The Cove

Everyone loves dolphins, right? Their intellect, playfulness and plucky heroics have endeared them to all as man’s most beloved fishy friend. The town of Taiji, Japan, however, has a very closeted and sinister relationship with this loveable marine mammal.

Each year, concealed by the mountains that lace its shores, 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered in the secluded inlets of this small fishing town. It is an atrocity that has gone largely unnoticed over the years, notwithstanding the diligent, if futile, efforts of one man.

On the surface Ric O’Barry seems like any animal activist – noble in his endeavours and fanatical in his allegiance to the cause. And then we discover the story behind his crusade. Flashing back to the 1960s, we learn that it was O’Barry who inadvertently birthed the world’s porpoise passion through his work on the famed TV series, Flipper. O’Barry is a relic of a more frivolous time; a time when human ignorance paved the way for future environmental catastrophes. Today his bitter tears wash over a weathered face, stricken with sorrow and guilt.

The real tragedy here, however, is that O’Barry is a lone ranger – an ageing activist desperately searching for disciples ready to pick up where he leaves off. On this mission he is assisted by a troupe of filmmakers and freedivers, but you can’t help feel that most of the adrenaline junkie do-gooders are simply tagging along for the ride. Over-emphasising their special-ops-style uncovering of Taiji’s dolphin harvest, their theatrics give the film a fictional feel in places, more fitting to a Hollywood thriller.

After several heated encounters with the local fishermen and the frustratingly fraudulent International Whaling Commission, the enemy is clearly marked. But the Japanese people have been given a raw deal here; an entire nation forced to carry the can for the callous actions of a small minority. You can’t help feel director (and co-founder of the Ocean Preservation Society) Louie Psihoyos’ hasty finger pointing belittles his film’s cause.

Nonetheless, facts, stats and grim archive footage help mount a convincing if one-sided case, but it is the revelatory covert recordings that encapsulates the true power of documentary cinema. The lifeless crimson waters that lap the sands of the cove are amongst the most shocking, distressing images you are ever likely to see. “The dolphin’s smile is nature’s greatest deception,” O’Barry poignantly notes. By the same sentiment, it is the vulnerability of these animals in the hands of man that is nature’s most profound and painful truth.

Adam Woodward

Anticipation:

A much-needed environmental exposé? Or just a bit of Free Flipper bandwagon-jumping?

Enjoyment:

Engaging, eye-opening and unashamedly explicit.

In Retrospect:

This year’s must-see shock-doc. Sure to make waves.