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Apr 17, 2015 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

Based on its reputation alone, 1981’s Roar is the Citizen Kane of films where actors were mauled by lions. The film is nearly as notorious for its long production time (11 years) and huge losses at the box office ($2 million worldwide on a $17 million budget) as it was for the number of cast and crew members who were hospitalized after being injured on set (70!). Roar is billed as the most dangerous movie ever made, a title it’s certainly earned. The film itself hardly lives up to its morbidly fascinating back story, but it’s certain that you’ll never see anything else like it.

The filmmaker, Noel Marhsall, was a successful Hollywood producer by the early ‘70s, having just made bank by shepherding The Exorcist into mega-hit territory. At one point he and his second wife—The Birds’ Tippi Heddren—took a family vacation to Africa with his two sons, John and Jerry, and her daughter, Melanie Griffith. It was there they had the idea to make a film about a man who lived among lions. But, they wouldn’t shoot it in Africa—they’d bring Africa to their Southern California home. Marshall and Hedren turned their home in Acton, California into a nature preserve—importing more than 100 wild cats, including lions, cheetahs, and tigers. (They’d live and raise their children among the animals, who they hoped would accept them as members of their pride.) Over the next decade they shot their movie, which also starred Marshall and his family, with a presumably horrified crew and hundreds of dangerous, untrained animals.

Were cast and crew members hurt? Why, yes! They were being attacked by these huge cats all the damn time. If you don’t believe it, here are some highlights from the injuries section of WikiPedia’s Roar page:

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. Griffith was attacked severely, receiving 100 stitches and reconstructive surgery to her face. This occurred after an elephant bucked her off it’s 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. Noel was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene … Assistant Director Doron Kauper had his throat bitten open, his jaw was bitten, and one of the lions attempted to rip an ear off.

Writer-director-producer Noel Marshall stars as Hank, a happy zoologist living in Kenya and working on some sort of study of large cats. Hank loves big cats. Like, really, really loves them. You see, he shares his home with more than 100 of them—he’s like The Simpsons’ crazy cat lady, if her pets were large, predatory creatures. He sleeps with his cats, he eats with his cats, he bathes with his cats. (We see him do all these batsh*t crazy things!) Hank’s obsession with big cats is quite literally harmful to his health, as his animals attack him on a regular basis, and he doesn’t seem to care in the least. The locals are understandably terrified to even approach his home, and most seem to recognize that he’s crazy. (The first act plays out like an episode of My Strange Addiction titled “Being Attacked By Lions.”) He’s even attracted the ire of the local authorities, who don’t like that he’s mixed non-native, non-African cats into the local population, because that sounds like something you should never, ever do.

Let’s take a break here to mention that Noel Marshall was not an actor. Roar is the only film he ever appeared in, and that’s probably because he looks and sounds like Dr. Steve Brule with an unruly beard.

Back to the plot: Hank’s wife and three kids (again: played by Marshall’s real-life family) have traveled to Africa to visit their totally insane dad in his deadly zoo-house. Hank is late coming to pick them up at the airport, so they hitch a ride out to his place. Unfortunately, Hank isn’t home—he’s on his way to meet them at the airport—but his horde on man-eating cats are. They spend the bulk of the movie’s remaining runtime trying not to be viciously gored by their dad’s savage pets by hiding in closets or fleeing on dirt bikes or in paddle boats. At least their performances are fortunately much more believable than Noel Marshall’s. Both Tippi Hedren and Melanie Griffith were real actors, but the terror on their faces as the cats repeatedly pounce on them—you can’t fake that.

The opening credits are quick to point out that the cats were untrained and, therefore, just did whatever they wanted. Because of that, Marshall went so far as to give several of the lions writing credits on the movie. This is a movie co-written by animals, and it plays out like one—it’s roughly 10% plot, 90% actors improvising while trying not to be killed by lions. Roar is not a good movie by any means, but it’s one that has to be seen to be believed.

drafthousefilms.com/film/roar

Author rating: 2.5/10