The Cove

source: The Cove

The Cove

I've just got in from seeing the film today with my girlfriend and I'm afraid I cannot concur with the previous users apathetic views. If he really did see the film, he would know that the director mentions several times that this area of Tiajiji has always been highly off limits and hidden from visitors, so it would seem logical to me that they were not spotted in his "20 years" of visiting the area. The Japanese go to great lengths to make sure nobody can see the atrocities. I happen to think it was well directed, and definitely worth the money. Prepare yourself for some gory scenes, but they do not dominate the film. Definitely exceeded expectations.

In the 1960's, Ric O'Barry made a fortune as the dolphin trainer for the "Flipper" films and television series. "I could buy a new Porsche every year," he says now, in the new documentary, "The Cove." But if he could do it over again, he would set free the five dolphins who played "Flipper." Thanks to "Flipper," people fell in love with dolphins. They loved these beautiful, sensitive, highly intelligent sea mammals literally to death. People wanted to get closer to dolphins, leading to a proliferation of marine zoos and "swim with the dolphin" enterprises where, day in and day out, the animals were exposed to screaming humans and forced to dwell in tiny tanks. In the wild, dolphins may swim some 5,000 miles a day, and their hearing is almost preternaturally sensitive. Dolphins navigate by sonar, and communicate with one another by sound. When they are exposed to loud noises for a long period of time, they die from the stress. At the National Aquarium in Baltimore, several dolphins died because the constant din of the water filtration system killed them. But even worse than the lives these captive dolphins lead is what happens to the dolphins who aren't chosen by the trainers and aquatic zookeepers, the dolphins who have the misfortune of being too old, or too young, or male -- and are hacked to death in the secret Cove of the movie's title. O'Barry blames himself for the deaths, all of them, and for the dolphins' continuing plight in the 40-year wake of "Flipper." However, "The Cove" is more than a chronicle of O'Barry's efforts to make amends. The film, which deserves every one of the many accolades it has already garnered, and many more, is an amalgam of caper flick, nature documentary, and investigative journalism at its finest: Imagine a combination of Jacques Cousteau, "Mission: Impossible," "CSI," and "60 Minutes" -- and one of those films like "Old Yeller" where a beloved animal dies at the end, because, to be sure, the last 20 minutes of "The Cove" are very, very hard to take if you have any heart at all. This is a Holocaust, and with my ethnic background I don't toss around that term lightly. But we can stop it. Getting the word out will help shame the Japanese authorities into curtailing the slaughter, which will start again in September unless we help stop it. Once again, it is within our power to say, "Never again!"

Western countries' attempt to close down the Japanese whale harvest is somewhat comparable to a restaurant patron's demand to close the restaurant after he ate his fill so that no other patron may eat. The dolphin harvest was not unknown to the Western countries such as Norway, Iceland or Danmark. They too used to drive dolphins to a cove and slaughter them, well into 1960's. British and American whalers decimated the whale population in the Pacific and the Atlanticto virtual extinction. South Georgia Island, a British possession in the southern Atlantic, used to be a practical killing field for whales (and seals). The very reason International Whaling Commission came into being was the belated bad conscience of those countries. Let there be no mistake--I am no lover of Japan. However, there indeed is an element of hypocrisy in criticizing the Japanese practice. Why didn't the film crews of the Cove first go to South Georgia island and Nantucket and erect some memorial to the hundreds of millions of whales massacred only until a few decades ago?

İ only gave 2 stars instead of 1 because of the undeniable efforts of the activists in this film. Japan Government ignoring the fact that they are taking so much, it jeopardizes the ecological balance is one thing, crying for dolphins as they are being eaten is another. There are some farmers trying to make a living here, they are not enemies of the activists. İn this film we see Richard O'Barry willingly saying how he wanted to physically beat a farmer. This is ridiculous. The same thing happens in the cow farms or in the sheep farms. Go see a goat farm, people love goats, give names to them, call them with the names and the goats respond (so all mammals are intelligent at some level). And the season comes, people eat goats. İt is this simple. Human kind must respect life. The activists plays an important role here being individuals that change the humanity in a good way. So why not start with the slaughters and massacres of the humans. İf there are some people out there to teach us respect life, they have to start with the human life. Thousands of humans are being murdered for no reason all around the world and no Oscar nominated documentaries about it! The crew in this film should have given at least the half the effort they gave here, to make a film about human slaughter. Otherwise, this is a film about an old man crying for food, and two lovers diving in the middle of the night with tight swim suits.

Words can hardly describe how powerful this documentary is, and the lengths to which human cruelty can extend to. Louie Psihoyos and his team infiltrate a secret cove near Taiji, Japan and expose a brutal instance of animal cruelty. This film opens your eyes to the truly devastating fates of thousands of dolphins, who are slaughtered without remorse.Being an animal lover, and my dream to become a zoologist, this film has really inspired me to be active and do whatever necessary to protect the beauty of our planet. Alongside Ric O Barry, Psihoyos is able to clearly point out the error of these marvelous creatures in captivity, and how they deserve to be free, just like any other creature. If you are one of those people that see my ways, then you'll be affected deeply too to take action. Forget the damn critics, this isn't a Hollywood blockbuster, this is a way of life for us and what we've become...what we've turned into. Support the cause to stop this.

The Cove begins in Taji, Japan where we first meet former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry. O'Barry was the man responsible for capturing and training the five dolphins that played Flipper in the international TV sensation. When the cast and crew went away, it was O'Barry who remained on the set, he lived in the famous house on the lake with the dolphins until the shows end. It was here he learned how sensitive, self-aware, and highly intelligent these creatures are, and more importantly how harmful it was to keep them in captivity. One fateful day his dolphin Katherine, committed suicide in his arms. Every breath a dolphin takes is an intentional, conscience effort, Katherine laid in his arms, took one breath and went under forever. This was the catalyst for Ric O'Barry's journey, to undue what he created, to stop the capture and captivity of dolphins world wide. Sound like a typical "save the whales" boring documentary? This is not your granddaddy's documentary! The Cove unfolds more like a spy thriller than a hug the trees documentary, think James Bond meets Jacques Cousteau . Ground Zero is Taji, Japan. From the outside the town seems to be devoted to the majestic creatures swimming off it's shores. Statues are erected, boats designed to look like dolphins cruise the shore, and a whale museum is the pinnacle of the town. But in a remote area we find a cove surrounded by barbed wire, keep out signs and security, it is here that the town's dark secret lies. Every year from September to March, fisherman motivated by the multi billion dollar dolphin trading industry and an underground market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, gather in this cove for the hunt. How this hunt is conducted is so grossly inhumane and dangerous to human health, that the fishermen go to great lengths, even murder, to keep anyone from seeing it. Ric O'Barry needed someone who could put together a team to infiltrate the cove. In walks filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Ocean Preservation Society. With the local authorities tipped off to the project, the filmmakers put together an Oceans11 style team. The cast of characters include a Hollywood special effects artist, two world champion free divers, an adrenaline junkie, and an electronic expert from the Canadian Air Force. Their mission: to plant and recover the HD cameras on the cove and under water. To get past guards and police they conducted missions in the middle of the night using diversionary techniques and military grade high definition cameras that picked up on body heat. The husband and wife free diving team placed the cameras under water while the adrenaline junkies scaled the rocky face of the cove to plant the cameras in fake rocks. Several times we see the team seconds away from being caught. Their efforts paid off in a big way, the audience is taken into the cove to see first hand the horrors that happen there. The footage is some of the most powerful imagery I have seen. This gorilla journalism style of film-making may be what we need to spark the interest of the new generation. I believe this documentary may spawn a new uprising in the "save the whale" movement, starting with shutting down the cove in Taji, Japan. The Cove infiltrated my dreams the night I saw it, that never happens to this jaded Angelino. This film will stay with you and it will make you want to help the cause. 23,000 dolphins are due to be hunted and executed starting in September, what will you do to stop it? The Cove opens in select cities August 7th.

Most reviews of The Cove, even negative ones, seem to praise the art of the film while ignoring the laziness and self-righteousness of the argument. Japanese consumption of whale and dolphin meat and Japan's general spurning of International Whaling Commission resolutions are extremely complex issues that should be examined soberly. Unfortunately, the activists in The Cove—like many of the louder, more self-righteous environmentalists—skip the part where they take time to consider the multifaceted, layered issue and rush blindly in convinced the world is comprised of evil, greedy men for them to battle. Even more unfortunately, this attitude turns off many naturally skeptical people (the support of which the environmental movement sorely needs) from real and important causes. From the Japanese perspective, whales and dolphins are not particularly special. There is a significant body of scientific evidence to support the Japanese position: while cetaceans do have large, complex brains, much of their neurons are devoted to the maintenance of large bodies and energy-intensive sonar lobes. Much of dolphins's charm is attributable to their "smile"—an accident of evolution—and the fact that they live in the ocean: limited encounters with human beings (who historically have killed most animals they came across) has made dolphins noticeably social and docile. In certain parts of Japan, dolphins are food, just as cows are food in America but not in India. Imagine if a group of devout Hindus snuck into a Chicago Jurgis Rudkus-style slaughterhouse and pieced together a documentary about how Americans were a bunch of savages for murdering holy cows, complete with graphic shots of cows's heads being cut off, spliced Michael Moore style with out-of-context footage of slaughterhouse workers laughing, complete with a Samuel Barber soundtrack. When the ensuing mob crowds the slaughterhouse and attempts to shut down business, the humble meatpackers would surely be perplexed. Much of Western Civilization's image of dolphins as superbeings originates in the work of John C. Lilly , a 1960s counterculture physician convinced that LSD was a magical drug capable of enhancing consciousness. Lilly, who described himself as a psychonaut, used to drop acid and swim with dolphins then write "research papers" on the ensuing awesome spiritual journeys and the wisdom bequeathed by the noble cetaceans. It should come as no shock that most of the rest of the world does not have the same mystical perspective of dolphins as westerners. The problem is not that killing dolphins and whales is inherently immoral. The makers of The Cove seem to take this as fact and jump right into a Joseph Campbell-esquire good vs. evil narrative. In the process, the filmmakers unfortunately repulse many thoughtful, potentially sympathetic viewers. The real problem with Japanese consumption of whale and dolphin meat is that the Japanese are taking more than their fair share of a resource that belongs to everybody despite unanimous censure as well as humanitarian, ecological, and public health concerns. Their reasons for doing so are poorly articulated and spurious. The consumption of cetaceans deserves treatment as a serious issue, not as the sensationalistic propaganda for which the environmental movement is sadly notorious. Read more at www.theinductive.com

Enough has been said about this excellent documentary, but I wanted to comment on the negative responses, some of which are posted here and which also can be read on the message board. If you have not seen this movie, DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION to the moronic comments, view this film and judge for yourself. If you are an intelligent, caring person, concerned about the environment and the animals, you must see this documentary. The film was made with great risks involved and all who took part in making it have to be commended for their courage and desire to show the truth. I saw the film several days ago and I cannot get it out of my head. It is the most disturbing film I have seen since "The Witness" (not to be confused with the one starring Harrison Ford). When I saw the movie, the theatre was practically empty, and that was disappointing because people should be made aware of the horrors documented in this film.