Roar [Blu-ray]

Every so often, a bizarre anomaly of a movie comes around. Something that simply floors you with its strangeness. If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably already heard about Roar, the 1981 box-office bomb that has recently been making a comeback as a cult flick. You’ve likely read that the movie is insane, surrounding its cast of Hollywood stars and crew members with dozens of real life lions and other wild animals (resulting in over 70 on set accidents).Well, absolutely everything you’ve heard about this film is true. Make no mistake, Roar is a “family adventure” film promoting the humane treatment of wild animals. But in its execution, it’s simultaneously the most terrifying thing you’ll ever witness. In fact, it is impossible not to watch it in complete fear for the safety of the real-life actors and filmmakers on and off screen. As a result, Roar truly is one of the weirdest and most unique cinematic experience ever. And in some respects, it’s like a window looking into utter madness.To be fair, the project barely qualifies as a feature. The plot is threadbare. In Africa, Hank (Noel Marshall) studies lions and shares his home with an entire pride. After passionately arguing with locals for more animal conservation, he realizes that he forgotten to pick up his visiting wife Madelaine (Tippi Hedren) and their kids (played by Melanie Griffith, John Marshall and Jerry Marshall) from the airport. Hank gets into misadventures attempting to get to the landing strip, while the family make their own way to the house, only to be pawed at my lions, cougars and other species. They’re (very understandably) scared at first, but as events progress they come to understand the wonder and beauty of wildlife.And that’s about it. But what keeps you glued to the screen are the shocking interactions between the cast and lions. The movie was produced by Marshall and real-life spouse Hedren (who were both animal conservationists) and features their kids, all of whom essentially play versions of themselves. So there isn’t acting so much as fearful reactions to being inches away from the jaws of several intimidating lions. It all looks ridiculously dangerous – safety protocols were clearly ignored. Noel Marshall fearlessly (and crazily) interjects himself into groups of snarling lions, acting as if it’s completely normal. He gets bitten and cut numerous times in the process… and it’s all real.The rest of the cast are jumped on, played with and knocked around considerably in just as harrowing a manner. The characters lock themselves in room and find the pride entering and destroying the furniture around them – sometimes while the actors hide in cabinets and lockers. The music suggests that it’s all in good fun, but as viewer, it’s anxiety provoking. In fact, there’s one incident involving young Melanie Griffith that is particularly difficult to watch (especially after learning that the scene resulted in a serious injury).Granted, the cause of animal welfare is a noble and admirable. Yet there are all kinds of things that just seem wrongheaded about the endeavor. Namely, seeing all of these people willingly put themselves in mortal danger with numerous lions inside very crowded and enclosed spaces. Alas, it was a different and presumably more permissive time. The end result puts the over-the-top stunts of early Jackie Chan flicks to shame.Roar has never been an easy film to come by (many years ago there was a non-anamorphic DVD sold directly by the Marshall family). The new Blu-ray from Olive Films/ Alamo Drafthouse features image quality that looks remarkably sharp and crisp. While there is some grain and color-timing difference between some of the shots, that’s likely how the original film appeared. Frankly, it looks incredible overall. Also features optional English subtitles - rare for an Olive bluray.There are also some great bonuses. They include an enlightening commentary track and documentary on the production from John Marshall. It goes into great detail, answering many of the questions viewers will have and chronicling the bizarre 10 year period spanning from the initial concept to final product. In case you’re wondering, the family rescued many of the African lions featured and had the specimens live with them in their mansion north of Los Angeles (in order to build familial relations). The doc also explains most of the production trials and horrible injuries suffered. Additionally, there’s a Q&A, photos from the set and a new theatrical trailer created for its 2015 re-release.If you enjoy cult movies, Roar is simply and succinctly a “must own”. Period. I can’t say that it’s a good movie, but it is utterly captivating for every second of its running time. There is no other film like this and there never will be again… frankly, because it probably should never have existed in the first place. But somehow it actually came into being and thanks to a new Blu-ray, everyone can now witness one of the craziest features ever made.

This movie was amazingly good. I throughly enjoyed it. I'm a big fan of national geographic and the big cats and all animals in general. Its amazing no one was killed making this movie, there was never a movie filmed with human contact with big cats like this and never will be again. If your an animal lover watch this movie, you will not be disappointed. The film transfer is beautiful and colors are bright, filmed in panavision.

Loved it when I saw it in the theater, even better with CC

Roar is the hardest movie-watching experience in the world. After seeing it at a b-movie festival, I and several other participants had to leave as there was simply no way to top what we had just witnessed. See this if you're in to "bad" movies, skip it if you're weak of stomach.SQUIRM! As lions bloodily injure human beings on-screen, and they leave the actual injuries in the film.GASP! As you realize parts of the movie are shown out-of-sequence so you see the dried blood before you see the actor get the wound, which just makes it worse because you know what's coming.LAUGH, THEN SCREAM! As you discover that tigers are infinitely more terrifying than lions, because Tigers love to swim. Their favorite game is to topple a boat with their massive weight and then try to push people underwater like floating toys.SHOUT FOR THE HORROR TO STOP! As you realize the African co-star of the film obviously doesn't enjoy being around big cats and the lead actor is having to put his body between the animals and the African guy to shield the poor guy from attack.But what is the plot? There's a weak story that people are trying to close this animal preserve. It turns out that only the big cats can fend them off, and something about a rivalry between the alpha lions is also happening. The real plot is how the movie got an approval from animals rights groups to say that "no animals were harmed in the making of this movie" even as you watch violent interactions between cats repeatedly during the film resulting in bloody injuries.What's the real story, though? Animal rights activists thought they could film a movie where they would live side-by-side with big cats. The plan was to raise several animals from kittens, so that by the time they were ready for film they would all be members of a big happy family. This didn't go all to plan, as they repeatedly ran out of money so filming took several years. Judging by the above text you probably realize by now that the cats weren't as docile as some had wished. Apparently, when you cram multiple adult male lions into a space and try to force them to interact, you end up in the hospital. Who knew? The plot is stock-standard "evil people encroaching on noble savages" trope, except the savages in this film are lions and tigers- and a few leopards and jaguars. Why not?This movie is like an old-school circus sideshow. The animal wranglers are the freaks, and your mission is to try to make it to the end without having a panic attack. Also features a young Melanie Griffith, who got dozens of stitches to her face from a lioness mauling which happens on-screen. Filmed by Jan de Bont, who nearly died on set and had to be taken to a hospital. Starring Tippi Hedren, who fractured her leg, and Noel Marshall who gets wounded so often on-screen that he had to be treated for gangrene. I'm so glad Alamo Drafthouse rescued this movie, because it deserves to exist. It's the reason modern movies need large safety crews, and we all benefit from its lessons. This experience also led Tippy Hedren to form The Shambala Preserve for the protection of big cats, so some good eventually came of it.

I'm going to start this off by saying I did loan this blu-ray to two of my friends who both came back disappointed. But I loved it so much I ordered a second copy. It's really more of a home movie that documents the amazing childhood of Melanie Griffith and her brothers who actually lived with these beautiful animals. I'm sure they were the coolest kids in school because of it. But it's also a bit scary as people are really getting injured along the way as the cast attempts to stick to a very weak script. So it made me laugh, while also making me pause it to collect my thoughts during certain points where I did not think the "actor" should be taking certain chances with animals who to them are just playing, but are playing pretty rough. The animals are not trained and many were problems for their previous owners when they were adopted by this family. Not sure it's a good idea to have all of the dominant males together like they are here, fighting for that top lion position in a huge pride. And that's why I would pause the movie and consider these things as the father of the family does things like attempt to break up fights between the largest and most dominant among them. It's really an amazing movie, to me at least, and I don't think you will find another quite like it in your lifetime.

Excellent movie.Truly unique and certainly not one I can see ever getting a remake.

Good DVD speedily delivered1

This is the craziest film I have ever seen. With every one of the "big cats" involved, how they managed to manage the mayhem even to the marginal extent that they did is beyond me and as the trailer says - "No animals were hurt in this production but 70 members of the cast were." That no one was killed is nothing short of amazing!

Excellent film avec de superbes félins et paysages. Malgré certains commentaires sur l'histoire, j'ai trouvé que ce film racontant le combat d'un homme pour sauver les félins de toutes sortes génial ! C'est tellement facile de critiquer et de dire qu'il n'y a pas de réelle histoire, mais ce film retrace le combat d'humains pour les animaux. A voir absolument !!

Not an awesome senario but the result of this movie is just unique. The way it was made is just so stunning!