/07/1211269495/orca-boat-yacht-attack-spain-morocco). Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Orca Behavior Institute, is on record saying, “I definitely think orcas are capable of complex emotions like revenge.”