The Cove is a documentary about Dolphins. This documentary
is a heart wrenching film that covers the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. I
recently completed reading chapters 12 and 15 in the text book “The Art of
Watching Films”. In the text I learned how to fully analyze a film for the
message it was trying to portray.
I think this film really touches on irony. The textbook definition
of Irony is a literary, dramatic, and cinematic technique involving the
juxtaposition or linking of opposites. I say this film touches on irony because
the main character of the documentary Richard O’Barry is in a desperate fight
to eliminate the captivity and slaughter of dolphins. Ironically O’Barry was
the one individual that sparked the capture of dolphins when he trained the
dolphins that where shown in the TV series Flipper.
Throughout the documentary the viewer is introduce to vast
knowledge of dolphins. I personally did not know much about the animal until
the viewing of this documentary. The viewer quickly learns how hard captivity
is on the animal. Viewers are also shown the cruelty of the dolphin slaughter that
happens in Japan every September.
The slaughter is very hard to watch. I am an avid hunter and
fishermen and I even had a difficult time viewing the massacre. Throughout the
filming of the slaughters that go on day to day in Japan the director has to
use many different types of filming techniques. One of the coolest and most
unique was the heat footage that is shown during the film. I have never seen
this shown before.
Another thing the film identifies is the amount of mercury
that these dolphin hunters are injecting into Japan’s population. Each of the
dolphins killed contains dangerous amounts of mercury, this meat is given to
markets and schools throughout the country. This is a very touching film but I
would not recommend it to anyone with the weak of heart. It is a truly
difficult film to view without getting upset or emotional.
No comments:
Post a Comment