The Great Alligator (1979) Horror Alligator

The Great Alligator (1979)  - To say this film is problematic for our current PC world is putting it mildly, it is problematic for the year it was made. There is some early lip service by spa owner Joshua (Mel Ferrer) lays on photographer Daniel Nessel (Claudio Cassinelli) about the abundance of wildlife and the spa's adherence to fitting in with it. Not only a capitalist but an imperialist Joshua believe he is improving the lives of the natives by building a resort "Paradise House" near their village.  It's pretty smart how Director Sergio Martino goes from this scene to one on the ground where his crew is using TNT to blow down trees and terrifying the natives. When the helicopter lands bring the model and photographer to this "little piece of Eden" they are greeted by Alice Brandt "Ally" (Barbara Bach) a cultural liaison for the Spa and local tribe. Again to counter what might be a good thing we immediately  see the resort staff heading live piglets to the river caiman (they call the alligators). The little squealing things roped up and tossed out into the river desperately swimming back for the boat before they are a reptile's lunch. That is not all of the exploitation in the depiction of the indigenous population. They are shown as curious happy primitives in loin cloths. They are drum and dance through the night in rituals to keep Kruna, the giant beast from harming them.They are easily frightened by things and are generally seen as simple. Many of the women dance topless although Martino does not shoot it from a male gaze. still they are easily bought, paid with Coke-a-Cola and blue jeans. Even our cultural anthropologist Ally when talking about the tribe and how they lived prior to contact with white puts it in terms of the white perspective, saying that they hunted and fished, work for the good of the tribe. That they only lived about 30 years so implying that there exploitation is better for them.

  When model Sheena (Geneve Hutton) goes off with a local for some love making but then the pair get eaten by, lets say alligator since that is the title, things get tense. The native perform ceremonies hoping that the great Kruna stays away but Joshua seems more interested in keeping it quiet and not letting the tourist know what has happened. Daniel and Ally take it upon themselves to investigate and so first visit the locals and then an old priest who lives in a cave, Father Johnathan (Richard Johnson) that adds only confusion about whether it is a crocodile, alligator or a river God. It did give a really nice shot of a waterfall.
  Things have to go bad at some point and the big bash being thrown for the tourists is the event waiting for Kruna. The tribe, the Kuma have a legend of a crocodile half man, half creature who comes for revenge (they keep switching terms but in this case say crocodile. The guest find this quaint but it could be that the tribe is showing themselves as the creature. So we have sabotage to the radio and to the helicopter. Are the natives doing it or the angry river beast? At the same time Ally goes missing and a cobra is left in her room. Meanwhile the clueless tourist go out on the raft for a dance party. Daniel using his camera's telephoto lens sees Ally is taken hostage by the tribe and he is the only one who knows about it. A hero for a problem he springs into action. She is stretched out over the water as a sacrifice but luckily for her the "gator" is more interested in knocking people off the raft and getting a "buffet de tourists". Worse than that the as the raft heads back to the dock we see that the Kuma have risen up to slaughter everyone in the resort. The only was to appease Kruna is by driving out the white interlopers. It is a pretty wonderful third act.
  So much of this third act reminds me of Jaws (1975) or even better Piranha (1978) except not done nearly as well. Daniel having untied Ally and just missed getting eaten by the alligator pulls the sacrificial raft towards shore while we cut to the crunching of the alligator on all the people left in the water.  Really a wonderful scene the people struggle from the raft jumping into the water and swimming for dear life to get inside the alligator proof fence. Once in they emerge from the water only to be confronted by the native tribe on the war path. Anyone who leaves the water gets shot with flaming arrows by the Kuma, caught between a Kuma and a hard Kruna. Kruna then breaks through the fence and the real feast begins. Daniel and Ally seem to get away from the tribe in a VW minivan only to have the bridge they are crossing to collapse into the river full of crocodiles. Kruna is waiting for them as Daniel works to free Ally from the wrecked van. It would have been wiser if the film makers had invested more in a realistic looking crocodile prop because what they have is comical more than frightening. Of course at this point they must have been searching for an ending they have lots of carnage and the bad guys get their due but it all falls a bit flat. When the van falls into the river at night but five minutes later when they come out after defeating Kruna it is light you wonder if there were some re-shoots. The strangely happy ending doesn't seem to work either. All the survivors are save from the natives because Daniel killed the beast, and a flurry of helicopters arrive to raise spirits. Even with its incompetent effects department this is a film that had some things right but because of budget could not execute them. All said and done I won't recommend this one because of the stated issues.