A movie review on The Cove, a documentary the follows ex-dolphin trainer turned activist, Ric O'Barry.
The Cove: Film Review
The Cove is a documentary film that features former animal trainer, now animal activist, Richard O’Barry and his pursuit to expose the truth on Dolphins and the cruelty they endure for an audience’s amusement. This film did its job well. As a viewer, you were informed as well as entertained. And now we know the real horrors that these dolphins are put through just for the sake of entertainment.
The film’s night vision montage during the opening credits sets the mood for the film. The scene fills us with the thrills of a secret operation that is going to end in bloodshed. The audience will be haunted forever after hearing the dolphins’ screams and seeing the thrashing crimson-waters of the horrors just below the surface of the water.
. When Richard O’Barry is tailed, he becomes paranoid. The audience has the sense that they are in the car with him and sharing Richard’s paranoia. The audience is a part of the action throughout the entire film; We were witnesses to the conferences, the planning, and when the dolphins’ are slaughtered.
A quote that best describes the film comes from film critic Jonathan F. Richards of Film.com, “The Cove is guerrilla journalism at its best. Structured and paced by director Louie Psihoyos as a thriller/caper movie. Which brings audience-grabbing cinematic conventions to work in telling its story of dolphin genocide.” I like the phrasing “guerilla journalism,” that’s what this film is, journalism with boots on the ground, right in action, observing and reporting to gather the information and inform the audience. Give the people some truth.
The killing of dolphins in the cove shocked me the most. The footage of the dolphins screaming out in pain will forever haunt me and make me sick to my stomach. The Cove opened the viewer’s eyes to the awful treatment of dolphins in captivity.