The Cove

The Cove (2009)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1313104/]

The Gist:
This is the best documentary I've seen all year, one of the best films I've seen all year, and one of the best documentaries/films I've seen ever. Why? Many reasons, for one it fills you with righteous indignation which is no small feat. You kind of want to get on a plane and go to Taiji, Japan and stop this whole killing 23,000 dolphins a year for no good reason thing within the week. For another thing it lets you see dolphins in a new light, for instance maybe dolphins are smarter than we are. Just saying it's possible. For another, the film, whether this was an intentional effect or not, filled me with such despair over the future of humanity that I wondered if there was any hope for us at all. The fact that we are rapidly consuming the fisheries in the ocean and now the Japanese government (and the many small South and Central American governments that the Japanese have bribed for votes) are trying to justify killing dolphins and small porpoises because they are eating too much fish and ignoring the fact that we, as human beings, are on a self-destructive path and if we don't step back and realize this, if careful measures aren't taken, then we will soon get to a desperate point of no return. Oh they're also trying to kill Whales for the same reason, they really hate that ban on whale killing, in fact that's why they started to kill dolphins. And the lucrative dolphin trainer/seaworld type trade which pays something like 125,000 dollars for a single dolphin manages to support the slaughter of all the dolphins that aren't picked and their mercury-laden meat is sold for maybe 600 dollars. It's senseless, it's frustrating, it makes you want shake your hands of civilization. And yet the movie offers concise action, to stop the practice in this one are in the world. It offers the point that if this single place in Taiji cannot be shutdown than there is no hope at all. And the film revolves around a Ocean 11-esque crew breaking into this facility and getting video footage and sound footage of the slaughter (since obviously no cameras are allowed). It's maybe the most ballsy documentary I've ever seen, akin to Morgan Sperlock's proactive approach to Super Size Me. When you exert your presence into your film, when you take inherent risks, you allow the audience to take personal stock with the struggle (instead of the more dispassionate approach which has its own merits).

On Another Note:
-The legal limit of mercury is .4 pounds per inch or ppi. Dolphins have 2000 ppi.
-There was an attempt to use this insanely dangerous mercury laden dolphin meat in school lunches (which is compulsory by the way).
-Most who eat the sold dolphin meat think that it is whale meat from South America or some such place where it is still legal to kill whales.
-Dolphins are so sensitive to sound that most died in early captivity because the filtration system was too loud. Dolphins also get ulcers from the stress of captivity. Also think if they are sensitive to sound how enervating performing for a cheering stadium in a place like seaworld must be.
-One of the dolphins that played flipper committed suicide. You balk but watch this movie, you'll see.