Word: cove
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...Cove, a spectacularly compelling documentary that was as well financed as it is well intentioned, starts with a glimpse of seeming paranoia. A man in his late 60s is driving, anxiously checking his mirrors and talking about the people he's sure are pursuing him. He's wearing a surgical mask and gives the impression of Jason Bourne as a possibly batty senior citizen, still dodging bad guys and, maybe, swine...
...moved to the next rockbound inlet over and stabbed to death by fishermen. It's legal to fish for dolphins in Japan, and the filmmakers estimate that 23,000 dolphins are "harvested" there annually. The dilemma faced by activists, including O'Barry, Greenpeace and, ultimately, the director of The Cove, Louie Psihoyos, was how to get visual evidence of these massacres to build support for protecting dolphins as whales are protected. The area is heavily guarded, by fishermen and police. Taking even a cliffside peek entails trespassing...
...captured and trained Flipper--or rather, the five dolphins that played that beloved cetacean. He became a passionate opponent of keeping dolphins in captivity after the death of one of the Flippers, a bottlenose named Kathy. Now he's a crusader on a mission: In a small, isolated cove in Taiji, Japan, where O'Barry has become a part-time resident (and pest), thousands of dolphins are being trapped and slaughtered every year. Since 2003, O'Barry has been desperately trying to expose and stop this legal but secretive practice...
...moldmaker from Industrial Light & Magic and a pair of champion deep-sea free divers, as being like Ocean's Eleven. He's kidding. Sort of. The goal is a lot worthier than emptying the vault at a Las Vegas casino, but in terms of style, that's what The Cove is emulating. Characters are introduced with a flourish--the daredevil, the soulful surfer, the bumbling cops--and Psihoyos takes the George Clooney role. (He's got the tan and the big white teeth.) There's time-lapse photography, footage shot on infrared film and some nail-biting moments that...
...crucially, it delivers. This is like seeing baby seals clubbed to death, except that as adorable as baby seals are, no one has yet made a case for their being potentially smarter than humans, which is exactly what The Cove does for dolphins. To watch bleeding dolphins struggle for their last breath, to actually hear their agony, is devastating. Even if you would never eat dolphin meat, you feel culpable just for being part of the species that can teach another mammal tricks, reward it with snacks and pats and at the same time be capable of getting...