The Cove

Saw The Cove, a documentary about an annual dolphin slaughter which occurs in Taiji, Japan every year much to the dismay of environmentalists and apparently without the permission or knowledge of anyone at all. Most of the film is taken up with behind-the-scenes shots of the making of the film itself. The dolphin slaughter actually occurs in a secluded cove which is surrounded by steep cliffs and is staunchly protected by local fishermen and police. To merely film the slaughter was a monumental task spanning five years. The heist itself, involving drones, infrared cameras, deep-water divers, and Hollywood model-makers, is pretty crazy. It's too chaotically filmed to really know what's going on, but of course that's not the point of the film.

Like most environmental films, this is not a happy picture. In a credits montage the filmmakers tally their victories mostly in firings of mouthpieces and in small symbolic acts (some schoolchildren do not get fed dolphin meat.) The film also does not convincingly explain why the dolphins are hunted. Every explanation is met with a head-shaking rebuttal. Perhaps the dolphins are eaten? They shouldn't be: they contain high levels of mercury. Perhaps the dolphins are devouring too much tuna/bass/etc? They can't possibly be eating more than human beings and furthermore if we upset the aquatic ecosystem by removing a top predator, we'll damage the fish supply far worse than the dolphins do. And on and on.

The film is a call to arms and thus cannot reassure us. It talks at great length of the majesty and intelligence of the dolphin, suggesting even that they are more intelligent than humans (but that's ridiculous of course. If they're so smart, how come they don't have cellphones?) The activists are lionized as they weeping at the cruelty of the dolphin-slaughter and as they skate around local officials who seek to arrest them. It's fairly effective.