The Cove

(2009)

Directed by

Louie Psihoyos

Review by Zach Saltz

Posted - 9/7/09

According to legendary trainer Ric O’Barry, the dolphin’s smile is one of nature’s great false illusions, giving a façade of happiness to a creature that is actually hurting deeply inside.  In the powerful new documentary The Cove, we are told that some 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered annually in a small obscured lagoon near Taiji on the southern coast of Japan .  Because dolphins are benign in nature, they do not retaliate when they are cajoled into the cove and hunted down in mass quantities by fisherman.  Just like the dolphins placed in captivity at theme parks around the world, they may accept their fate, but their world-famous smile is hiding their pain.

This is one of the most heartbreaking and anger-inducing motion pictures I have seen in recent years.  While it may qualify as an “activist” film, it is decidedly different from such documentaries as An Inconvenient Truth and No End In Sight.  Those films dealt with politically divisive issues that often served as external distractions and barriers preventing audience members from absorbing the important social messages that were being put across.  There is no controversy in The Cove.  It is impossible not to be deeply affected by the images of hoards of dolphins being lured into traps and killed by the spears of apathetic fishermen. 

The film profiles O’Barry, who at one time was the world’s preeminent dolphin specialist.  He served as the trainer to the dolphins used on Flipper, a television series that O’Barry sadly admits proliferated the perceived “domesticity” of the wild creature.  After having spent ten prosperous years on the show, O’Barry realized the negative effects of his trade, and has spent the rest of his life attempting to free dolphins put in captivity.  Often the conditions these dolphins are found in are abysmal.  One example is given where two dolphins were found swimming in unclean tanks filled with their own excrement. 

As The Cove unfolds, it becomes very clear that dolphins are creatures not designed for captivity.  Because they navigate and communicate using delicate sonar waves, even the slightest of noises can significantly impact the livelihood of the creature.  In some water parks, we learn, the noise given off by the air filtration system in the dolphins’ tanks is enough to kill them.  But often the deaths of dolphins in captivity cannot be linked to specific reasons.  It is the internal stress of performing for spectators that kills them, O’Barry says.  Or if it is not stress, it is suicide, as dolphins are one of the only creatures capable of intentionally killing themselves.

But the main focus of The Cove is exposing the horrific poaching episodes at Taiji.  O’Barry and an unlikely crew of deep-sea divers, former government ops, and thrill-seekers attempt to place secret recording devices on the steep hills surrounding the site.  Not surprisingly, the reason such a site still exists is the result of auspicious Japanese bureaucracies and stupefying mismanagement by world wildlife organizations, particularly the International Whaling Commission (so inept they cannot even determine if dolphins are technically whales or not).  The Japanese government comes off in a particularly negative light in this motion picture, as it should.  Not only are corrupt government officials responsible for the deplorable extermination of the local dolphin population, they are also guilty of poisoning their own population with mislabeled dolphin meat containing dangerously high levels of mercury.

This is one of the most important pictures of the year.  If the images of dolphins being slaughtered does not exactly sound enticing for weekend entertainment at the multiplex, director Louie Psihoyos has also added an extra level of duplicitous espionage, with the Ocean’s 11-like subplot involving the illegal hidden placement of the cameras.  But make no mistake about it – the horrific images of this film serve as a call to action that is gravely needed.  One of the figures interviewed for the film quotes Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Note: Apparently, the widespread release of this film is bolstering positive results in shutting down the dolphin killings in Taiji.  Ric O’Barry explains further in his blog:

http://www.takepart.com/blog/2009/09/01/urgent-update-from-taiji-september-1-2009-a-good-day-for-dolphins/

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