Roar (1981 film)

Plot

Hank (Marshall) lives contentedly with his wild animals: two elephants, and 110 lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, cougars, and jaguars. One day, his wife (Hedren) and three children arrive to visit him. The only trouble is he is not at home, but all his animals are.

Cast

Conception

The film was conceived by Noel Marshall and Tippi Hedren after the two had completed a film together in Africa in 1969. The two came across an abandoned plantation house that had been overrun by a pride of lions, and were inspired by the discovery. Hedren, an animal rights activist, had envisioned making the film as a response to the dwindling population of endangered cats on the African continent.

Production

Roar was shot on location at Noel Marshall's private ranch in Acton, California, with its production spanning a total of 11 years. A flood at the ranch three years into the shooting process caused over $3 million in damages, creating further setbacks to the production.

Cast and crew injuries

Over 70 of the cast and crew were injured during the production of this film. Cinematographer Jan de Bont had his scalp lifted by a lion, resulting in 220 stitches. Tippi Hedren received a fractured leg and also had scalp wounds. This occurred after an elephant bucked her off its back while she was riding it. She was also bitten in the neck by a lion and required 38 stitches. This incident can also be seen in the film.

Melanie Griffith was also mauled during the production, receiving 50 stitches to her face; it was feared she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. Noel Marshall was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene. In one of those incidents, he was clawed by a cheetah when protecting the animals during a bushfire that occurred in 1979. All animals were evacuated though it took several years for him to recover from his injuries. Due to the injuries, turnover was high as many did not want to return to the set. Some of the lions also suffered from illnesses that reduced their population.

John Marshall was bitten by one of the lions and required 56 stitches. In a 2015 interview, he commented on the film's notorious tagline that 70 people were injured during the making of the film, saying:

Tippi [Hedren] disputes the number. I believe that number is inaccurate – I believe it’s over 100. It’s somewhere between 70 and 100. It is the most dangerous film ever made in history. Nowadays, there’s so much regulation, if you’re working on a film and two people get injured, they come in and they shut you down. They have safety meetings and they say, ‘What are we gonna do to change this situation?’ If they did that to us after two bites, we would have said, ‘I don’t know what else we can do differently. Should we do it with dogs? I don’t know!’ If we wanna make a movie with lions, people are gonna get bitten. We just hope that nobody dies and we’ll do everything we can to makes sure that doesn’t happen.

Marshall's brother Jerry was bitten in the foot while wearing tennis shoes on set. He later jokingly said the lion had a "tennis shoe fetish." Assistant Director Doron Kauper had his throat bitten open, his jaw was bitten, and one of the lions attempted to rip an ear off. He was also injured in the head, chest, and thigh. Although it has been reported that the attack nearly proved fatal, a July 9, 1978 edition of the Santa Cruz Sentinel printed a quote from a nurse describing his injuries as acute, meaning simply that they were sudden and traumatic. He was also reported as being conscious and in a fair condition.

Release

Though released in 1981 and 1982 in Australia and European countries, Roar was not released theatrically in the United States. In 2015, 34 years after its production, the film was picked up for distribution by Drafthouse Films, which screened it across the United States at various independent cinemas.

Critical reception

Upon its initial release, Variety said of the film: "Here is a passionate plea for the preservation of African wildlife meshed with an adventure-horror tale which aims to be a kind of Jaws of the jungle. If it seems at times more like Born Free gone berserk, such are the risks of planting the cast in the bush (actually the Marshalls’ ranch in Soledad Canyon in California), surrounded by 150 untrained lions, leopards, tigers, cheetahs and other big cats, not to mention several large and ill-tempered elephants." During the film's 2015 release, Amy Nicholson of L.A. Weekly called the film a "thrilling bore, an inanity with actual peril in every scene. The story is simply "Big cats destroy a house," since that could be guaranteed."

Home media

The film received sparse releases on VHS. Following its 2015 theatrical release in the United States, it was subsequently released on Blu-ray in November 2015 for the first time.