The Cove is an Oscar winning documentary on the capture and killings of dolphins in japan. It features a bunch of activists trying to stop the dolphin harvest and get footage of the killings.
The documentary seemed to rely heavily on the cuteness and intelligence of the dolphins as a motive. They also included mercury poisoning in their stuff to try to stop it. Overall it was extremely one-sided and I think we didn’t get an accurate representation of the fishermen, which were portrayed as being evil. The entire argument is based on the idea that dolphins are of higher status than other animals like cow and chickens. I don’t believe that this is true. They may be more intelligent, but a dolphin doesn’t want to live or die anymore than a cow.
The New York Times calling the film a “Trojan Horse” is the effectiveness of the films ability to get people to join the cause and stop this. They may also have meant the thrilling footage in the night vision scene when they are setting up the cameras and almost get caught.
This film portrays Japan as being this evil dolphin-killing nation. Even though they state that that’s not the case, they contradict themselves several times and this also shows itself in the composition of the documentary. If I was Japanize and I saw The Cove, I would feel under attack and offended. I am sure that they were quite surprised and outraged by the mercury-laced meat being given to schools, which was quickly stopped after discovery.
People seem to forget the fact that every time the go to a sea world or dolphin park that they are funding the fishermen, that get most of their money from live dolphins (which sells for about 200 times that of a dead one). As long as the supply for dolphins is there, these killing will likely continue. Despite the fact that the process in which the dolphins were killed seemed rather brutal, I think there is another side to this that the documentary did not show.
