|
 |
|
"The Cove" opens in N.Y. and L.A. on July 31.© Corbis |
For months, we've heard from colleagues involved in the making of "The Cove" that it was going to be big.
The film tells the story of the 2,000 dolphins killed every year in the grimmest possible way in a tiny cove in Taiji, Japan.
Glowing reviews about its gripping story-telling and the emotional wallop it made on the festival rounds were all well deserved—"The Cove" doesn't disappoint.
The first 15 or so minutes center on Ric O’Barry, a former dolphin trainer who for years has campaigned against the dolphin display industry he helped create and is now dedicated to ending the dolphin drive hunts, which are fueled by sky-high dollar figures Asian dolphinariums are willing to pay for the “lucky” few dolphins set aside alive while the rest are slaughtered.
To set the political stage, “The Cove” delves into the machinations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). This is the international treaty forum that regulates the hunting of great whales but does not govern the killing of dolphins and porpoises—leaving the Taiji dolphins to the mercy of a Japanese government that sees both whales and dolphins as fish.
Wth strategic interviews and clever editing, the film's director, Louie Psihoyos, gets the essence of the politics of whaling exactly right.
But the main focus of the film is the amazing lengths to which the crew went to get the footage of what goes on in the killing cove in Taiji. Other reviews have described the “Oceans 11” elements—the night vision cameras, the cameras hidden in mock rocks. It’s all completely engrossing, tense, and occasionally even poignantly humorous.
This is the heart and soul of "The Cove." It plays more like a feature film than a documentary—but it’s all real.
Interviews with activists, officials, and scientists, as well as footage of candid comments made in public and private meetings (mostly where the camera was in the open, but sometimes not), are masterfully cut together to tell the damning tale of the drives and how one town (out of many others that have gradually ended the practice) continues to kill dolphins, not because dolphins are worth all that much dead, but because a select few are worth much more alive.
"I thought I knew about all the issues in this film," said Naomi Rose, Ph.D., senior scientist for Humane Society International. "These are my campaign issues. But somehow 'The Cove' revealed and exposed them in a way that was devastatingly new to me."
The actual footage of the killing isn’t very long and was apparently toned down to get a PG-13 rating—and still it is dreadful to watch. Dolphins are social, intelligent, and self-aware, as the film makes evident.
The indifference of the killers and the intense suffering of the animals as the water slowly—all too slowly—deepens to a crimson red, even with the worst edited out, is a blighting commentary on the relationship of human beings to the natural world.
"The Cove" opens in New York and Los Angeles today and is slated for release in select cities on August 7.
"Go see it," Rose said. "Don’t shut your eyes. The dolphins need you to see."
What You Can Do
Special thanks to Participant Media for the opportunity to educate the public about marine mammals in captivity through the production of the above brochure.
