"No animals were harmed in the making of this film. 70 cast and crew members were."
— Tagline for the 2015 Drafthouse Films releasenote
Roar is a 1981 adventure comedy film, written, directed by and starring Noel Marshall and his then-wife Tippi Hedren, along with their children, including a young Melanie Griffith.
Hank, a naturalist, lives on an African wildlife preserve, where he studies big cats. A committee soon arrives to review his grant, of whom one member has a particular dislike for the cats. Hank must keep the cats, the committee members — and his family — alive.
The film is far more famous for its Troubled Production; the cast and crew, untrained to deal with the largely-untamed animals, suffered numerous injuries, and several disasters ended up occurring. Tippi Hedren would later go on to write a book about its production in 1985: The Cats of Shambala.
Tropes:
- Barrier-Busting Blow: In the scene where Hank's family is in his house, they're forced to flee from Togar after he gets in. They keep shutting themselves inside rooms, only for Togar to keep smashing down the doors.
- Black Comedy: Much of the humor (if it could be considered such) in the movie revolves around the family running and hiding from the cats, or getting attacked by them.
- Blood Is the New Black: Togar the rogue lion goes around covered in blood, signaling his violent nature and also helpfully identifying him.
- Captain Crash: Most of the vehicles in the movie get wrecked, including two boats, a car, a bicycle, and a motorcycle.
- Clothing Damage:
- During the Togar chase scene with Hank's family in the house, Madeleine's shirt ends up getting torn off, leaving her in her bra.
- Hank's clothes are constantly shredded; it gets to a point where in one scene he's down to wearing a T-shirt and biker shorts.
- Clueless Aesop: The movie's message is that big cats are amazing creatures that are not out to kill people, and should be preserved. From watching the movie, though, it's a pretty hard message to swallow, considering everyone keeps getting menaced by the animals (both in the movie and in Real Life), the large number of injuries from said animals during the movie's production, some of them visible in the shots, and the fact the cats actually kill two people in the movie (albeit two people who kind of deserved it, but that last one still edges into
Broken Aesop territory). - Conflict Killer: There are a number of subplots and story arcs going on throughout the movie, but those disappear the moment the lions take centerstage towards the end. On a meta level, this highlights just how hard it was to film the movie around all the various, dangerous animals. Several scenes are noticeably interrupted or cut short because the big cats start roaring and fighting amongst themselves.
- Cruel Elephant: An elephant smashes the family's boat, and they're forced to flee from another, different one. Not only that, but in Real Life the elephant also broke Tippi Hedren's leg with its trunk during a scene in which it grabbed her.
- Excuse Plot: The plot about the grant and evil committee members is largely in the background, with much of the film centering on the family's interaction with the big cats and other animals.
- Green Aesop: The movie's premise is centered around wildlife awareness and anti-poaching.
- Karma Houdini: Togar, the rogue lion who messes with the other lions, pursues Hank and his family, and then kills the movie's villains, ends up just being scared away, free to continue roaming.
- Karmic Death: Prentiss and Rick are killed by the same cats they wanted to shoot.
- No Animals Were Harmed: The beginning of the movie has a disclaimer from the Humane Society about none of the animals being actually injured. The same can't be said for the crew, though, or the rather questionable methods they used to get some of the animals to perform.
- Several lions escaped during filming and were shot by locals, thus making this an extremely questionable use of the trope.
- Only Sane Man: Mativo. He keeps telling Hank that hanging around so many big cats is dangerous and reckless. Hank doesn't listen.
- Panthera Awesome: It's a movie about big cats, so this is to be expected. In fact, Hedren and Marshall obtained over 100 of them over the movie's 11-year development cycle.
- Properly Paranoid: Hank's friend Mativo expresses worry about Hank bringing his family (including three children) to the park. Indeed, they end up getting menaced by the animals numerous times.
- Random Events Plot: Many of the film's scenes aren't really connected to the central plot, just the family interacting with animals, who are doing what they do naturally.
- Slapstick: Hank and his family frequently get attacked, knocked around, and overall victimized by the cats to an absurd degree, often suffering (real) injuries in the process.
