The Cove: Movie Review

The Cove: Movie Review

Rating 8/10
Cast: Ric O'Barry, Louie Psihoyos, Mandy Rae-Cruickshank, Kirk Krack
Director: Louie Psihoyos
Ok, first up, The Cove wears its unashamed activist colours on its sleeve.
It's a stunning call to action doco about trying to make a difference - and in places, it will break your heart before reassembling it into the inspired and galvanised heart of a crusader.
In the 1960s, Ric O'Barry was the world expert on dolphins - he spent years training the animals on TV show Flipper - which saw the rise of the popularity of world dolphinariums.
But one day, Ric had an epiphany - and in a moment of heart breaking sadness, he realized what he had condemned this species to.
And that's what this doco is about - for years, Ric's been trying to persuade world nations to open their eyes to what Japan is doing when it comes to the dolphins.
Enlisting the help of doco maker Louie Psihoyos and a gang of committed activists, they head off to Japan to try and capture some of the horrors which go on in a cove in Taiji, Wakayama.
Basically for years, the Japanese have denied that dolphins there are slaughtered or captured for use in dolphinariums- and activists have been unable to either negotiate their way past tight security or capture video evidence because of the rugged and hidden nature of the region.
It's no wonder The Cove has won various awards - it's riveting from beginning to end and it doesn't use heavy handed emotionally manipulative tactics to get its point across.
Yes, it is fair to say it's biased in places - and to be honest, that was only natural - but it's absolutely heart breaking as Ric eloquently recounts the moment he changed his view on dolphins and turns from their trainer to dolphin defender.
However, this is a remarkably restrained doco where you'd expect to see a stringing together of sensationalist emotional material aimed at turning you against the Japanese - this uses its power of reasoning and sense to argue its corner.
It's also like watching a live action version of Mission Impossible to protect the dolphins as you see the divers Mandy and Kirk try and place underwater microphones into the Cove's waters to capture the true sonic horror of what goes on there.
You would expect a film of this nature to have some footage which stuns you - and the final shots of what goes on at the Cove is shocking - set against a minimalist background with no music, the brutality of man versus animal is a cruel indictment of the evil we can do.
And yet, where the Cove is such a success is that it uses this footage as a footnote to its argument - it shows the Japanese are reticent to acknowledge the damage they're doing to their own people and the animal world; they refuse to face upto the facts which are presented.
Ultimately the Cove is about the bravery of someone standing up to one nation - risking their all and their lives (as well as their families) to ensure something changes.

I'm willing to bet by the end of this film, many of you will be wondering what exactly it is that you can do to make a difference - and for a small doco which is starting to make ripples around the world, it's only a matter of time before that change comes - surely, sometimes, that's what film making should be about?