Roar (film)

Roar is a 1981 American adventure comedy film^[3][4] written, produced, and directed by Noel Marshall. Roar's story follows Hank, a wildlife conservationist who lives on a nature preserve in Africa with lions, tigers, and other big cats. When his family visit him, they find themselves alone with a group of dangerous animals. The film stars Marshall as Hank and Tippi Hedren as his wife Madeleine, with Melanie Griffith, and Marshall's sons John and Jerry Marshall in supporting roles.

Roar
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Noel Marshall
Written by	Noel Marshall Ted Cassidy (additional script material)
Starring	Tippi Hedren Melanie Griffith John Marshall Jerry Marshall Noel Marshall Kyalo Mativo
Cinematography	Jan de Bont
Edited by	Jan de Bont Jerry Marshall
Music by	Terence P. Minogue
Production company	Film Consortium[1]
Distributed by	Filmways Pictures (1981) Alpha Films (1981) Drafthouse Films (2015)
Release dates	October 30, 1981 (Sydney, Australia) April 17, 2015 (U.S.)
Running time	98 minutes[2]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$17 million
Box office	$2 million $110,048 (re-release)

Hedren and Marshall learned about endangered wildlife in Africa while Hedren was filming Satan's Harvest in Mozambique, and they decided to make a film in response to poaching. On the suggestion of animal experts, Hedren, Marshall, and their family lived with a number of big cats in their California homes. Filming began in California during the 1970s. Roar was notorious for the dangerous situations faced by cast and crew members; seventy people, including the film's stars, were injured during filming as a result of animal attacks. Flooding from a dam destroyed much of the set and equipment after three years of production, and the film's budget increased drastically. Filming was completed in five years, after 11 years in production.

The film was not initially released in North America. Noel and John Marshall released the film internationally themselves on February 22, 1981. It was also acquired by Filmways Pictures and Alpha Films. Despite performing well in Germany and Japan, Roar was a box office bomb, with a worldwide gross of $2 million against a $17 million budget. It was released theatrically in the United States on April 17, 2015, by Drafthouse Films, 34 years after the film's original release. Reviews were mixed to negative when it was first released; modern reviews have a more mixed response. Although Roar's message of protection for African wildlife and its animal interactions were praised by critics, its plot, story, inconsistent tone, dialogue, and editing were criticized.

In 1983, Hedren founded the Roar Foundation and established the Shambala Preserve sanctuary, to house the animals used in the film. She also wrote a book, The Cats of Shambala (1985), about many of the film's events. The film has been described as "the most dangerous film ever made" and "the most expensive home movie ever made", and has gained a cult following.

American doctor and wildlife conservationist Hank (Noel Marshall) lives in Tanzania with big cats, to study their behavior. Although he is due to pick up his wife Madeleine (Tippi Hedren) and their children John, Jerry, and Melanie (Melanie Griffith) from the airport to bring them to his ranch, he is delayed by his friend Mativo (Kyalo Mativo) warning him that a committee is coming to review his grant. As he shows Mativo around the ranch while they wait, Hank explains the nature of the lion pride and their fear of Togar, a rogue lion who often quarrels with the pack leader, Robbie. Hank asks Mativo to help keep the pride safe.

The grant committee arrives. One of its members, Prentiss (Steve Miller), disapproves of the big cats and threatens to shoot them. A fight between two lions distracts Hank; he breaks it up despite having his hand bitten. While Hank is bandaging his hand, the tigers attack members of the committee and injure some of them, and, although Hank offers assistance, they leave in fear. Mativo expresses his concerns over Hank bringing his family to the ranch. As they leave for the airport on Mativo's boat, two tigers jump aboard. Their weight causes the craft to sink and the two men have to swim to safety.

Madeleine, John, Jerry, and Melanie are advised by an airport attendant to board a bus. They arrive at the ranch and enter the house, realizing that it has been left unattended. When Madeleine and Jerry open the windows and doors, they are shocked to see the lions eating a zebra carcass. The family are frightened when animals enter the house and try to escape but Togar pursues them. Jerry finds a rifle and tries to shoot Togar while he is fighting Robbie. Melanie fears that her father has been killed by the animals.

Hank and Mativo—still pursued by the tigers—take two bikes from a local village. To prevent the tigers from following Hank to the airport, Mativo climbs a tree and distracts them. Hank encounters the airport attendant, who tells him that his family have taken the bus to his ranch. Hank drives back in a friend's car and rescues Mativo from the tree. One of the car's tires is punctured on a rocky road, and both men run to the ranch where Hank meets up with his wife and children.

The following morning, the family board Hank's boat to try to escape, but an elephant pulls the craft back to shore and destroys it. John goes for help on Hank's motorcycle, but he is chased by the big cats, and drives into the lake. The family sleeps in another house. When they awake, they find themselves surrounded by the pack and conclude that, since they are still alive, the animals do not intend to hurt them.

Prentiss unsuccessfully tries to persuade the committee to have Hank's big cats killed. Prentiss and Rick (Rick Glassey), another committee member, manage to kill many of the big cats but eventually Togar attacks them. Hank sees the attack and tries to intervene, but the lion kills Prentiss and Rick before returning to the house to attack Robbie. Robbie stands up to Togar and the fight ends. Hank runs back to find his family waiting for him. Mativo arrives, and Hank asks him not to mention Prentiss's death; he is introduced to Hank's family, who agree to stay for the week.

• Noel Marshall as Hank, a wildlife conservationist who lives alongside numerous animals in Africa.^[5] Despite his lack of experience with writing and acting,^[6] Marshall, in addition to producing, directing, and financing the film, had lived with the big cats for years and understood their behavior. In Hedren's opinion, he had developed a relationship with the animals and displayed a much-needed confidence and bravery when handling them.^{[7]: 123, 156}
• Tippi Hedren as Madeleine, Hank's wife. Hedren was a professional actress; she had been the lead character in Alfred Hitchcock's films The Birds (1963), and Marnie (1964). She had also completed a few films in Africa.^[8][9]
• Melanie Griffith as Melanie, the daughter of Hank and Madeleine. Griffith had a promising career at the time, appearing in the films Night Moves, The Drowning Pool, and Smile (all made in 1975).^{[7]: 156, 157} She left the film after a fight between two lions, saying that she did not want to "come out of this with half a face."^[8] Although Griffith was replaced with actress and friend Patsy Nedd, she later expressed interest in the film and redid many scenes.^{[7]: 172, 175}
• John Marshall as John, the eldest son of Hank and Madeleine. John Marshall (Noel Marshall's middle son) had previously acted in small television roles from the age of five.^[7]: 29
• Jerry Marshall as Jerry, the youngest son of Hank and Madeleine. Jerry Marshall had, like his brother, been cast in a small number of commercials but had not acted in film and television as much as his siblings.^{[7]: 29, 156}
• Kyalo Mativo as Mativo, Hank's friend and assistant zoologist. Born in Kenya and a native of the Kamba people, the actor was chosen over other two men; one Senegalese and one Nigerian. He was majoring in film at UCLA, wrote and directed for Voice of Kenya, and had previously acted in two German short films before taking the role, under stipulation that he "only be with those animals while [we're] filming".^{[7]: 155 [11]: 374}

Expert and experienced animal trainers such as Frank Tom, Rick Glassey and Steve Miller were given acting parts as committee members attacked by tigers.^{[11]: 253, 372} Zakes Mokae plays a committee member,^[12] and Will Hutchins portrays a man in a rowboat.^[13] The untrained lions Robbie, his offspring Gary, and Togar are all credited as actors.^[14]

Development

Roar was conceived by Marshall and Hedren in 1969, after she had starred in Satan's Harvest in Mozambique.^[15]: 86 During filming, they came across an abandoned plantation house in Gorongosa National Park which had been overrun by a pride of lions, and were told by their bus guide and local residents that animal populations were becoming endangered due to poaching; this inspired them to consider making either one^{[7]: 20 [16]} or a series of films.^[17]

It was an amazing thing to see: The lions were sitting in the windows, they were going in and out of the doors, they were sitting on the verandas, they were on the top of the Portuguese house, and they were in the front of the house [...] It was such a unique thing to see and we thought, for a movie, let us use the great cats as our stars.

Marshall and Hedren discussed the film with their family (Melanie Griffith, Joel, John and Jerry Marshall), who liked the idea and agreed to participate as actors, except Joel, who preferred to be the art director and set decorator. Marshall and Hedren visited animal preserves in their free time and talked to lion experts. They learned they would have to film in the United States, as domesticated lions were rare in Africa.^{[11]: 184–187} A number of lion tamers warned that it was impossible to bring a large number of big cats together on a film set. Other tamers, such as animal trainer Ron Oxley—who brought a lion named Neil over to introduce the family to big cats—suggested that they obtain their own animals, give them basic training, and gradually introduce them to each other.^{[15]: 86 [11]: 188–189, 202} The Marshalls developed ideas for funding the project and estimated that the film would be completed on a budget of $3 million.^[7]: 159

Pre-production

Marshall wrote the first script for the project in the spring of 1970, and gave it the working title Lions, later changed to Lions, Lions and More Lions.^{[11]: 185–187 [7]: 30} He also enlisted the assistance of actor and voice artist Ted Cassidy, with whom he had co-written and produced The Harrad Experiment.^[18] The original script allowed for up to thirty or forty trained lions to portray Africa's wildlife.^[15]: 86 Marshall was also inspired by Mack Sennett's slapstick routines, and decided to incorporate a mixture of comedy, drama, and moments of "stark terror" between human and animal encounters, with an underlying message for the preservation of African wildlife.^{[7]: 140, 186} Scenes where animals chase after the characters required that the actors pretend to be scared and scream, in order to trigger a reaction from the animals. As the script developed with frequent changes, some of the lions were later credited as writers.^[3][19]

Marshall and Hedren began illegally housing, in Sherman Oaks, young lions they acquired from zoos and circuses—this was before the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was passed^{[7]: 52–54}—until public authorities discovered the animals in 1972.^{[11]: 221, 236–237 [9]} The couple purchased land in Soledad Canyon, and hired staff to construct the set along with a two-story, African-style house, supported by fourteen telephone poles sturdy enough to bear the weight of fifty big cats, or 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg).^{[11]: 239, 250–251 [7]: 80, 152} The staff was composed of non-union workers; the Marshalls declined to use union workers as they were unable to afford them and were afraid of breaking union rules.^[7]: 159 A flat roof was placed on the house, and the California desert was adapted to mimic Tanzania, by planting thousands of cottonwoods and Mozambique bushes, and damming a nearby creek to create a lake.^{[7]: 81 [20]} A crew of five men built and maintained 14-foot (4.3 m) fences to prevent the animals from escaping the compound, and would cordon off areas of up to 2,000 square feet (190 m²). A miniature studio was constructed alongside numerous buildings, such as editing rooms and a kitchen commissary. An animal hospital, elephant barn, and a 10,000-pound (4,500 kg) freezer—to store meat for the big cats—were also on-location.^{[7]: 73, 153, 164} Hedren operated a backhoe on the set, and was in charge of clothing used for wardrobe, which she described as a plain "wash-and-wear look".^{[21][11]: 337}

After Marshall took in two infant Siberian tigers and an African bull elephant named Timbo from the Okanagan Game Preserve, he decided to revise the film's script to include different animals, resulting in the final title Roar.^{[11]: 254–255, 287} Another addition to the script involved Timbo crushing the family's rowboat, after the elephant was observed destroying a metal camper shell.^{[7]: 190–191} The family accumulated 71 lions, 26 tigers, a tigon, nine black panthers, 10 cougars, two jaguars, four leopards, two elephants, six black swans, four Canada geese, four cranes, two peacocks, seven flamingos, and a marabou stork; the only animal they turned down was a hippopotamus.^[20][22] Marshall and Hedren had to hire animal trainers when they received more lions; one trainer, Frank Tom, brought his pet cougar that needed re-homing.^{[11]: 253, 372} The big cats by then had numbered about 100, and would eventually reach a total of 150.^[23][24]

Financial issues began to arise as the cost for crew and feed for the animals amounted to $4,000 per week.^[7]: 145 The Marshall family sold their four houses and 600 acres near Magic Mountain to pay debts, and Marshall's commercial-production company went bankrupt.^[25] He was an executive producer of The Exorcist, and the proceeds from that film partially funded production; the crew began speculating, and rumors spread, that the film had the "curse of The Exorcist".^[26][24] The Marshall family also sold items that included Hedren's fur coat, given to her by Alfred Hitchcock for her starring role in The Birds.^{[27][7]: 146} The lack of funds meant that the Marshall family had to do crew members' and other work. John Marshall was an animal wrangler, set mechanic, boom operator, and camera operator; he also did veterinary work, such as giving vaccines and drawing blood from the animals.^[28] In a 1977 interview, Marshall was asked why he took personal risk for the project:

You get into anything slowly. We have been on this project now for five years. Everything we own, everything we have achieved, is tied up in it. Today we're 55 percent complete. We're at a point where we just have to do it.

Some of the big cats also became plagued with airborne, feline-related illnesses, which resulted in the death of 14 lions and tigers.^{[5][11]: 359–360}

Filming

Principal photography began on October 1, 1976, and was initially scheduled to last for six months,^[30] but filming was restricted to five months at a time because the cottonwood trees in the background turned brown from November until March.^[7]: 164 Filming the big cats was difficult and frustrating; cinematographer Jan de Bont spent hours setting up five cameras and waiting for the cats to do something that could be included in the film.^[16] This led Marshall and the crew to record footage with up to eight Panavision 35mm cameras in documentary style.^[26] One scene where Marshall and Mativo drive a 1937 Chevrolet containing two tigers took seven weeks to complete, because Glassey and Miller had to train the animals to ride in a car.^{[7]: 179–181 [11]: 389} Marshall often refused to stop filming because he did not want to lose a take; sometimes only one take was usable from a day's filming.^[31][28]

The opening footage of Marshall racing a bull giraffe on a motorcycle was filmed in Kenya, with the location being acknowledged in the film's credits.^[11]: 451 One session involving a leopard licking Hedren's face, which had been coated in honey, was considered by her to be one of the most dangerous scenes she agreed to film; handlers were eight feet away, but would not have been able to stop the cat from biting her.^{[11]: 397–399} The part where the film's poachers shoot and kill big cats was achieved by tranquilizing the animals for their annual blood draw.

Filming took five years to complete and,^[20] although Hedren has documented that it ended on October 16, 1979,^[11]: 461 additional pick-up shots were filmed in Kenya during the editing stage.^[7]: 258 The total production time was 11 years.^[8][16]

Injuries and set damages

Due to the large number of untrained animals on set, there were a reported 48 injuries within the two years since filming started.^[32] Attacks by the big cats used in the film resulted in real blood appearing in the final cut; it has been estimated that, out of the 140-person crew,^[22] 70 were injured during the production of Roar.^[20] In a 2015 interview, John Marshall said that he believed the number of people injured was over 100.^[23]

Noel Marshall was bitten through the hand when he interacted with male lions during a fight scene; doctors feared that he might lose his entire arm.^[20][29] He received eight puncture wounds after being bitten in the leg by a lion, who was curious about his makeup-covered legs, intended to avoid a white reflection. By then Marshall had been bitten around eleven times.^{[7]: 205–207} His face and chest were later injured as well, and he was hospitalized before shooting could continue.^[33] Marshall was twelve hours from lapsing into a coma after he was diagnosed with blood poisoning,^[20] and because he had been attacked so many times, he was diagnosed with gangrene.^[25] It took Marshall several years to recover from his injuries.^[34] During a promo shoot in 1973, Hedren was bitten in the head by Cherries, a lion, whose teeth scraped against her skull. She was taken to Sherman Oaks Hospital, where her wounds were secured and she was given a tetanus shot.^{[11]: 341–345 [35]} She was admitted to Antelope Valley Hospital after the five-ton elephant Tembo picked her up by and fractured her ankle with his trunk before bucking her off his back, though she said that Tembo had been trying to keep her from falling and was not at fault. She was left with phlebitis and gangrene, in addition to a fractured hand and abrasions on her leg. The incident happened several days after Tembo bucked his trainer, Patricia Barbeau, into a tree and broke her shoulder.^[36][37][29] Hedren was also scratched on the arm by a leopard and bitten on the chest by a cougar.^[16] Griffith received 50 stitches and underwent facial reconstruction after being attacked by a lioness. Although it was feared that she would lose an eye, she recovered without being disfigured.^[23][16] A lion jumped on John Marshall and bit the back of his head, an injury requiring 56 stitches.^[8] Jerry Marshall was bitten in the thigh by a lion while he was in a cage on set, and he was placed alongside Hedren in the same hospital for a month.^{[7]: 195 [29]}

Most members of the crew were injured as well, including de Bont, who was scalped by Cherries while he was filming under a tarp;^{[11]: 384–385 [28][38]} he received 220 stitches, but continued with his duties after recovering.^[25][28] Togar, one of the lead lions, bit assistant director Doron Kauper's throat and jaw and tried to pull off one of his ears after Kauper unintentionally cued an attack; Kauper's scalp, chest and thigh were injured, and he was admitted to Palmdale General Hospital to undergo four and a half hours of surgery.^[39][32] Although the attack was reported as nearly fatal, a nurse told a Santa Cruz Sentinel reporter that Kauper's injuries were acute (sudden and traumatic), but that he was conscious and in fair condition.^[39] Twenty crew members left the set en masse;^[20] turnover was high, and many did not want to return.^[5]

Pipes from Aliso Canyon became flooded with water and burst after heavy rain, along with berms built that were pointed towards the Marshall property to redirect water from the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. A 10-foot (3.0 m) flood destroyed the property, from which four sound-crew members had to be rescued. Marshall, who had left the hospital despite being scheduled to undergo knee surgery, helped to rescue many of the animals.^{[11]: 423–424, 430–432} Fifteen lions and tigers escaped from the set after fences and cages collapsed; the sheriff and local law enforcement killed three lions, including Robbie the lead lion,^[31][20] who was replaced with another lion, Zuru, when filming resumed.^[7]: 232 A broken dam and several floods also caused the surrounding lake to fill with sediment, adding six feet to its height.^[16] Most of the editing equipment, film, the set and the ranch were destroyed, with over $3 million worth of damage,^[23] though the negative had already been sent to Hollywood.^[7]: 223 Many friends and strangers offered help to the Marshalls and their crew, including the Southern Pacific Railroad office who offered to send a train as a temporary board for the animals.^[11]: 434 As a result of the flood, production was halted for a year to allow the surrounding area to recover.^[16] It took eight months to rebuild the set, and 700 replacement trees were purchased. After most of the issues resulting from the flood had been resolved, a wildfire measuring 250 miles broke out, though most of the animals remained unharmed.^[20]

Music

Terence P. Minogue composed the film's score and recorded it with the National Philharmonic Orchestra.^[40] Robert Florczak—credited in the film as Robert Hawk—provided vocals for original songs such as "Nchi Ya Nani? (Whose Land Is This)", a song with an African-pop style like others on the soundtrack.^[40][41] Both musicians visited the set to seek inspiration,^[11]: 463 and Minogue composed at a piano he had shipped to the family's ranch.^[20] Percussionist Alexander Lepak used grinding drums and synthesizers to augment dialogue-free scenes, and Minogue's orchestral score was used in lighter scenes. Dominic Frontiere wrote a theme for Togar, the rogue lion. The soundtrack, originally released in 1981, became available online in 2005.^[18]

Theatrical

Roar was not released theatrically in North America, since American distributors dismissed the film.^[14][31][24] Hedren stated that it was not released in the United States because distributors wanted the "lion's share" of the profits, which she and Marshall had intended to allocate for the care of the film's animals.^{[15]: 86 [16]} Crew member Terry Albright, who worked on the film throughout its production, said that it was not distributed domestically because the crew was almost exclusively non-unionised, except for de Bont.^[38]

Roar was initially released internationally on February 22, 1981 by Noel and John Marshall, and its world premiere was held in Sydney, Australia on October 30, 1981.^[11]: 466 The film was also picked up by Filmways Pictures and Alpha Films,^[42] the latter giving it the title Roar - Spirit of the Jungle,^[2] for a one-week distribution in countries such as Australia and England.^[24][43] The film was also released in Japan and Germany.^[30][43]

Re-release

In 2015, 34 years after its initial release, Drafthouse Films founder Tim League expressed interest in the film and the company bought Roar's rights.^[24] It began a limited theatrical run on April 17, 2015^[3] at six theaters across the United States; the following month, distribution was expanded to 50 cities.^[31] The Drafthouse re-release used promotional text in its trailers and press materials such as: "No animals were harmed during the making of 'Roar.' But 70 members of the cast and crew were", and called it the "snuff version of Swiss Family Robinson".^[31] Hedren canceled an interview with the Associated Press after the Roar Foundation and Shambala Preserve's board of directors asked her not to speak publicly about the film, although she stated through a spokesman that its Drafthouse promotion was filled with "inaccuracies".^[31]

Box office

Roar's worldwide gross (excluding the U.S.) was less than $2 million against its $17 million budget, making the film a box-office bomb.^[8] Hedren had predicted that it would be a hit, projecting a gross of $125–150 million,^[44] and claimed in 1982 that it was making $1 million a month.^[45] Though it was popular in Germany and Japan, performing well at the box office, Marshall never received a domestic distribution deal that allowed a U.S. release.^[24][43] Despite this, John Marshall later said in a Grantland interview that "$2 million is a long way off" due to the film's success in Germany and Japan; the latter's distributor paid $1 million, and Noel Marshall told him that the film made $10 million.^[25] It had an opening weekend gross of $15,064 in its re-release, ending with a domestic gross of $110,048.^[46]

Critical reception

Roar has an approval rating of 74 percent (based on 23 reviews) on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.82/10. According to the site's critical consensus: "Roar may not satisfy in terms of acting, storytelling, or overall production, but the real-life danger onscreen makes it difficult to turn away."^[47] The film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 (based on 9 critics) on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[48]

The film received mixed-to-negative reviews when it was first released. Although Variety gave praise to its intended message ("a passionate plea" to preserve African wildlife), Roar was described as "a kind of Jaws of the jungle" which seemed "at times more like Born Free gone berserk"; its "thin" plot was also noted.^[49] David Robinson, on the other hand, dismissed the story and plot, instead choosing to compliment the "superb" animals in his review for The London Times, giving credit to their interactions that "overturns centuries of preconceptions about relationships in nature."^[50] Time Out, in a much later review published in 2004, disliked that the film gave an "ingenuous documentary portrait of the Marshalls as mega-eccentrics and misguided animal lovers", and called its narrative a "farcical melange of pseudo David Attenborough and Disneyspeak" with "bizarre contradictions" and "fickle camerawork."^[51]

Roar received mixed reviews after its 2015 re-release. Writing for RogerEbert.com, Simon Abrams rated the film a 2 while giving a mixed reaction; the untrained big cats were the only assets in an "otherwise slack thriller", and some scenes were dull due to their emphasis on "Scooby Doo-like" chase scenes focusing more on the animals than on plot, though Abrams concluded that for animal lovers, Roar was "worth seeing once".^[52] Matt Patches, in his mostly positive review for Esquire, said the film works as a "portrait of recklessness and beastly terror", akin to watching a Jackass movie; although "plotless enough" to give animals writing credits, Patches said the film was "shock cinema worth preserving".^[4]

On a more negative note, Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian thought the film had little story to offer and described it "a tad incoherent", with Hank's background confusing. Hoffman criticized the film's dialogue, calling "undeniably creepy" a scene of Hedren and Griffith discussing sexuality.^[53] Expressing her disinterest for the film's lack of a script in LA Weekly, Amy Nicholson noted that many lines spoken by the actors seemed to be rushed to get through a scene; this conflicted with the film's goal, "to prove that big cats are lovable".^[54] Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald was displeased with the film's footage, saying it was "pasted together into a threadbare story", producing "a hysterically bad, awful movie".^[55] Flavorwire included the film in their monthly "So Bad It’s Good" review, and writer Jason Bailey saw Roar as "a cross between a nature special, a home movie, a snuff film, and a key exhibit at a sanity hearing"; much of it according to Bailey was "odd, semi-improvised" dialogue that "consumed" most of the film, and a dedication to animals inflicting "horrifying bloodshed" before becoming "cuddly kittens, accompanied by a sappy string score".^[6]

After its release, Roar's financial failure hindered the intended plan to fund the animals' retirement. Marshall and Hedren had grown distant by the time production was completed, and they divorced in 1982.^[22] Hedren founded the Roar Foundation, and established the Shambala Preserve sanctuary in Soledad Canyon in 1983 to house the animals after filming was completed.^[56][22] As a result of establishing Shambala and rescuing more than 230 big cats, Hedren advocates animal rights and the preservation of natural habitat, and opposes animal exploitation.^[57][33] Although Marshall continued to provide most of Shambala's financial support, according to John Marshall he "couldn't be with the animals that he loved and raised".^[25] He never directed another film again and died in 2010.^[3]

The film has been mentioned by authors Harry and Michael Medved in the 1984 book The Hollywood Hall of Shame as "the most expensive home movie ever made" due to its inflated budget.^[58]: 224 Hedren wrote The Cats of Shambala, published in 1985, which told many behind-the-scenes stories and described the many on-set injuries.^[31][33] Hedren stated in her book she and Noel realized that, while they accomplished their goal (to "capture wild animals in an astonishing and absolutely unique way"), the story was poorly made and secondary to "the actions, reactions and interactions of the big cats". She also said that the injuries inflicted on the crewmembers and cast were the result of putting their lives at risk to make the film. Hedren, however, noted a positive outcome for those who worked on Roar: many of the people involved went on to have successful careers or jobs in the film industry, such as de Bont and Griffith.^{[7]: 260, 285–286} She concluded that, despite the danger, Roar had been worthwhile, but still called it "the toughest movie of my life".^[4] Due to the many injuries on set, the film's re-release trailers and adverts called it "the most dangerous film ever made".^[14] Since its original release, it has built up a cult following.^[24][59]

Home media

A non-anamorphic version of the film was originally released on DVD^[18] but, as stocks dwindled, it became a cult item and was listed at high prices on Amazon and eBay.^[55] After its 2015 theatrical release in the United States,^[60] the film was released in November 2015 by Olive Films for Blu-ray in anamorphic format. The Blu-ray bonus features included audio commentary by John Marshall and Tim League, "The Making of ROAR" featurette, and a Q&A with the cast and crew at Cinefamily in Los Angeles.^[61]

• Cult film
• List of film and television accidents
• List of films with longest production time

• Official website
• Roar at IMDb
• Roar at Rotten Tomatoes
• Roar at Metacritic
• Roar at Box Office Mojo
• Roar at AllMovie