Film Review: The Cove

This is what it sounds like when dolphins cry

‘To insult someone we call him “bestial”. For deliberate cruelty and nature, “human” might be the greater insult’

-Isaac Asimov

The opening of the film is more like a modern spy thriller than the animal planet type documentaries we are used to seeing. Filming with a heat-seeking, military-issued camera, the opening sequence establishes a sinister tone that permeates the whole documentary. This isn’t going to be a ‘look at the dolphins aren’t they pretty, aren’t they clever’ sort of film – be prepared for something completely different.

The Cove is a superb documentary, deserving of its festival accolades. It is inspiring to see what people can do if they are really passionate about a cause. The documentary follows, perhaps the most committed of them all, dolphin activist, Richard O’Barry. O’Barry was the dolphin trainer on the TV series, Flipper and feels a heavy responsibility for the commercialisation of the mammal-‘10 years building the industry up, 35 years trying to tear it down’. This is a man whose personal guilt oozes off the screen. Now a well-known and seemingly much despised protector of the cetacean species, he travels the globe answering the call of dolphins in peril.

With Richard O’Barry, filmmaker Louis Psihoyos has hit documentary gold. He is a fascinating character who oscillates between despair and combativeness, anger and humour. The Cove focuses on O’Barry’s struggle to expose the practices of fisherman in a small Japanese town. Taiji is eerily merchandised as a dolphin and whale mecca, with their image adorning all public buildings and dolphin-shaped ferries. However the seemingly idyllic town has a terrible secret. For 6 months each year, 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered in what is described by the local fisherman as ‘pest-control’. The capture of migrating dolphin pods sees young female dolphins being divided from the group to be sold to sea-life centres around the world for approx $USD150,000 a dolphin, whilst the majority are herded to a secluded cove and killed to be sold as meat. This film will forever change the way that you look at Sea World.

A mix of different styles, this documentary feels like an espionage thriller that becomes a crime caper, with an interval of political drama, all wrapped up in an eco-warrior call-to-arms. The scenes involving the International Whaling Commission (IWC), whose ineptitude for international governance would be funny if it was fictitious, are jaw-dropping. Watching the sentiments of many nations, as they express concern over the future of whales and our oceans, their complete inability for action is sobering.

            ‘We had a moral obligation, and let it not be said we didn’t know about it’

                                                                                 -Monaco’s Delegate to the IWC

Although brilliant, this documentary has to be criticised for its representation of Japanese people. They are shown on the whole as either animal-hating profiteers, or clueless. It is a pity that more Japanese voices and opinions are not included; it is hard to believe that there aren’t any people in Japan who fit in between these extremes. The inclusion of two town officials, who show public concern over mercury levels in dolphin meat, does not go far enough to be even-handed. The documentary is highly political, and this certainly deflects questions of objectivity; but considering the filmmaker denies the idea of cultural basis for dolphin and whale hunting, it would have been useful to have had a Japanese person explain their understanding of the cultural significance/entitlement. Given the hostility and secrecy of the people of Taiji, it is hard to say whether interviews would have been possible or not

Psihoyos, who created the Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) with Jim Clark, shares O’Barry’s convictions. Rather than taking the traditional roles of the documentarian as observer, Psihoyos is the active player, with O’Barry acting as his guide in the murky world of animal exploitation. In partnership they develop an intriguing plan to expose the dolphin genocide, which is truly horrifying to watch on the big-screen. Psihoyos obviously has powerful, rich and influential friends in America- The Cove, is a great example of what money, expertise and purpose can create.

Director: Louis Psihoyos

Featuring: Richard O’Barry, Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, Kirk Krack, David Rastovich, Paul Watson

Australian  Release Date: 20^th August 2009

Want to find out more- visit http://www.savejapandolphins.org/

Top image from Indiewire

Second image from Sprouting Off