Roar

Roar (1981)

Runtime: 84 minutes (at least that's the only copy that's available online)

Directed by: Noel Marshall

Starring: Noel Marshall, Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith, Kyalo Mativo

From: American Filmworks

Here's a totally random film, and an incredibly unique one at that. I'll explain the details in the Letterboxd review but note that this has to be the most dangerous and definitely the most reckless movie that has ever been made and let's cross our fingers something this dumb never happens again, where literally many lives were put in peril for a long time and it turns out, for no real good reason at all. Note that this is a film where you literally see many of the cast get legit attacked by wild animals! Now onto the Letterboxd review:

Note: I do not have any pithy jokes to make concerning the Katy Perry song of the same name; honestly, the song's terrible and Ms. Perry is an ATROCIOUS tone-deaf singer and musician and her being so popular makes me shake my head in shame.

That said, here's a film that at first I thought I had never heard of before, but as the Bad Movie Fiends podcast was reviewing it I realize that I HAD read about this movie before. In short, to catch everyone here are the details on this one of a kind film:

* It was made by Tippi Hedrin and her then-husband Noel Marshall; it was a passion project for them. It includes Tippi's daughter Melanie Griffith in an early role, and other family members are also there.

* For reasons I'll explain in a bit, it took ELEVEN YEARS to film from the time that the script writing began until it made its debut.

* There really isn't a plot to the movie, except that you get to see a ranch (in what's supposed to be “Africa” but it was actually filmed in California) and in the house live an incredible amount of jungle cats; I mean, literally dozens of lions, tigers, jaguars, pumas, and all the other varieties live on the property... and there are other animals around too, such as elephants.

* Note that as far as I know none of these animals were trained. NOW WHAT COULD GO WRONG THERE? Judging by a peak at the incredible trivia section on the IMDb page for the movie, a lot did go wrong, from fires, floods, and illness to the obvious, in that many members of the crew and cast were seriously injured during the making of this motion picture when the animals attacked them, including Griffith and a then unknown Jan de Bont. The full list is there on IMDb but many people got hurt bad and it's a miracle that no one was killed. Believe me, many reckless things happen throughout; this for sure is legit the most terrifying and the most dangerous movie you'll ever see.

* I mean, injuries resulting in many stitches, or to such severity that it took literally a few years for people to recover. You often see those wild animals fighting with each other and all the lion attacks are legit. Talk about terrifying! It goes against the incredibly hippie attitude of the film. Now, I am all for preserving such animals and preventing them from becoming extinct, but keeping wild beasts in your house is insanity. You literally see them tear that dump they call a house apart!

In terms of entertainment value, I can't rate it any higher than I do. Like I said there's really no plot to speak of and they basically went with what footage they could actually get. Lead actor/director/producer/writer/everything else Noel Marshall is not only a pretty crappy actor but he's a major asstagonist, constantly saying that it's OK to live with all these beasts even when you're constantly shown evidence that this isn't the case. Now, I laughed at this bozo getting attacked himself, but in real life putting all the crew members AND YOUR FAMILY'S lives in danger like that for so long?

While it's amazing and it's great to laugh at due to how absurd it is (at least no one was killed or crippled for life), it's not something I'd ever see again. As to how I found it, it's on YouTube in a copy that looks like a foreign dub but actually isn't... you didn't hear that from me, though.

I'll return tomorrow night.