Not unlike last year’s Academy Award winning doc “Man on Wire,” Louie Psihoyos’ “The Cove” utilizes familiar narrative genre tropes to tell its against-all-odds nonfiction story. Despite this somewhat convoluted device, “The Cove” rarely falters, succeeding as a clear-eyed indictment of marine mammal hunting, and exposing the injustice of secretive annual dolphin slaughtering in Taiji, Japan. Richard O’Barry, dolphin trainer for the 1960s “Flipper” TV show, obsesses over repenting for his role in perpetuating dolphin exhibition, now a multi-million dollar enterprise.
O’Barry’s fight against the mistreatment of these animals has led him to numerous run ins with the law (when he’s asked if he’s ever been arrested, O’Barry playfully answers, “This year?”), and to the Ocean Preservation Society (Psihoyos’ organization), who he tasks with assembling an “Ocean’s Eleven-style” team to penetrate the aggressive defense of Taiji’s local fisherman, who fight violently to preserve their volatile occupation. The purpose of O’Barry and the OPS’s particular mission? Capture the horrifying brutalities committed in the titular cove on film, seemingly the only way to get the publics attention and that of the IWC (International Whaling Commission, depicted here as the most lackadaisical of all U.N. recognized environmental organizations).
It’s pretty heavy stuff, and even more so when we learn (or at least I did) about the high levels of Mercury in dolphin meat being (get this) given away to children in the Japanese school system. So now this isn’t only an issue of animal abuse but also a health emergency, being covered up by the Japanese government (an establishment depicted here as being just as apathetic if not more so than the IWC to this particular crisis). Adding to the intrigue is “The Cove’s” mid-film detour, when it chooses to take a closer look at these dolphins, their stellar beauty and their almost intimidating intelligence.
These are truly majestic creatures, and humanizing them in the way the film does not only sets us up for the devastating emotional blow of its last act, but also transcends any accusation that the film merely objectifies these dolphins for the sake of its heart-rending drama. Louis Psihoyos’ “The Cove” is passionate non-fiction cinema with a purpose: ending the mistreatment of dolphins, the hunting of which has become increasingly pointless and even dangerous. But it’s also great cinema on an aesthetic level; the photography of the dolphins is shot with a poet’s eye, not unlike the staggering nature footage in last year’s Werner Herzog doc “Encounters at the End of the World.” And the assemblage of interviews, archival videos and “covert ops,” infiltrating the cove itself, makes for an informative, exciting and thought-provoking work that ranks as the most vital and best documentary of 2009 thus far. [B+] -Sam C. Mac
So what merited the B+ rating?
My way of grading, I suppose. I've only seen two films this year that merit an A-, so a B+ from me is relatively high stuff. And my grading caps at an A (no A+), so that could have something to do with it.
But you're asking what specifically? Any time you graft genre tropes to a documentary structure I think it risks a level of manipulation, even a sort of contrivance. There's a little of that going on here, though it mostly hangs together. Also, something I probably should have addressed in the review: Like "Man on Wire" last year, "The Cove" isn't very critical of its central subject, O'Barry. Since this is a very controversial figure, doing illegal things, a bit of a critical eye would have been welcome.
There's a score that's pretty generic and meddlesome too, but most of these are relatively minor complaints.
That's all I got.
Cool, just curious. 🙂 Definitely on the same page with you. I've been trying to figure out why The Cove, an animal rights film through and through, succeeds where others have not– and I think it's because we get a clear-cut protagonist (Barry and OPS). Other animal rights docs give us the antagonist and expect the viewer to become the protagonist, which doesn't give us much to root for.
But like you said, there isn't much thought given to the possibility of O'Barry as a troublemaker, and those scenes in which he used the human monitor, for example, did feel contrived as a result.
I too think we're on the same exact page here.
To me the movie really is elevated by the section in the back half where the filmmakers sort of pause to take a very thoughtful look at dolphins, how they behave, interact, how smart they are, etc. There are other films that do this, but few docs that are essentially about human activism, that bother to actually humanize the creatures their passionately defending. I think it really adds something. It certainly helped me get more invested in the conflict that threatens these dolphins.
I think this is the one to beat come Academy Awards time. Though Psihoyos wasn't too happy when I mentioned that, 'cause he doesn't wanna jinx it =)
Yeah, this is the doc of the year to beat at the Oscars, I'm sure of it.