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Movie Review: The Cove

By Kevin Hopp on Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 9:00 am

O’Barry’s tale of redemption leads to a cove in Taiji, Japan, the site of a gruesome ritual in which dolphins are slaughtered by the thousands. The activists try to handle things peacefully, but their rational approach proves futile with Japanese ambassadors who blindly deny the activities the filmmakers have caught on tape.

After much frustration, O’Barry gathers an Oceans Eleven-like crew who try to expose the cove to the world. Here the film works as a thriller, finding Mission: Impossible-style suspense in moments like the crew setting up cameras. But the film is also very difficult to watch, with gruesome scenes of humans brutally killing dolphins. It’s some of the most tragic footage I have ever seen.

Despite the tough material, I felt awakened by The Cove and I encourage everyone to see it. Just don’t think you’re going to add the movie to your DVD collection and screen it at parties.

The new marine doc The Cove takes you on an aquatic journey with elements of suspense, horror, tragedy and beauty that serve as a wake-up call to a problem that seems insurmountable: the systematic murder of dolphins by humans. I can tell you from personal experience that seeing The Cove will change you.

The film begins with seemingly paranoid animal-rights activist Richard O’Barry, a man who appears to blindly charge into situations hoping only to make a big stink and “change the world.” As the movie progresses, however, you start to learn more about O’Barry. Turns out he was in charge of capturing and training dolphins for the TV show Flipper. After a horrific event, something inside him snapped, and O’Barry realized he had become a torturer of dolphins.

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