Cove, The (Louie Psihoyos, 2009)

The Cove

There was some stiff competition at this year's Oscars for the Best Documentary Feature category, especially from Food, Inc. and Burma VJ - but there's no doubting that The Cove was a worthy winner.

It doesn't just present a convincing and righteous argument against the wholesale culling of dolphins in Taiji, Japan - although one could argue that its cause was reason enough for the Oscar win. But The Cove also goes one step further, crafting an intelligent, intriguing, and compulsively watchable movie out of its disturbing subject matter. However you feel about Japan's policies on whale (and dolphin) hunting, this is one hell of a great movie.

National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos directs The Cove with intelligence and sensitivity, always avoiding the obvious sentimentality that unlies his subject. Sure, he allows us to see the reactions of his team and collaborators to the atrocities they witness - but he doesn't throw the inevitable gore and bloodshed in our faces, and he doesn't allow his movie to sink into grisly propaganda.

Instead he turns their project into a narrative worthy of Mission: Impossible, as Psihoyos and former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry (yes, the same guy who appeared in Flipper for close to ten years) aim to capture documentary footage of exactly what happens in the secluded coves of Taiji.

The ways in which they outmaneuver the dolphin fishermen and the man they know only as 'Private Space' are many and varied, as they risk their freedom - and possibly their lives - planting rocks with hidden cameras and audio devices around the cove under the cover of darkness. The resulting footage is as impressive as it is disturbing, and their technological feats alone are worthy of that Oscar.

Psihoyos also paints a fuller picture around the central core of Taiji's killing cove, offering data on the high levels of mercury in dolphin meat that threaten to poison a whole generation of Japanese schoolchildren, as well as the political machinations within the International Whaling Commission. That he manages to seamlessly fit this jigsaw together in under 90 minutes shows just how well-crafted The Cove is.

There will undoubtedly still be those who see the controversy as a cultural issue, and an invasion of Japanese tradition - but you only have to see the shocked expressions on the faces of the people Psihoyos interviews in Tokyo to know that this wholesale culling of one of the planet's most intelligent species is unacceptable in any culture. Even if you still approve of Taiji's aquatic slaughterhouse, there are enough questions raised about the integrity of the Whaling Commission and the effect on the food chain to harden anyone's resolve.

And, at the end of the day, most of us will agree with Ric O'Barry's assessment of the dolphins as not only an intelligent species, but one that has a level of self-awareness that far exceeds that of cows, chickens, pigs, or any of the other animals that we consider to be livestock. Maybe the time has come to draw a line in the sand - and The Cove presents the strongest possible argument for which side the dolphins should lie on.

For further information on the work being done to reduce the culling of dolphins in Taiji, be sure to visit The Cove's official campaign page on the TakePart social action network.

MIFF Season - The Cove (Louie Psihoyos, 2009)

**½
USA

A motley crew of activists engage in astonishing and extremely dangerous tactics in this militant exposé of mass profit-motivated dolphin slaughter in rural Japan. Rambling though the film is, and protracted, it’s impossible not to be affected by the cause. And if for some reason you’re resisting, director and star Louie Psihoyos has just the music cue for you (and then some).

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Movies 365: Day 1 – The Cove

To call The Cove a documentary, is to be too loose with the definition of the word documentary. The Cove, is not a documentary, what it is, plain and simple is propaganda, well done propaganda to be sure, but propaganda nonetheless. The Cove focuses on the  slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese village of Taiji, a slaughter which takes place in the titular cove. The narrative thrust of the film follows Ric O’Barry, former dolphin trainer who turned to dolphin activism , as he goes with a group of activists to film, for the first time, the dolphin slaughter.

When the film follows this lead, it is fascinating and thrilling. The group is followed by the police, shadowed by fisherman and other unsavory characters. These scenes are filmed and presented well, as you get the sense that they are truly not safe in this small town, and the tension when they break to the cove to place their surveillance equipment is just as good as any Hollywood thriller. And the movie works best when following this thread, the problem is, Louie Psihoyos, the film’s director, is not content to allow the movie to follow this journey only, and the film loses steam as it spreads itself too thin.

Good propaganda, especially when it is supposed to get the audience angry is polemical, confrontational, and in your face about why the views you held before watching this film were wrong. The problem with The Cove is that it never reaches the point of polemic, instead choosing to shy away from it’s moral message, that the killing of dolphins is in and of itself wrong; in favor of arguing that the dolphin meat obtained from this slaughter poses a public health risk. Though the facts and figures given in regard to mercury poisoning are sobering, it all comes across as disingenuous. I’m sure Ric O’Barry cares about Japanese people not being subject to mercury poisoning, but only inasmuch as it bolsters his own argument against the slaughter of dolphins. If the mercury poisoning were coming from celery, I highly doubt he’d be in Japan going after the celery farmers.

Though a well made film, The Cove fails to be honest with itself, and it’s audience about it’s real goals. It contains some wonderful moments and sequences, however, it fails as a persuasive document, as it’s aim becomes less focused. At it’s best when playing as a thriller, The Cove unfortunately does not do much more than provide thrills and chills.

The Cove

Documentaries bore me. March of The Penguins was total borefest, Taxi To The Darkside made me sleep. Only Fahrenheit 9/11 was able to hold my interest, mainly because it was a Bush bashing narrated by a crazy fat dude. But damn... I loved The Cove. And when I mean love.. I mean really really really love to the point where I wanna save dolphins now.



The Cove follows a group of activists and filmmakers in their attempts to infiltrate a well guarded cove in Taiji, Japan to film and expose the shocking dolphin killing tradition that has been kept secret for many years.



It's basically an insight look at the Japanese annual activity of whale and dolphin killing which what was initially said to be a cultural tradition which, through the film, unravels to be a a terrible act of animal violence that hass been happening in this heavily guarded cove in Taiji, which is both unknown to the mass Japanese public and the world and what also could cause a serious health problem all around the world.



What makes The Cove such a kick ass documentary is because of it was made like it was a heist film. They storied the documentary around the premise of a thriller Oceans Eleven kind of movie. Every minute as the filmmakers are trying to break into this well guarded cove in attempts to capture the animal cruelty on film gets you on the edge of you're seat. You keep thinking are they gonna get caught or not? What's gonna happen next? It really keeps you immersed in the whole operation.




The night scenes where the filmmakers dive into dark waters and swimming into the cove to plant cameras are exceptionally terrifying. So kudos to the filmmakers on that for being able to get across a very important message and doing it with high levels of suspense that is really entertaining to watch.



The film builds and builds on the suspense towards the big finale and when it happens, the film totally snaps you back into reality. You suddenly realize that you weren't watching a movie at all. This is all real. And it is scary. When the film shows the dolphin killings in the cove you just want to turn the TV off. My God it was so sickening. I'm never eating sushi again. The killing scenes will leave you speechless.


One scene in particular that was incredibly horrifying was a shot taken from an underwater camera. At first it shows an underwater view from inside the cove and as time goes by the water begins to turn blood red to the point where you can't see anything but red anymore as dolphin screeching is heard. And you know.. anything sounds scary underwater so imagine how scary it is when 23,000 dolphins are screeching like crazy.



I personally found The Cove to be very moving, very heartbreaking and very entertaining. It's a call to arms to do something about this disgusting tradition that is still taking place annually despite worldwide condemnation. What we need now is a version of Inglourios Basterds where a group of soldiers get dropped in Japan and doing one thing.. and one thing only. Killing Japanese fisherman. Muahahahahaha.

RATING: 8/10

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NicholasC

The Cove (Documentary)

Director: Louie Psihoyos

This sobering and powerful documentary deals with the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. What you have here is a documentary that has an evil villain and great suspense as a group of Americans try to capture the slaughter on camera. This will outrage you, keep you fascinated and maybe on the edge of your seat.

Vincent Snavely

Cove, The (Louie Psihoyos, 2009)

Louie Psihoyos and his team of guerrilla filmmakers go deep into the town of Taiji, Japan to expose a dark secret and shoot footages of nightmarish images which would become integral to the film’s power to provoke massive outrage. The Cove, an award-winning documentary which has premiered to great acclaim in numerous independent film festivals worldwide, is courageous filmmaking at an admirable level, a compelling example of cinema used as medium by activists to prompt appropriate and effectual action.
 
Taiji is a lovely town with elegant, cultural architecture. But one can sense a sinister mechanism working behind this beautiful façade when DIY signs are put up to render specific areas around a lake off limits to people or that photographs cannot be taken at some spots. After all, this is the infamous town (now we know) which slaughters an estimated 23,000 dolphins annually. The film tells us Taiji is the sole supplier of live dolphins to marine parks all around the world where they are trained to entertain audiences. The rest it could not sell are killed brutally and some are sold as meat disguised as ‘expensive fish’.
 
Dolphin meat has notoriously high levels of mercury which can cause brain damage. Ignorantly, it somehow becomes a standard food item in school lunches in Taiji. A calamitous health issue waiting to happen? Town officials say it is part of their culture, but the filmmakers make a strong argument against that reasoning through interviews with citizens in cities like Tokyo whom expressed utter shock when they are told that dolphin meat is part of their delicacy. How can it be a culture when almost no one knows about its practice?
 
In a brave mission, the filmmakers plant underwater and land cameras discreetly and strategically over a site assumedly used as the slaughter ground. The next day, a sea of blue turned into a sea of red as dolphins are rounded up and stabbed to death by fishermen, their cries for help silenced forever. Psihoyos captures this horrible sight and includes it in the climax of The Cove. Who is to blame? The higher authorities of course, whose awareness and refusal to act allow such inhumane acts to flourish.
 
For most parts, the film is well-crafted for a documentary. Viewers follow the crew into the literal heart of darkness through ‘night vision’ and ‘thermal imagery’ cameras, fully conscious of the dangers that lie ahead. These scenes also happen to be the most tense in the film because every possible way the mission could go wrong has a fair chance of going wrong. The Cove is also beautifully shot with serene and inspiring images of free-spirited dolphins interacting among themselves as well as with humans in the wild. Juxtapose this with the slaughter sequences and you have a gut-kicking film that gets you incredibly riled up.
 
SCORE: 8/10

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Recommendations: Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010), To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962), The Visitor

Singapore's Most Prolific Film Blogger @ www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com

Last updated: 2009-08-26 08:41:58 by eternality_tan