Each year 23,000 dolphins are captured and brutally slaughtered. Taiji, Japan, the epicenter of this madness, has consequently been named “the little town with a big secret.” The fisherman of Taiji would drive dolphins from the ocean into a hidden cove, where they were either selected for a life in captivity or were clubbed and speared to death. The locals were surprisingly unaware of the secret trade, and a team of filmmakers, ecologists, divers, and activists sought to uncover the hidden cruelty with the release of “The Cove” (directed by Louis Psihoyos, 2009).
Richard O’Barry, the crews’ leader, trained dolphins for 30 years in captivity. His main project was to find and train the five dolphins used in “Flipper.” After witnessing the ongoing stress and eventual suicide of “Flipper’s” leading dolphin Kathy, he felt responsible to tear down the industry he spent his whole life creating by uncovering the injustice, using film as the main mean. “The Cove” thoroughly explores the reasoning behind the demand of dolphins, the hunters’ methods and secret marketplaces, and the ongoing arguments of captivity versus the wild in an all-inclusive, entertaining and emotionally challenging way.
From the get-go you see “The Cove” isn’t your typical form of documentary, which makes for a very entertaining twist. The film takes on the role of storyteller, setting out to display an ecological issue in the form of a thriller, and you are able to go on the emotional journey right alongside the team. Effective imagery carefully plays with the viewers’ emotions using photographs, along with old, new and secret footage. Jumping, joyful dolphins are quickly replaced with a blood bath, taking the viewer from a state of light-heartedness to a state of sadness and anger all within a two- hour span.
“The Cove” is shot from the point-of-view of the animal rights activist, and Psihoyos did a thorough job in showing the opposing sides’ opinions by including interviews and secret film footage of government officials, IWC (International Whaling Committee) members, and the fisherman themselves. All of these subjects found no issue in hunting the mammal, and using their side of the story helps to light the fire under the issue and keep the viewer eagerly wanting to watch more.
Within the filming and research process, the biggest obstacle the team faced was finding a way into the cove without getting caught, and the modern technology used to do so definitely made the movie. The crew had footage of the town, fishermen, boats, and of course, the dolphins, but they still needed that one money-shot. In the most suspenseful scene of the film, the team set out in the middle of the night to install cameras hidden in rocks and microphones hidden underwater. The mission became a necessity because footage would be shot from all angles within the cove, something no one else had ever accomplished. Without it, the documentary would have become just another boring educational film, losing all of its entertaining characteristics.
In the final and most liberating scene of “The Cove,” O’Barry strapped a television to his chest showing graphic footage from the cameras the team installed. He pranced around an IWC meeting in protest, taking his film to the next level, activism. The risk the team took to create the film and show the issue with as little editing as possible stands out as the reason why the film is so powerful in both its message and emotional challenge.
O’Barry and Psihoyos began with an issue much too large to fight alone and with too many questions surfacing. The documentary served as a tool to figure out how to bring light to this serious ecological problem. The more they filmed, the more educated they became, creating a desire to uncover the issue even further. The drive and passion displayed is something all filmmakers should strive for because the viewer can truly sense it. They weren’t afraid to show the world exactly what was uncovered. There was an extreme importance for this ecological problem to surface, and “The Cove” brought the issue forward in a beautifully moving way that will continue to inspire others to fight for their passions.
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