Film review: The Cove
Oct. 23rd, 2009 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakOne of the most stirring, heartbreaking documentaries I've ever seen, and not about a past era, but something going on right now in the present. As a red thread, it uses the efforts of dolphin trainer turned animals rights activist Ric O'Barry to stop the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. O'Barry, who captured and trained the five dolphins who collectively played Flipper in the 1960s show - which sparked the craze for performing sea mammals - had his Damascus moments when one of them, Kathy, died in his arms, and since 35 years tries to atone by fighting to free dolphins.
Most of the animals in today's amusement parks, aquariums, sea worlds and what are captured and sold in Taiji (for up to 150 000,- dollars) but their fate, sad as it is, isn't actually the aim of the film's main thrust. (Though the film makes its point regarding them quickly and efficiently when demonstrating dolphin sound sensitivity and fastness when at liberty versus being locked in a relatively small pool surrounded by screaming people.) That is what happens to the dolphins who don't get sold; they're not set free but slaughtered, about 23.000 a year in Taiji alone, their meat often mislabelled so it can be sold easier.
Mid-way, the film takes its cue from heist movies as director Louie Psihoyos and the Oceanic Preservation Society compile a team so they can obtain evidence for this: free divers, tech experts, camera men, and one guy from George Lucas' ILM who provides fake rocks to hide the cameras in which the team eventually manages to place in the cove in question. The footage they obtain starts with an eerie moment of quietness, when we see and hear Japanese fishermen reminisce about past days when there were blue-whale pods as dense as “a clump of bamboo”, and then it becomes absolutely gut wrenching when the dolphin butchering begins and the sea turns red.
It's obvious why this footage is placed at the end; it's hard to take anything in afterwards because you're so shattered watching. Psihoyos knows his cinematic craft, and before that, the film isn't "just" a J'Accuse but also a love declaration to dolphins, providing footage of the animals at liberty, and introducing memorable human characters, not just O'Barry and the team but also people like the two brave councilmen of Taiji who speak out against the Mayor's plans to distribute dolphin meat (which in additional twist is also highly toxic with mercury) country-wide to schools. There was also briefly a familiar face, Heroes actress Hayden Panetierre who took part in an earlier attempt to draw attention to the dolphins in Taiji. And of course the audience isn't left of the hook. There is a reason why the marine-park industry flourishes world-wide. We pay to see the dolphins. And thus we pay for Taiji.
Most of the animals in today's amusement parks, aquariums, sea worlds and what are captured and sold in Taiji (for up to 150 000,- dollars) but their fate, sad as it is, isn't actually the aim of the film's main thrust. (Though the film makes its point regarding them quickly and efficiently when demonstrating dolphin sound sensitivity and fastness when at liberty versus being locked in a relatively small pool surrounded by screaming people.) That is what happens to the dolphins who don't get sold; they're not set free but slaughtered, about 23.000 a year in Taiji alone, their meat often mislabelled so it can be sold easier.
Mid-way, the film takes its cue from heist movies as director Louie Psihoyos and the Oceanic Preservation Society compile a team so they can obtain evidence for this: free divers, tech experts, camera men, and one guy from George Lucas' ILM who provides fake rocks to hide the cameras in which the team eventually manages to place in the cove in question. The footage they obtain starts with an eerie moment of quietness, when we see and hear Japanese fishermen reminisce about past days when there were blue-whale pods as dense as “a clump of bamboo”, and then it becomes absolutely gut wrenching when the dolphin butchering begins and the sea turns red.
It's obvious why this footage is placed at the end; it's hard to take anything in afterwards because you're so shattered watching. Psihoyos knows his cinematic craft, and before that, the film isn't "just" a J'Accuse but also a love declaration to dolphins, providing footage of the animals at liberty, and introducing memorable human characters, not just O'Barry and the team but also people like the two brave councilmen of Taiji who speak out against the Mayor's plans to distribute dolphin meat (which in additional twist is also highly toxic with mercury) country-wide to schools. There was also briefly a familiar face, Heroes actress Hayden Panetierre who took part in an earlier attempt to draw attention to the dolphins in Taiji. And of course the audience isn't left of the hook. There is a reason why the marine-park industry flourishes world-wide. We pay to see the dolphins. And thus we pay for Taiji.
