The most recent movie I watched, albeit not completely (for what will be self evident reasons), was the 1981 cult movie Roar. And Jesus Christ in heaven, where to begin with this damn thing?
This movie is violent and graphic as all hell, to the point that it verges into arguably being labeled as a borderline snuff film. For those out of the loop, Roar is essentially Grizzly Man before Grizzly Man that took 8 years to make. Primarily because the person who made, directed, and starred in the film Noel Marshall used untamed animals such as lions, tigers, panthers, and jaguars that he owned for the movie and had the entire cast film with these unpredictable, carnivorous predators in a fenced in nature preserve.
To say this was doomed to fail from the start is an understatement. It resulted in up to 70-100 crew members getting mauled and injured brutally, as well as key members of the cast. Melanie Griffin, who was foolish to accept a role for this, was permanently scarred after getting clawed in the face by a lion because of this movie and needed multiple reconstructive surgeries to fix her face and scalp. Tippi Hedren had her leg snapped in half by an elephant picking her up with its trunk. The cinematographer for the movie Jan de Bont had his scalp almost ripped off his head while working for this movie and is famously pictured in the re-released promotional posters that shows his injuries. Noel Marshall's sons, who also worked on the film, got attacked with his son John needing 56 stitches after being bit in the back of the head by a male lion. Hell, Noel Marshall almost died from gangrene on more than one occasion as a result of being viciously attacked in this. To add insult to injury, this movie was a box office bomb that only made $2 million after it took $17 million to make.
This flop, along with all of the vicious injuries and near death experiences, resulted in both John and Jeffery Marshall ending up resenting their father and becoming distant from him due to the carnage of this mess. It also the biggest factor that played into Tippi Hedren's divorce from Noel Marshall in '82, as well as becoming an animal rights activist and conservationist.
So with all of that out of the way, how is it as a "film"? To me, this fails the initial insane goal that Noel Marshall intended to accomplish with this movie, which was to show that you could own a wild apex predator like a lion as a docile house pet. While there are nature documentaries that show these kind of animals can act docile around humans through imprinting, Lions are an exception to that rule AND the lions Marshall rescued were former South American circus performers. What this film does get across is the message of how absolutely dangerous these animals better than Grizzly Man or any similar movie could.
For that reason alone, I rate it 9/10. It's not for the feint of heart and is extremely graphic so be warned. Like I don't know how this got past the ratings board to be allowed into theaters. But I recommend people watch it if you are willing to stomach that and see the absolute dominant might of nature's apex predators.
