My review of Claws (1977)
This movie was filmed in Juneau Alaska by Alaska Pictures Production Company. The Producer, Chuck D. Keen also wrote the script, was the chief cinematographer and also performed stunts in the film along with his brother Michael Keen. Keen lovingly shoots gorgeous images of the Alaskan wildlife and this part of the movie is on par with some of the classic 1960's Disney nature documentaries. Some of the footage of the bears fighting with each other had to be dangerous to capture as it appears that one of the bears banged into the cameraman during the fight. The rest of the film though is marred by a cast of mostly inexperienced amateurs. Some of the actors for the major roles would have been familiar to the 1977 audience as frequent one-shot actors for popular television shows. But, the only actor that was in anything relevant to me was Myron Healy who played the Sheriff in this movie and then about five years later played a minor character, anthropologist Arch Quinton, in the 1983 NBC mini-series "V".
Released just two years after the Steven Spielberg block-buster Jaws, the producers of Claws attempted to translate the man-meets-deadly-animal theme to Alaska. The names of the movies are not the only comparison to be made. Both movies feature scenes where college scientist come into town with fancy equipment and underestimate the danger of the wild beast. Both films feature anxious public officials trying to keep the panic level down in the face of sensational journalists. Both films feature animals that seem to have anthropomorphic intelligence and reactions to the heroes' attempts to hunt them down. While there are many more comparisons to be drawn, the one I found most striking was the way both the beasts in Jaws and Claws essentially blew themselves up after attacking inanimate objects containing highly flammable fuel that were then ignited by the heroes' gun shots. Shockingly, this was the second movie made by an independent production company that attempted to rip-off the Jaws formula with a killer bear. In 1976 the movie Grizzly became a $39 million dollar success with the tagline "The most dangerous jaws in the land". In fact, Claws was released in some countries as Grizzly 2, even though Claws was not a sequel to Grizzly. So Claws is an attempt to mimic Grizzly which was in and of itself a rip-off of Jaws.
This movie does do a little better job than Jaws explaining why this wild animal is so different. It's not just a bear but a malignant Indian spirit known as the "Quistica" or "Kustaka" or "Kooshdakhaaor" or in this movie simply called "Devil Bear"". There actually is a native Alaskan myth involving a a cross between a man and an otter ("Kustaka" = "land otter man") that is either helpful or preys on the lost; tricking them to their death . The writer of this movie, Chuck D. Keen, seems to have converted that myth into a bear man. Native Alaskan mysticism is further utilized in the script by the guide, Henry's, hallucinations. I wondered whether the images of the two rams butting heads was intentionally symbolic of Jason and Howard's competition for Christine's affection.
One of the major disappointments of this film was the inconsistent script. It is filled with weird plot holes and ineffective story devices. To name a few: * Howard is not really a bad guy. He tried to protect the boy scouts at the campfire from the bear. He seems to genuinely care about Christine and her young son, Buck, and have their best interests at heart. That is why it is so shocking when after he dies in the woods, Howard is never spoken of again for the rest of the movie and Christine quickly moves on to tongues swabbing Jason's mouth.
*Jason Evers makes such a big deal early in the film about how the bear maimed him and caused him to lose function in one of his arms (which has caused him issues with his logging business), yet later in the movie both arms seem fine and fully functional.
* I visited Alaska, so I know that prices there are expensive because everything is shipped there from the mainland, but still the prices quoted in this 1977 film seem awfully high. $5000 to shoot a bear? $15,000.00 for an old beaten up Truck?
* Are we supposed to believe that the Bear after attacking and killing the college scientists and the hunting guide managed to hang the dead black scientist upside down from the rafters of the cabin and prop the door partially open so that the dead black scientists' body would drop down booby trap-style when someone opens the door to the cabin?
* I thought the movie had way too many flashbacks. Immediately after Jason Evers is attacked by the bear, the picture cuts ahead five years, and shows us news wire service stories showing that the "Devil Bear" continues to kill. This clumsy time jump fragments the story and forces the writer to employ flashbacks to tell the backstories for the main characters. There has to be a better way to tell this story than to continuously flash back to years earlier.
* This movie appears to have been made with the intention of getting a PG rating, yet features one of the dirtiest bits of dialogue in any PG movie from the 1970's: Jason: "I don't owe you no favors, and I aint your son old man" Ben the Forest Commissioner: "No but you could have been, your old man and I came up to this country together. We jizz-balled all over hell and back" Does this mean that the old Ben banged Jason's Mom? Is that what he is trying to tell Jason?
*Chris could not manage to pull the trigger in the very slow motion climax. Somehow, Jason pulls himself up from the ledge (with one functional arm) and grabs the flare gun and ignites the gasoline soaked bear, all before the bear can kill Chris after he knocks her down.
This movie was filmed in Juneau Alaska by Alaska Pictures Production Company. The Producer, Chuck D. Keen also wrote the script, was the chief cinematographer and also performed stunts in the film along with his brother Michael Keen. Keen lovingly shoots gorgeous images of the Alaskan wildlife and this part of the movie is on par with some of the classic 1960's Disney nature documentaries. Some of the footage of the bears fighting with each other had to be dangerous to capture as it appears that one of the bears banged into the cameraman during the fight. The rest of the film though is marred by a cast of mostly inexperienced amateurs. Some of the actors for the major roles would have been familiar to the 1977 audience as frequent one-shot actors for popular television shows. But, the only actor that was in anything relevant to me was Myron Healy who played the Sheriff in this movie and then about five years later played a minor character, anthropologist Arch Quinton, in the 1983 NBC mini-series "V".
Released just two years after the Steven Spielberg block-buster Jaws, the producers of Claws attempted to translate the man-meets-deadly-animal theme to Alaska. The names of the movies are not the only comparison to be made. Both movies feature scenes where college scientist come into town with fancy equipment and underestimate the danger of the wild beast. Both films feature anxious public officials trying to keep the panic level down in the face of sensational journalists. Both films feature animals that seem to have anthropomorphic intelligence and reactions to the heroes' attempts to hunt them down. While there are many more comparisons to be drawn, the one I found most striking was the way both the beasts in Jaws and Claws essentially blew themselves up after attacking inanimate objects containing highly flammable fuel that were then ignited by the heroes' gun shots. Shockingly, this was the second movie made by an independent production company that attempted to rip-off the Jaws formula with a killer bear. In 1976 the movie Grizzly became a $39 million dollar success with the tagline "The most dangerous jaws in the land". In fact, Claws was released in some countries as Grizzly 2, even though Claws was not a sequel to Grizzly. So Claws is an attempt to mimic Grizzly which was in and of itself a rip-off of Jaws.
This movie does do a little better job than Jaws explaining why this wild animal is so different. It's not just a bear but a malignant Indian spirit known as the "Quistica" or "Kustaka" or "Kooshdakhaaor" or in this movie simply called "Devil Bear"". There actually is a native Alaskan myth involving a a cross between a man and an otter ("Kustaka" = "land otter man") that is either helpful or preys on the lost; tricking them to their death . The writer of this movie, Chuck D. Keen, seems to have converted that myth into a bear man. Native Alaskan mysticism is further utilized in the script by the guide, Henry's, hallucinations. I wondered whether the images of the two rams butting heads was intentionally symbolic of Jason and Howard's competition for Christine's affection.
One of the major disappointments of this film was the inconsistent script. It is filled with weird plot holes and ineffective story devices. To name a few: * Howard is not really a bad guy. He tried to protect the boy scouts at the campfire from the bear. He seems to genuinely care about Christine and her young son, Buck, and have their best interests at heart. That is why it is so shocking when after he dies in the woods, Howard is never spoken of again for the rest of the movie and Christine quickly moves on to tongues swabbing Jason's mouth.
*Jason Evers makes such a big deal early in the film about how the bear maimed him and caused him to lose function in one of his arms (which has caused him issues with his logging business), yet later in the movie both arms seem fine and fully functional.
* I visited Alaska, so I know that prices there are expensive because everything is shipped there from the mainland, but still the prices quoted in this 1977 film seem awfully high. $5000 to shoot a bear? $15,000.00 for an old beaten up Truck?
* Are we supposed to believe that the Bear after attacking and killing the college scientists and the hunting guide managed to hang the dead black scientist upside down from the rafters of the cabin and prop the door partially open so that the dead black scientists' body would drop down booby trap-style when someone opens the door to the cabin?
* I thought the movie had way too many flashbacks. Immediately after Jason Evers is attacked by the bear, the picture cuts ahead five years, and shows us news wire service stories showing that the "Devil Bear" continues to kill. This clumsy time jump fragments the story and forces the writer to employ flashbacks to tell the backstories for the main characters. There has to be a better way to tell this story than to continuously flash back to years earlier.
* This movie appears to have been made with the intention of getting a PG rating, yet features one of the dirtiest bits of dialogue in any PG movie from the 1970's: Jason: "I don't owe you no favors, and I aint your son old man" Ben the Forest Commissioner: "No but you could have been, your old man and I came up to this country together. We jizz-balled all over hell and back" Does this mean that the old Ben banged Jason's Mom? Is that what he is trying to tell Jason?
*Chris could not manage to pull the trigger in the very slow motion climax. Somehow, Jason pulls himself up from the ledge (with one functional arm) and grabs the flare gun and ignites the gasoline soaked bear, all before the bear can kill Chris after he knocks her down.