Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Robert Lansing plays marine biologist Hank Donner, who befriends an Orca who won't leave his cove after some fishermen shot and killed its mate. Named Namu, the whale proves himself to be intelligent and playful after Hank, and a local woman and her daughter(played by Lee Meriwether and Robin Mattson) gain its trust. Those same fishermen are determined to get Namu out of the cove, by any means they can... Fine film is suitable for the whole family, being quite warm and respectful toward nature. Despite being subtitled "The Killer Whale", DVD is subtitled "My Best Friend", which is certainly nicer! Compare this with later film "Orca"(1977) to see what I mean...

This movie is a great story about a real life set of events, although the attempted killing of the whale aspect may not have been really the case. But whether it was or not, it shows how prejudice can so easily distort reality and take people over to the dark side. In this story it is about a killer whale, and not about race or gender or what your religion is. But we as humans act like they did in the movie SO easily! Incidentally, the name 'killer whale' derives from their ability and activity of killing whales. In most cases, they are only capable of killing the babies of other breeds of whales. Also, I do not believe there is ANY documented case of a killer whale killing a human in the wild. That has only happened in the killer whale aquariums, and always from drowning the victim, and not from eating them! They are one of the most gorgeous animals on the planet, and probably more intelligent than dolphins. This is a very heart warming story!

I first watched Namu when I was about 12 - the lesson it teaches has stuck with me all my life ... don't destroy nature just because you don't understand it or because you can. Namu is the "first" killer whale move, but it's also one of the first movies to take a naturalist point of view, that all creatures behave by the laws of nature … except man. Namu is a great film for kids to help them go beyond assumptions and try to see life from multiple points of view. Robert Lansing played the character of the marine biologist just right – intelligent, slow, deliberate, and even when angry he held back, not lowering himself to the level of characters that were blinded by prejudices – the character is sometimes reminiscent of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Not a great film, but entertaining enough for small children that love films about animals in the Walt Disney tradition. Unfortunately, this film is probably not aging very well because the message, "killer whales are nice, humans are bad", has been shown a lot, for example, see the "Free Willie" movies.