Drafthouse Films

If April 1 is a day for pranks and fools, April 2 is a day for cold, hard truths. What you're about to read is 100 percent real.

In 1970, famed Hitchcock leading lady Tippi Hedren and her manager-husband Noel Marshall began work on a movie they hoped would inspire audiences to save the animal kingdom. Casting themselves and other family members (including daughter Melanie Griffith) in various roles, and hiring Jan de Bont, an emerging European cinematographer who would later direct Speed, Hedren and Marshall shot the film at their California ranch, where they lived among more than 100 exotic creatures, most notably the lions, tigers, and leopards they treated like common house cats; eleven years later, the appropriately titled finished product, Roar, arrived in theaters. Aside from the 70 animal attacks, multiple floods, cases of feline illness, a complete collapse of their budget, Marshall's gangrene spell, numerous wildfires, and Griffith's facial reconstructive surgery, everything went according to plan.

Roar, which Drafthouse Films will re-release in theaters on April 17, is like one of those mandatory fourth-grade nature films, only one that explodes into a When Animals Attack! version of Cannibal Holocaust and ends with a hugs-and-kisses–filled "Age of Aquarius" musical number. As a call to arms against big-game hunting and the inhumane conditions of American zoos, the film is a complete failure. As a portrait of recklessness and beastly terror, it's Citizen Kane. Plotless and haphazard enough to give the untrained animal costars a writing credit ("It's only fair!" read the opening titles), the majority of Roar is spent watching Marshall and his family outmaneuver jaws, claws, and jumbo-sized body slams.

There's little "acting" in Roar. When Griffith screams in terror as a lion rips through a wooden door, there's no stuntman clutching a leash—it's just the actress literally fearing for her life. According to Drafthouse's research, a scene where a jaguar licks honey off Hedren's face was an untested stunt they executed anyway. And Roar isn't just a film for cat lovers: An extended sequence sees the adventurous family escaping on a boat, only to be capsized by an elephant that snaps their vehicle like a twig. They escape and no one appears to be hurt in that scene... which is rare. In Roar, it's impossible to tell the difference between makeup and legitimate flesh wounds.

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In the film's original, 1981 press notes, Marshall reckoned with his decision to jeopardize his family's lives in the name of art. He considered Roar to be a "comedy of the bizarre," and his lions and tigers an ensemble of improv geniuses. For Marshall, "fearful" and "funny" were two sides of a coin. "The first time a lion charges you, you think you are about to die," he wrote. "Then you realize he was either bluffing or playing, and you find yourself almost dying of laughter." Yes, dying. Of laughter.

Reflecting on a sequence in which she's rolled down a ramp in a barrel, falls three stories into a lake next to a tiger, is trampled by 35 lions, then picked up and dropped by an elephant, Hedren said, "Now I laugh along with everyone else when I see those scenes, although they weren't always fun to shoot. Roar was the toughest movie of my life. But it was worth it."

She's right. Roar was worth it. Don't mistake the excitement in my voice for schadenfreude—the heart-pounding pleasure derived from watching Marshall's film is akin to what you feel while viewing a Jackass movie. We may be witnessing animals mauling unprotected people, but Roar is shock cinema worth preserving, so applause to Drafthouse for bringing the box-office flop in front of us again. There's no need for a Jungle Cruise movie, Disney; we have Roar.

Drafthouse Films

Because we can't stop marveling over Roar, Esquire is happy to debut five posters for the film's re-release. The one-sheets use Roar set photos as backdrops, painting an even rowdier picture than the finished film. And please, we can't stress this enough: Do not make your own living-with-lions film at home, folks.

Tippi Hedren attempts to pull a lion off daughter Melanie Griffith as a lion bites her head. Hedren was bitten in the head by a lion in a separate incident and suffered severe scalp injuries, as well. Drafthouse Films

Noel Marshall displays a bite wound on his leg. He suffered numerous injuries and ailments during the making of Roar, including gangrene that resulted from an animal bite. Drafthouse Films

Melanie Griffith originally quit the film when it first began shooting, telling her mother Tippi Hedren that she didn't Drafthouse Films

Cinematographer Jan de Bont was scalped while filming Roar. After his scalp was reattached with more than 120 stitches, he completed shooting the film. Drafthouse Films

Matt Patches Senior Writer Patches is a Senior Writer at Esquire.com.

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