Dan recommends this amazing documentary as a must-watch. Read on to find out more.
‘The Cove’ is a documentary feature film whose subject is the annual mindless slaughter of over 2,000 dolphins at the small fishing town of Taiji in Japan. Former Dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry (picture on the right) who was the chief trainer of the Dolphins on the popular American T.V. show ‘Flipper’ leads an almost covert investigation at a great risk to his life in order to uncover the truth & present the evidence of this massacre to the world.
Every year thousands of Dolphins migrate to the waters around Taiji, where they are herded by the local fishermen into a secret cove & captured. A few are sold to marine parks around the world but the rest are slaughtered for meat or simply because the fishermen consider them as pests & this activity takes place every year. The Japanese government & the whaling industry is well aware of the activity & has turned Taiji into it’s dirty little secret where everything is hush-hush or simply denied & those who do not fall in line are hounded. Ric O’Barry assembles a team of experts from various fields such as surveillance, deep sea diving & photography collects evidence all the while trying to evade shady government agencies trying to track him & his team down & all of this takes place real time.
My first pick for the recommends section is ‘The Cove’ simply because it’s one of the few documentaries I’ve seen in a long time that breaks the usual genre mould. It laces the usual investigative documentary setup with elements from the thriller genre creating a movie which is an eye-opener at the same time it’s beats the crap out of any espionage-thriller Hollywood can serve up. Just watching the entire operation when Ric O’Barry & his crew setup their video & audio devices around the cove in the night secretly is sure to have you at the edge of your seats. Be warned however that the footage of the slaughter would make you squirm in your seat & maybe look away too, however that’s the point of the movie, to make you aware of what’s happening by putting the ugly naked truth right in front of your eyes.
The strong message about saving our marine life is poignant & watching Ric O’Barry talk about his life & the circumstances under which he went from Dolphin trainer to an activist is at times heartbreaking to say the least. His selfless endeavor to make a difference in a corporate world obsessed with personal gains is very inspiring & by the end of the movie it’d surely galvanize you also into doing your bit for the cause.
The Cove has been nominated at the 82nd Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature list in addition to winning multiple awards at other film festivals & events.
Dan recommends this amazing documentary as a must-watch. Read on to find out more.
‘The Cove’ is a documentary feature film whose subject is the annual mindless slaughter of over 2,000 dolphins at the small fishing town of Taiji in Japan. Former Dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry (picture on the right) who was the chief trainer of the Dolphins on the popular American T.V. show ‘Flipper’ leads an almost covert investigation at a great risk to his life in order to uncover the truth & present the evidence of this massacre to the world.
Be warned however that the footage of the slaughter would make you squirm in your seat & maybe look away too, however that’s the point of the movie, to make you aware of what’s happening by putting the ugly naked truth right in front of your eyes. 
