Billed as Flipper meets The Bourne Identity (and some Free Willy?). Yeah, and that’s exactly the vibe I get from this awesome trailer for The Cove, by first time director Louie Psihoyos.
Apparently there is a secret cove in Japan (that nobody really knows about) where dolphins are captured, harvested and killed – for what I couldn’t quite tell (food?). Some American film makers want to get in and record the evidence to show the world, but they are tracked by mafia, gov’t, whaling thugs (ha!) and God knows who else. So they get camo’d up (face paint and all), hide cameras in the trees and set off to expose this massacre to the world. And it’s all real!
This looks like an environmental conspiracy movie with cloak and dagger type action, espionage and intrigue. Just… wow. Take a look at the quicktime trailer below and tell me you’re not interested in seeing how this thing pans out asap.
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I like this trailer – builds the film like a good thriller – I’m game.
Reminds me a little of “Sharkwater” from a few years ago. That guy got himself into loads of trouble making that documentary as well.
I was gonna say, I’m getting a major Sharkwater vibe from this. You beat me to it Marina.
I don’t know what the bruaha is. They harvest dolphins for food and the cove is where they slaughter them.
And?
swarez, if you see the film, you’ll understand. It’s “how” they harvest the dolphins. Though I love animals as much as the next person, I recognize where my species is on the old food chain…But the last 10 minutes or so of The Cove is VERY difficult to watch.
The caper piece of the film is fun and exciting and it builds to the hidden camera footage that you know is coming…And then it does.
On top of the methods used to kill – sorry, slaughter is the better word here – the dolphins, there is the issue of selling mercury contaminated dolphin meat (under the guise of it being whale meat) to the public. Better yet, the attempt to get it into school lunch programs…
There’s also an entire portion of the film that looks at why captive dolphins are not actually happy dolphins. Let’s just say that not everyone loves Marineland.
I expect that some will look at the film as an extremist animal rights platform, but it isn’t. OK, there’s perhaps a few moments that border on that, but it’s so much more and I found it actually seemed reasonable in its tone.
I saw it at Hot Docs this year and as soon as the audience gave it a standing ovation, I figured it was gonna grab the Audience Award. And it did. I’d rank it with my other two favourites of the fest – “Best Worst Movie” and “Love At The Twilight Motel”. I reviewed “The Cove” here.
I don’t know. It’s the whole “cute animals shouldn’t be hunted for food” thing that gets on my nerve. People think that dolphins are “happy” all the time because they like to frolic around people, but rarely do we hear about how they actually behave in nature, which is far from the cutesy, pixies of the seas, image that we like to imagine.
Slaughtering animals is never pleasant to watch, especially animals with a fixed smile on their faces so of course the reaction to footage like that is going to be strong.
I live in a country where fishing and whaling has been a part of it for hundreds of years and for a group of neo hippies, who seem to think that the world should revolve around their ideals, and eat a piece of celery while their at it, to come and try to destroy the lively hoods of hundreds, if not thousands of people who have been doing this all their lives because dolphins are cute pisses me off a little.
I’m all about animal rights and I myself could never kill an animal but I also know how the world turns and some things are more important than the “animal right of the week” mentality these people seem to have.
Now I know how Michael Moore haters feel.
Dennis Leary on Saving the Cute Animals (goto 9:12)
I hear you swarez, but that’s not the sole push of the film.
There are indeed some statements in the film based solely on anecdotal evidence that made me cringe a bit, but the specific case of this cove in this small village is NOT your typical “animal right of the week”. They aren’t being killed in order to put food on people’s tables…Considering the premium ones are sold at $150000 each to Sea World type parks, do they really need the additional $600 each for the ones they kill and pass off as whale meat?
Like I said in my review, I’m normally someone who looks at all the gray areas – I don’t like the “your with us or against us” mentality. But there’s something wrong here – and it’s not just because dolphins are cute. The film does play up the intelligence of the animals somewhat, but that alone is an interesting point – should we be slaughtering one of the more intelligent species?
I’d be curious to hear what you think if you end up seeing it. I’m not trying to convince you to join “the cause”, but I just don’t want people to go into the film with too many preconceptions.
Beyond all that, it’s also pretty damn entertaining.
Hi! Thanks so much for your post!
I was blown away when I saw this film. It sheds light on an issue that very few people know about: 1) The slaughter of dolphins in Japan and the involvement of the aquarium industry and 2) The fact that dolphin meat is toxic however the Japanese government still pushes it on it’s citizens.
For more information on the issue and to find out how you can help, check out SaveJapanDolphins.org.
Thanks for spreading the word, Andrew!!
Swarez, you might want to consider the intelligence level of the animals being slaughtered in this case. We’re not talking about cows or chickens–we’re talking about dolphins. Dolphins are one of the only animals who have self-awareness–that is, they can look at themselves in a mirror and they know that the reflection is them. That might not sound like much, but it is. It means the dolphins have a sense of self. Research has in fact shown that not only do dolphins have an entire language, but they even have names for one another–they’re very social creatures with strong emotional ties. Many scientists believe that a dolphin’s intelligence is on par with that of a six year old human child. Now, personally, I feel that it’s pretty hard to argue, whether one is a so-called celery eating animal lover or not, that the slaughter of an animal that intelligent could ever be humane.
In addition to that, there is the fact that, as other people here have pointed out, it is both the inhumane method in which they are slaughtered and the fact that their slaughter is entirely unnecessary (if you see the film, there is quite a lot of development revolving around the fact that their meat is a toxic waste dump of mercury, and around how the people of Japan are being fooled into eating it when it’s mislabeled as fish or whale and sold in their markets). It’s about much more than the dolphins, although that’s obviously a huge part–it’s about the humans too.
If you’d seen the movie, you’d know it’s not just about not killing the “cute” dolphins.
This looks crazy. I definitely need to check this out.
I just heard an interview of the director, and he mentions how the fishermen of Taiji village were asked and offered subsidy. Basically be paid the amount they would earn by killing the dolphins, by stopping the slaughter. Their answer was that, to them it’s pest control. Dolphins eat fish from already over-fished sea of Japan, thus the fishermen are killing off the competition.
I am meat loving, fur wearing average joe. But I agree with the director’s point, that IF indeed the animals’ death is needed for human’s way of living (which is not, according to the mercury level in those meat) I think animals should be euthanized peacefully. Clearly Japan is not doing that. It’s quite horrifying.
Unfortunately some people see the indulgent taking of life as even something darker than greed. They take life because they can and there is no one to stop them. I know someone who poured insecticide all over their lawn so they wouldn’t have one creepy crawler in their yard, are people nuts? you bet. Think of people, children do have smiles, but that doesn’t stop murderers who kill everyone in their path, and rationalize it with some ridiculous political purpose. There are people who will slaughter everything and love it. Laws are created to keep people in check, you can’t slaughter everything in the sea, because there is something called the “future”. Laws say it’s acceptable to slaughter domestic animals under controlled circumstances, where are the controlling laws governing the slaughter and taking of these dolphins? Obviously there are NONE! I’m surprised and shocked by this documentary Blue Cove. I have profound respect for Japanese culture, but the people doing this crazy slaughter of dolphins are wild men. My expectation is that the Japanese people will not stand for this vulgarity and disrespect of their partnership with the sea. Really we are all guilty and always it is a good thing to have our eyes opened. How is that for a judgement.
Caught this last night and have to add my voice to the chorus, this is a great film and one that, at least for me, made me feel passionately about the cause being posed even though prior to entering the theater I had zero interest in dolphins. To me it is more than dolphins though, it is about this unfettered corporate greed that will go so far as to unwittingly poison people and deplete a food supply to keep their shareholders happy, and an imperial minded nation that does not want to back down dare it lose face.
Shit like this needs to be exposed, over and over and over, and that documentaries are inching towards mainstream is, to me, a favorable trend that may contribute to a new awakening in the social conscience that will then motivate political change.
I have great respect to the filmmaker for their passion and effort to unveil the secret to japanese public. I am deeply moved and totally want to get involved to fight against it as a Japanese. But also please know that U.S.government has been using&developing project to use dolphins as biological weapon. This is a bigger issue which needs to be discussed as well. see link http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/navydolphins/