The Cove: bigWOWO's review

In accordance with FTC disclosure rules, I received a free copy of this movie.  I’ll try to be unbiased.  I thank Laurel at Take Part for sending it.

Before I begin, let me share why I was interested in seeing this film.  As you know, I’m a quiet environmentalist who is interested in preserving the earth.  I’ve blogged about fish and shark fin soup in the past, and I wholeheartedly believe that we all need to do more to protect our seas.  I also love eating fish, and I encourage people to consume fish responsibly.  Hearing that this film was set in Japan where I spent a year after graduation sealed my interest in finding out what this film was about.

The Cove was a documentary about a group of Americans and Canadians who travel to Taiji, Japan to stop the slaughter of dolphins.  According to the documentary, Taiji is located along a path that dolphins have swum for thousands of years, and it has developed into one of the world’s top cities for the capture of dolphins for both show and for meat.  The leader of the group, Ric O’Barry, who was the trainer of the dolphins for the 60′s show Flipper, believes that dolphins do not belong in captivity.  The film makes the case that dolphins are animals of higher intelligence that do not belong in captivity, and that dolphin meat is dangerous because of high mercury levels.

So first let me start with my criticism.  This is an Asian American blog, and as such, I’m obligated to describe the racial aspects of the Cove.  In this film, ALL the White people are good, virtually all the Asians are bad, and all but one of the Black people are tools that the Asian people hire to thwart the moral agenda. I wish this were an exaggeration, but it isn’t.  A bunch of White people went to Japan to tell Asians how it’s supposed to be done, they met a whole bunch of resistance from the evil Asians in Taiji, along with unfortunate ignorance from the Asians in Tokyo, and along the way, they discovered that Japan buys influence in the International Whaling Commission by bribing poor Africans whose loyalty is for sale–one former IFC White guy even accuses the Black people from poor countries of “prostituting themselves for a few yen.”

Now I’m way beyond pointing out racial portrayals just for the sake of racial portrayals.  I understand how in the zeal of the moment it’s possible to miss the racial stereotyping, especially when you’re moving forward towards a cause that you really care about.  But I think there were some areas that could have improved through better inclusivity and awareness of different cultures.  I’ll quickly list a few:

1. How is it possible not to find or report or connect with any environmentalists in Japan?  Are you telling me that a country of 127 million people has no dolphin lovers?  O’Barry and Company could have benefited from a partnership with these Japanese animal rights groups.  I think that’s an unfortunate non-use of good resources.

2. There were quite a few, um, culturally insensitive moments when the American and Canadian people were screaming at rural Japanese fishermen in English. Having spent time in a rural area of Japan, I can tell you that it’s useless to yell at rural folk in a foreign language, and it’s a bit arrogant, given that one should not expect Japanese people to speak English.

3. O’Barry accuses the people of Taiji of lying about cultural whaling/dolphining traditions, and then the filmmaker “proves” them wrong by asking people in Tokyo about “Japanese” traditions.  It’s like asking a New Yorker about traditions in small town Kentucky.   “OMG, you don’t know about the annual turkey hunt?  Those people in Kentucky must be lying!”

Moving on…

The film is beautifully shot, well researched, and engaging.  Aside from the criticisms above, the crew did what activists do–find a cause, try to create change, educate people, and get on the news.  O’Barry, who has the fame/notoriety of training the dolphins who played Flipper, lends the campaign credibility as an expert who has spent lots of time around dolphins.  There were a number of areas that the film covers well.

First, they did an excellent job of describing why dolphins do not function well in captivity.  Dolphins are primarily sound-based animals who communicate and navigate through sonar.  Trapped between walls of concrete in front of cheering crowds can be torturous for the animals. They also “humanized” dolphins well, discussing the numerous stories about how dolphins have saved humans and seem to have empathy.  Having Ric O’Barry share his personal story about “Cathy,” one of the dolphins from Flipper, was heartrending.  This film did an excellent job of presenting the true majesty of dolphins.

Second, I appreciated the research that went into the activist campaign.  In order to focus and expand on this campaign, the leaders had to find Taiji, and then they had to do all the research on where the dolphin meat goes, how it is related to the Tsukiji Fish Market, and how the politics of the International Whaling Commission work.  I knew a little bit about the Tsukiji Fish Market, but the other stuff was all unknown to me.  Props to them for their research and work in tracking down the relevant data.

Third, smuggling the hidden cameras into the cove was a great idea.  Some of the footage they got were chilling.  The ocean literally fills with red blood as the fisherman spear and slash the dolphins.  It was gruesome.  This was exactly the kind of footage they needed to make their point.  You can see the dolphins struggling to live as the fishermen slash and stab.

They wind up making their point, and if you look at this follow up from O’Barry, it looks like his campaign was successful, at least temporarily: Dolphin Slaughter Suspended.

I think people should see this movie.  It was highly informative, and I fully support the filmmaker’s goal of protecting dolphins.  Coming from a Chinese background and seeing how the Japanese have whitewashed their history textbooks to exclude Nanjing and other war atrocities, I understand the frustration in getting government support in Japan.  Dolphins ought to be protected, culture or not.

I question how we could achieve an alternative–Japan has been suffering from a stagnant economy for almost twenty years now, and with a falling birthrate along with a terrible immigration policy, there would have to be a dramatic reorganization to put those Taiji fishermen to work in other fields.  The work question is one which goes outside just environmentalism–it’s hard to get people working in other fields when there are no other jobs, especially in rural villages where unemployment is bad to begin with.  That was also part of the cultural insensitivity that I harped about earlier in this post–they might be doing something wrong, but there needs to be an alternative.

In any case, check out this movie.  You can rent it from Netflix.

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