Scooping a handful of awards at film festivals across the country, “The Cove” is bound to be one of this year’s most talked-about documentaries for good reason.
The first few moments of the film are shrouded in an air of mystery, zooming in on Taiji, Japan, a small town with a big secret. Every September, Taiji fishermen use sonar to lure dolphins into a hidden cove, ensnaring them in their nets before slaughtering them with harpoons and spears.
The ones deemed suitable for captivity are displayed in popular dolphin shows. Others are packaged as food despite the fact that dolphin meat is heavily laced with mercury and deemed unsuitable for human consumption. Unbeknownst to the majority of the Japanese population, hundreds of dolphins are killed every year in Taiji in order to regulate what the government calls a “pest control problem.”
The footage depicting the massacre is shocking, but even more disturbing is the way in which the Taiji fishermen and Japanese officials continually deny its existence, even as their waters turn red with the dolphins’ blood and the air is filled with their high-pitched screams.
“The Cove” attempts to uncover the truth via a determined espionage team made up of divers, environmentalists and the famous former dolphin-trainer-turned-activist Richard O’Barry. The team attempts to gather hard evidence of the killings in the hopes that the brutality will cease once the public is aware of the bloodbath. With a compelling plotline and more than its share of suspenseful moments, “The Cove” often feels like a jolting Hollywood spy thriller rather than a conventional documentary.
Due to the Japanese government’s ban on all photography and recording at the cove, the filmmakers employ a number of innovative techniques to obtain the footage they need: Cameras are planted underwater and fake boulders are made to conceal high-definition cameras and microphones. Suspense mounts as the team discusses how to bypass Japanese security to plant these devices unseen, and there are moments of intentional humor as they try to smuggle them into Japan without getting caught.
Despite the resistance they face from hostile fishermen and suspicious government officials, the filmmakers manage to put together an extraordinary film that is both visually striking and emotionally riveting ““ a testament to the passion they have for the cause. But beware: Even those who are not animal-lovers will no doubt squirm in their seats at the horrific ““ and all too real ““ images that unfold on the screen. “The Cove” does not flinch from showing every detail that accompanies the fishermen’s relentless hunt ““ everything that the hidden cameras capture is left up to the viewer’s discretion.
While the film centers on the impassioned endeavors of Rick O’Barry, the most compelling protagonists of “The Cove” are not the humans who are out to save them, but rather the dolphins themselves.
Long beheld as one of nature’s most beloved species, dolphins take center stage in the film as their unparalleled grace is portrayed in direct contrast to the brutality that they are subject to. Slaughtered by fishermen, exploited by trainers and hauled onto land to be sold, often at $150,000 a piece, the story that accompanies the dolphins in this particular tour-de-force is nothing short of heart-breaking. Not since “Flipper” has a movie made about dolphins achieved such wide-scale poignancy.
Like all documentaries, “The Cove” is not without an agenda. Louie Psihoyos, a photographer for National Geographic and the film’s director, no doubt hopes that audiences’ reactions to the subject of the film will be nothing short of enraged, or at least passionate enough to ignite the efforts needed to shut down the cove and end dolphin exploitation.
While there is no guarantee that an activist film will generate a necessarily activist reaction, “The Cove” effectively gets its primary message across through a beautiful and well-made film.
E-mail Mak at smak@media.ucla.edu.