A message from the big cats

Press, 21 December 1981, Page 12

A message from the big cats

Both in the film and in real life, Marshall comes

'xihemcr

hans petrovic

ROAR Written and Directed by Noel Marshall and Friends. If you like animals — any kind of animals but particularly big cats — you should love “Roar” (Odeon). I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the film and felt overwhelmed by the multitude of lions, tigers and' other cats. For Noel Marshall, the producer,* director, writer and* a leading actor in “Roar” the. film is a fantasy that has come true.. He has. already received much publicity / about the 150 lions, leopards, tigers, cheetahs, jaguars and cougars, 11 years and S2OM he spent on making this film. It may seem like a crazy and expensive, exercise but Marshall certainly has achieved his goal of showing the beauty * of the big cats and wildlife in general — and getting across his deeply-felt message about the need for wildlife conservation: “We can’t keep exterminating them and putting out. their lights.”

across as some , kind of selfappointed messiah for the preservation of the purrers and the pure. In many ways, his romanticism reminds me of that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau of about two centuries ago, who preached the inherent goodness of man and other creatures, and man’s need to return to his original nature in some kind of paradisic bliss.

Marshall’s message also goes back to the Bible and hymns like “Peace in- the Valley,” about the beast being gentle, and the lion lying down with the lamb. In other ways, “Roar” seems like one of the most stupendous and expensive ego trips undertaken by one

man — both ; to get his message across and to reflect a peculiar kind of narcissism from the animals.

He certainly enjoys playing with the big cats (“If I'm gonna mix in their fights, then I’ve got to trust them”), although some of the pleasure seems more of the vacarious kind — such as putting his real-life wife (Tippi Hedren, of “The Birds” and “Marnie") through the hoops with the animals.

The simple story is set somewhere in Africa (how did the tigers get there?), with the wife and children trying to find the place where the eccentric husband has established a big cat house. ..

They eventually get there while the husband is away, only to find the place taken over and virtually , demolished by frightening felines. Of course, there is a happy ending, with all the cats joining the human part of the family in bed — the splendour of a great tiger on top of a bed or boat is something to behold. •

Sometimes, the film goes for the wholesomeness of the “Wilderness Family” but the real stars, remain the cats — with their hair stroked both forwards and backwards.

Although Marshall makes a point bf showing how cuddly .they are, he also demonstrates how dangerous, if purely because of size, cats can be. There has been much cutting and editing to make this into a coherent film, and it no longer, seems so surprising that it took 11 years just to get the right shots of the right animals at the right time. The high quality photography also js a pleasure. Possibly, the film is a little long just to get its message across but I feel the whole family should enjoy’ the almost non-stop action.

As crazy as it may sound, Marshall seems to be a man who saw a vision and has made it come true — both on celluloid and on his California ranch where most of “Roar” was filmed.’