There never has been, and there never will be, a movie like Roar. Even the tagline is one in a million, “No animals were harmed in the making of this film. Seventy cast and crew members were.” If that doesn’t pique your interest, then you ought to have your pulse checked.
Originally released in 1981 — but never in the U.S. — Roar is essentially two stories, one intended and one delivered. Roar was the passion project of actress and animal rights activist, Tippi Hedren (famous for her roles in Hitchcock’s The Birds and Marnie) and husband, Noel Marshall (one of the executive producers behind The Exorcist). Their goal was to make a sort of hippy-dippy movie that would quell the rampant hunting in Africa by showing that lions, tigers and jaguars are perfectly capable of cohabitating with human beings. If only people saw the individual personality of each animal, they would cease hunting and embrace their feline friends.
To pull this off, Hedren and Marshall brought along their children, Melanie, John and Jerry, to give an image of the family that loves lions together, stays together. They lived with wild cats on their property north of Los Angeles (where Roar was shot), but these were not trained animals and the Hedren/Marshall clan wasn’t anywhere close to being qualified. You might expect that anyone foolish enough to work around wild animals would at least know a few basics, but Roar shows that they are just there, constantly at the mercy of these big cats. There is a whole lot of, “Here, try this” as the family does their best to play along.
But lion plus people usually equals lion. Hence, the second story of Roar — the one that actually made it to the screen — of lions, tigers and a couple of elephants pretty much doing whatever it is they want to do. Including: fighting, feeding, wrestling, playing and looking into the camera from time to time. Even the directing credit went to, “Noel Marshall and friends.”
All of this sets up what turns out to be one glorious train wreck from start to finish. The acting is terrible, as is the end credits song, but the genuine fear in the actor’s eyes is as real as anything you will ever see. Miraculously, no one was killed — although the fake blood budget must have been quite low — allowing us to both marvel at and enjoy Roar. At the very least, for being one of the most ill-conceived ideas in the history of motion pictures.
To see Roar is to believe Roar, and that line of thinking is behind the Boedecker’s new series, Friday Night Weird. Every Friday at 10:30 p.m., host Kit Marcy will present a new installment from the offbeat and bizarre. These movies boggle the mind, but they are endlessly watchable, especially with a drink or two under your belt. Grab a glass and a seat and watch one of the worst possible ideas unfold right before your eyes. You’ll be cheering for those lions in no time.
