Arguably one of the most dangerous attempts at making a movie has to be the controversial adventure-comedy Roar, the brainchild of Hollywood producer Noel Marshall. What started as an observatory for Marshall's then wife Tippi Hedren to protect lions and other wild cats, they spent their lives with these animals, and then decided to make a movie around said cats, which ended up taking years to make due to the untrained animals causing problems for the crew. Nowadays, it is highly regarded as a cult classic "the most dangerous film ever made", and while it might not pass as a cohesive feature, it's sure a fascinating sight to behold.
The film focuses on a naturalist named Hank residing on an African nature preserve with lions, tigers, and other big cats, who end up confronting his visiting family. As far as the storyline goes, that's as basic as the movie gets, and it doesn't help that much of the film's plot barely has any focus at all. One minute the movie will focus on Hank and his friend Mativo trying to preserve the cats, then it will focus on Hank' family barely surviving the animals, then it will focus on these supposed evil poachers trying to kill the cats for no other reason than because they're dangerous, with no proper cohesion. A large part of the lack of narrative consistency is because of the disastrous production the movie went through given the trouble the wild cats inflicted on the crew, so whenever they would attempt a story, the animals would mess things up. As a result, the movie is often really tedious to sit through, as you're more annoyed by the characters in danger than you are fearing for their lives. Plus, the ending moral is very confusing, since it feels like a contradiction of all the terror these cats inflicted on the characters.
However, in spite of the weak story and questionable morality, what does make the movie somewhat worth checking out is everything revolving around the cats. What's funny about the movie is that some of the cats got actor credits, and one can tell how important their roles were in this feature, whether it'd be intentional or unintentional. Although one can tell it was a nightmare just to control them during the making of the film, the shear antics they cause are beyond fascinating. Anytime they come on screen, you can never tell what they're gonna do next, even if it means mistaking the cast as prey. There's even a variety of other animals from tigers, to panthers and even some angry elephants, so you know there's never just one threat of lions lurking about. In addition to their frightening presence, there are times when the film shows off how friendly they can be if given the necessary time of day, which is where the film occasionally shows off its more heartfelt side. I never thought I'd see the day where animals overrule humans in a movie's creative decisions.
So overall. while Roar might not work that well as a cohesive movie, it's still an intriguing watch for its unpredictability and wild animals. Even though this movie did nothing but damage to Marshall and Hedren's lives during the making and aftermath (they lost a lot of money on it), it's still worth preserving in the history books as a fascinating specimen. We all now know why it's never a good idea to film a movie with a large variety of wild animals as the co-stars, but it took brawn over brains to really hammer that point in. And for that, Roar will go down as one of the most important studies in filmmaking.
The film focuses on a naturalist named Hank residing on an African nature preserve with lions, tigers, and other big cats, who end up confronting his visiting family. As far as the storyline goes, that's as basic as the movie gets, and it doesn't help that much of the film's plot barely has any focus at all. One minute the movie will focus on Hank and his friend Mativo trying to preserve the cats, then it will focus on Hank' family barely surviving the animals, then it will focus on these supposed evil poachers trying to kill the cats for no other reason than because they're dangerous, with no proper cohesion. A large part of the lack of narrative consistency is because of the disastrous production the movie went through given the trouble the wild cats inflicted on the crew, so whenever they would attempt a story, the animals would mess things up. As a result, the movie is often really tedious to sit through, as you're more annoyed by the characters in danger than you are fearing for their lives. Plus, the ending moral is very confusing, since it feels like a contradiction of all the terror these cats inflicted on the characters.
However, in spite of the weak story and questionable morality, what does make the movie somewhat worth checking out is everything revolving around the cats. What's funny about the movie is that some of the cats got actor credits, and one can tell how important their roles were in this feature, whether it'd be intentional or unintentional. Although one can tell it was a nightmare just to control them during the making of the film, the shear antics they cause are beyond fascinating. Anytime they come on screen, you can never tell what they're gonna do next, even if it means mistaking the cast as prey. There's even a variety of other animals from tigers, to panthers and even some angry elephants, so you know there's never just one threat of lions lurking about. In addition to their frightening presence, there are times when the film shows off how friendly they can be if given the necessary time of day, which is where the film occasionally shows off its more heartfelt side. I never thought I'd see the day where animals overrule humans in a movie's creative decisions.
So overall. while Roar might not work that well as a cohesive movie, it's still an intriguing watch for its unpredictability and wild animals. Even though this movie did nothing but damage to Marshall and Hedren's lives during the making and aftermath (they lost a lot of money on it), it's still worth preserving in the history books as a fascinating specimen. We all now know why it's never a good idea to film a movie with a large variety of wild animals as the co-stars, but it took brawn over brains to really hammer that point in. And for that, Roar will go down as one of the most important studies in filmmaking.