You don't need a bigger boat: Why the Orca is the greatest boat in movie history
The Orca’s a symbol, she represents the old world. She’s also pure Quint - beaten up but still chugging along, stinking up the place with diesel fumes and not giving a damn what anyone thinks.
Quint doesn’t waste time on things like maintenance. Painting the deck or refurbishing the engine are for soft-headed college boys who’ve never worked for a living. He just slams down the throttle and crosses his fingers.
The Orca thuds into the waves, she doesn’t slice the water. She knows she’s not too pretty, a bit snub nosed and broad but she’ll always give it her best shot. She’s more of a blunt instrument than a boat, much the same way her captain is with people. Hammering away until they submit, Quint forces his way through, pushing aside the opinions of the Amity know-it-alls. All they care about are their hotels and cafes. He’s a working man, a grafter, someone who does the jobs no one else wants to.
The Orca is Quint and Quint is the Orca.
There might not be sonar or ‘fish-finders’ in Orca’s wheelhouse and there aren’t cameras fore and aft but the Orca doesn’t need any of that, Quint at the wheel and he’s got something far better - instinct. He knows things without all the technology Hooper’s so fond of.
The planking’s chipped and dented, the brass fixtures are covered in layers of salt and engine oil and it probably stinks of fish guts but dammit the Orca’s real. She’s got soul and integrity.
To get exactly the right boat for the movie, Joe Alves went on the hunt up and down the east Coast. Eventually he found what he was looking for in Massachusetts.
Originally a lobster boat named The Warlock, the boat was bought and renamed Orca I. It was redesigned, fitted with a pulpit and painted burgundy and black, plus a set of oversized windows so it looked more distinctive on screen.
Another boat was needed for when Bruce breached the surface cracking it in half - enter Orca II. This actually wasn’t a boat at all, just a fibreglass replica. It was fitted with a system of hydraulic floats, meaning it could be tilted in any direction and ‘sunk’ on command. Then re floated for another take.
In the story, setting off on a boat like this would be a real test of faith.
The windows would let in wind, rain and sea spray, it’d vibrate when the revs got too high and it looked like it was held together by willpower and luck.
The word Orca comes from the Latin meaning ‘the shape of a tun, barrel or cask’.
The shape of a BARREL.
The yellow barrels in Jaws have taken on a near mythic resonance, signifying the shark approaching.
The Orca II was left to rot on the shore of MarthasVineyard. Fans would take pieces of the vessel as souvenirs - but now there is nothing left.
If the Orca had a brain, she knew this was probably her last mission. She wasn’t going to be up to the job and should really be retired. But of course, that was never going to happen. She’d die before she’s taken out of the water - just like her captain.
So the Orca resolves to go out in a blaze of glory, staring down certain death and refusing to accept the inevitable. Again, just like Quint.
And that’s to be admired. Why give up? What’s the reason for sloping off to a dry dock somewhere?
Better to end your days as you lived them, on the sea with the sun on your back, giving your all - right up to the last second.
There’s not a boat that really matches the Orca - but a few that maybe come close.
The African Queen. Captained by Humphrey Bogart in the movie of the same name. Once again, a cantankerous, grubby, hard-drinking captain with a boat to match. The two leads (Bogey and Katherine Hepburn) played second fiddle to the boat as they bicker and battle their way through the jungle and try to destroy a German U-boat.
The African Queen
Cape Fear. The boat in is the Moana, a house boat. The Bowden family’s Alamo from psychotic ex-con Max Cady. The movie works well as a comparison to Jaws on a number of levels - not just because its got a boat in it. It’s about a family on the edge, an unrelenting killer, who at one point even bites someone, and it takes place on or near water. There’s even a scene in it, ripped straight from the original Jaws script. Spielberg had planned Quint would empty a cinema by laughing manically at a showing of Moby Dick, but he couldn’t get the rights to the movie from Gregory Peck. In Cape Fear, Cady’s watching ‘Problem Child’ but the scene was written exactly the same for Quint. In addition to this, Gregory Peck (Ahab in Moby Dick) played the role of Lawyer Sam Bowden in the original movie and turns up in this remake. Spielberg was due to direct but encouraged Scorsese to do it instead. Scorsese even included a shooting star in it as a nod to his friend.
Moana, Cape Fear (1991)
The Poseidon Adventure. An ocean liner captained by a pre-Naked Gun Leslie Nielson and starring Gene Hackman as a priest who ends up seriously questioning his faith, it’s a slice of 70s disaster movie gold. The Poseidon goes from floating luxury hotel to villain of the piece in an instant after it’s capsized when hit by a tsunami. The ship does everything it can to pick off the plucky band of New Years revellers from escaping to the surface. The Poseidon Adventure’s celebration might not be 4th July but once again we have a big holiday as the backdrop to lots of blood and carnage in the ocean. Instead of teeth the size of shot glasses, there are infernos, ship’s funnels filled with boiling water, falling girders and a deadly underwater sequence that raises the movie above the other disaster films. And the movie was scored by John Williams.
Words by Tim Armitage
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