Entry 57: Razorback (1984)

Razorback (1984)

Dir: Russel Mulcahy

"Nine hundred pounds of marauding tusk and muscle!"


Jaws cash-ins and knockoffs are a dime a dozen, but this late entry in the genre stands on its own thanks to a heaping helping of grimy Australian atmosphere and the directorial prowess of first-time helmer Mulcahy.

American Gregory Harrison (from TVs Trapper John, M.D.) journeys to rural Australia in search of his missing animal activist wife, who disappeared while doing an expose on kangaroo poachers.  He meets up with disproportionately sexy grad student Arkie Whitely (Mad Max 2) and grizzled, Quint-like boar poacher Bill Kerr (Gallipoli), whose grandson was carried off by an enormous razorback and who now obsessively hunts the beast.  After discovering his wife's wedding ring in a mound of boar droppings, Harrison goes on a surreal walkabout through the outback and decides to go home, but after a couple of scumbag poachers maim Kerr and leave him to the razorback, Harrison is forced to confront the rampaging monster in order to save the endangered Whitely!

This was Mulcahy(Highlander, The Shadow)'s first feature after directing several acclaimed Duran Duran videos (the band's "New Moon On Monday" is featured playing on the car radio when Harrison's wife is eaten in this film), and he certainly brings an artistic flair not often seen in this type of film.  The use of almost Mad Max-level weirdness in the production design (locals wearing big goggles, leathers and mismatched clothing, DIY armored cars) and the director's liberal use of magenta and azure filters give this movie an unsettling, dreamlike quality.  The "walkabout" scene, in which Harrison wanders dehydrated and thirsty through stark-white outback salt flats and confronts an enormous hog skeleton that seems to come to life, is particularly memorable.  Kerr is grate as the unhinged hunter ("There's something about blowing away a razorback that just brightens up my whole day!"), Whitely brings spunk and likability to her damsel-in-distress role and the Australian supporting cast is authentically off-kilter.  Harrison actually proves to be the weak link in the cast; he's often upstaged by his larger-than-life castmates and his journey from meek city dweller to giant razorback-killing badass is unbelievable (I kept waiting for grizzled old Kerr to rise from the dead, bitch slap this city slicker and kill the beast himself!).  While only fleetingly glimpsed, the animatronic razorback created by effects artist Bob McCarron (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Braindead, The Matrix) is scary and effective.