TGIF Movie Review: The Cove
Disclaimer: This film has many disturbing images. I mean, really horrifying.
Don’t sit back and relax, don’t make yourself some popcorn, and don’t get ready to enjoy this movie. The Cove is an Academy-Award-winning documentary (best documentary) by Rick O’Barry that exposes a brutal dolphin slaughter in a small cove in the town of Taigi, Japan, where over 23,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed every year. It is an hour and a half that you will not enjoy, but it is one of the most moving and important films I have ever seen.
Rick O’Barry is the former capturer and trainer of the five bottlenose dolphins used in the TV show “Flipper”. Shortly after the show ended, one of them swam into him arms and stopped breathing. Since dolphins are “active breathers” it was clear to O’Barry that this dolphin had committed suicide. The next day he was arrested for freeing a captive dolphin and has been continuing that fight ever since.
The first hour of this film is more like an action-adventure-suspense movie than a documentary. Most of it is spent showing the lengths the crew had to go and the dangers they faced just to get the incriminating footage of the cove. The team of divers, activists, techies, and ex-military men face long imprisonment and even death when they cross the boundary to the cove to place their equipment.
In between action sequences, there is one eye-opening revelation about the dolphin industry after another, from the extremely toxic levels of mercury in the meat (which was put in Japanese school lunches) to the effect closed captivity has on dolphin sonar (like a human living in a house of mirrors) resulting in such extreme ulcers that they are fed a bottle of acid reducers every day. But all of this is just a mild preamble.
They do such an extensive job setting it up that I felt nervous when they finally got the footage of what happens in the cove. Sort of like when your friend tells you over and over how great the pizza is at a particular restaurant, but when you finally eat it, it’s only “OK”. Not the case here. Not even close. Nothing can prepare you for what you see next. Hundreds of dolphins every day, stabbed and then left to bleed to death. The cove in no way even resembles water; it is deep red with blood. It is difficult to watch, which is why it is so important.
I realize that this is less of a movie review and more of a call to action, but please give it a watch. It is available on iTunes, Amazon, and DVD. If you really don’t have the stomach, and I don’t blame you, you can still take action. Visit TheCoveMovie.com, text “dolphin” to 44144 to join a subscriber list and get involved, or just make a simple donation.
It’s a strange feeling to be glad you watched something that you enjoyed so little.
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