The cove - La baie de la honte

Gorgeous , thrilling and pulse-pounding documentary with strong ecological denounce against Dolphin slaughter , fish food full of mercury due to its high concentration that results to be a serious threat to human health , the Japanese government's methodical buying off of poorer third world nations for their support of Japan's whaling industry and others thorny issues . A great documentary that Won 1 Oscar and another 38 wins & 17 nominations . In Taiji, a location with 3,500 residents. Japan, local fishermen hide a gruesome secret : the capture and slaughter of dolphins . And at a hidden , glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and "Keep Out" signs, lies a terrifying and dark reality . Man is their bigger threat when being underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat and at the same time Man is their only hope .

This thought-provoking film is itself a act of heroism , well produced by actor Fisher Stevens , it stars Richard O'Barry who gives a peculiar view point of cetaceans in captivity and while a very profesional team playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them imprisoned . And exposing the ruthless practice, risking life and health in the process . Since that time, he has become one of the leading advocates against cetaceans incarcerated in small tanks , pools , ponds and reservoir and for the preservation of cetaceans in the wild. Richard O'Barry was the man who captured and trained the dolphins for the television show ¨Flipper¨ (1964) , though he also trained sea animals as sharks in films as ¨Beyond the Bermuda Triangle¨ , ¨Island Claws¨, and ¨The jaws of death¨ also titled ¨Mako sharks¨ . His sight point about sea animals changed from that experience when as the last straw he saw that one of the dolphins playing Flipper - her name being Kathy - basically committed suicide itself in his arms because of the stress of being in captivity . Richard joins forces with filmmaker Louie Psihoyos and the Ocean Preservation Society to carry out this surprising and interesting documentary . As filmmaker 'Louie Psihoyos ' go about attempting to expose one of what they see as the most brutal acts against wild dolphins in the world in Taiji, Japan, where dolphins are routinely corralled, either to be sold alive to aquariums and marine parks, or slaughtered for meat. O'Barry and Psihoyos are well known as enemies by the authorities in Taiji, the watcher cops who spy and chase and they will use whatever tactic to expel the two from Japan forever . O'Barry, Psihoyos and their team covertly attempt to photograph as a document of engaging proof this cruel behavior. The primary secluded cove where this activity is taking place is heavily guarded . It is here, under cover , masked , discreetely at night, hidden from the fishermen of Taiji, , engage in an unseen hunt to film conclusive evidendeces . The nature of what they do is so chilling -- and the consequences are so dangerous to human health -- they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it. With a state-of-the-art equipment they go undercover to film the hair-raising , horrifying images about Mular dolphin massacre . They employ among others Hollywood cameramen from George Lucas' ¨Industrial , Light and Magic¨ and deep sea free divers . As ILM technicians created special camouflaged, rock-like, cameras that helped capture some of the footage in the cove . Along the way they are pursued by the Japanese Police and mistreated by fishermen . As an expert team of marine explorers , water-sound and cameramen , special effects artists, , adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers who will carry out an undercover operation to shoot the off-limits cove .They also highlight what is deemed the perilous consumption of dolphin meat which is often sold not as dolphin meat and driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and considering the important support most specifically at the International Whaling Commission.

The film won several prizes such as Academy Awards, USA 2010 Winner Oscar Best Documentary, Features ,Louie Psihoyos ,Fisher Stevens . Alliance of Women Film Journalists 2009 Winner EDA Award Best Documentary Feature Film Louie Psihoyos . American Cinema Editors, USA 2010 WinnerBest Edited Documentary Geoffrey Richman . Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival 2009 Winner Audience Award Louie Psihoyos . Awards Circuit Community Awards 2009 Winner ACCA Best Documentary Feature . Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 2009 Winner BSFC Award Best Documentary . Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2010 Winner Critics Choice Award Best Documentary Feature .

There are few movies that I can say resulted in lasting change in my life or personal behaviour, but a couple of days after watching this movie the visceral response remains with me. I will never set foot on a marine mammal park again. If that was part of the goal of this movie then mission accomplished Louis Psihoyos and Ric O'Barry.

This movie is about the exploitation and brutality man has shown towards a gentle, intelligent and harmless creature. It can be added to a long list of films with a simple message - man is raping his environment, exploiting life, and quite frankly caring for little else than the profit nature holds.

The movie will hold you to the last 10 minutes, at which point it becomes apparent to all why Ric O'Barry's life has changed. It must be seen as the story tellers wanted it to be seen.

If I have any criticism of the film it's the amount of time dedicated to dramatizing the message with the Special Ops segments. I appreciate the risk taken to get this footage however I think the danger element was overstated by the film. You gain the belief all through the film the OPS is being followed closely by authorities, that they're every move is being noted, their purpose known, they're faces ingrained in the minds of the people, yet on two occasions they load up a van full of crew and high tech equipment and head unchallenged into the "great secret". This aspect of the film, along with the early segments showing paranoid Ric O'Barry moments in which he says things like "they would kill me if they could" leads me to believe the filmmakers we hedging between taking the viewer on a adrenaline fuelled trip of espionage and a journey of education and awareness.

It has it's moments of contradiction as well. It goes to some great length to show that Japanese don't eat dolphin meat but this is not adequately reconciled with the fact that the Taiji school program served dolphin meat to it's children as part of it's mandatory lunch program.

An obvious cherry picking of interviewees in the cities of Japan with questions about their food supply chain elicited responses that I would expect to find in most urban centres. I live in Toronto, where I suspect many people would be surprised to find restaurants here serve alligator and other exotic protein. I know that slaughter houses provide my area beef but I would be hard pressed to tell you where they are or the methods employed. The effort to show the Japanese as oblivious to the scandals going on right under their nose failed to be convincing in my opinion.

Still, a very informative and inspiring film. I would recommend it to anyone who cares about these creatures. I have had the benefit of encountering these wonderful animal at open sea and know them to be curious, intelligent, playful, with strong ties to the family unit. They are better than we are and this film helped me realize this.

It saddens me to watch The Cove, because unless your heart is made of stone, it's unlikely not to become unaffected by it, when it shows how evil man can be. It also boggles the mind when you mull over whether the perpetrators know exactly what they're doing in committing such atrocities, that extinction of species boil down to those who are indifferent, inhumane, and corrupted by the smell of profits that highlights Man's propensity for destruction. To claim superiority over another by explanation of the preservation of culture, is bullshit at best, and it just shows how consciously ignorant we can sometimes get due to either lack of understanding, or just simply refusing to change incorrect mindsets.

I'm sure many of us will agree that dolphins are very beautiful water-based mammals, and the lucky few who have gotten to chance upon them in their natural habitat will attest to the fact that it's awe-inspiring to have seen them in action. From time to time we read about the heroic nature of our mammal counterparts in saving human lives, so what would warrant such untold cruelties toward those blessed by Nature with a smile and an extremely gentle, docile nature, or cursed as the filmmakers would say, because they are unable to project outwardly their feelings of pain, sadness and betrayal by humankind?

Director Louie Psihoyos had crafted an incredible documentary which isn't just another save- this-species film, or just another wildlife conservation flick. Somehow, The Cove stands above those that I've seen which have run along those lines, in that it contains footages that the team had managed to wrangle out in a quest for the truth. It contains scenes of murder most foul, which will start again in the month of September, unless people around the world make some noise beyond puppet worldwide organizations fueled by corrupt bureaucrats bent on smug thinking that half-baked nonsensical answers can keep the truth under wraps.

What also added that emotional weight to the film, is the inclusion of Richard O'Barry, who could be infamously credited with sparking the interest in dolphin-aquariums and shows around the world, simply because of his involvement in the Flipper television series, where he had responsibility in capturing and training 5 dolphins used for that successful series, and henceforth spawned an industry of sorts where dolphins are captured en masse by confusing them and leading them into man-made traps, then allowing trainers around the world to come and choose those with potential. Think of it like the slave trade which we have abhorred, but now transferred to the animal kingdom, with a murderous act of slaughtering thousands of those which don't make the theme-park cut. Who are we to decide those that cannot entertain, only deserves to be chopped up in cold blood for the supermarkets?

O'Barry is now an activist set on releasing every dolphin in captivity, but only because of a personal, profound loss of a dolphin in his arms that have jolted him into action. He's quite forthright in his interviews, and his transformation as explained is nothing less than heart- wrenching. His crusade led him to Taiji, Japan, which is the source of the trade, with over- zealous Japanese fishermen bordering on counter-surveillance, muscling in on local police influence, to try and keep O'Barry at bay from interrupting their profitable trade, and of course putting a dampener on O'Barry's search for redemption.

Most of the film then centered on the filmmakers and their assembling of a few good men and women with specific skill sets, such as free-diving and prop-making, acoustics experts to covert camera operations, in an attempt to expose the truth from The Cove, an area designed by natural geography and exploited by the fishermen to perform their most heinous acts. It's akin to a heist movie with intense preparation work and danger lurking around every corner, but the images obtained are nothing less than shocking – the indiscriminate slaughter without remorse and plenty of laughter, a very affecting sea waters filled with red from the bloodbath, and frenetic cries for help and unsuccessful flight from death. It'll make the most stoic of men, shed tears.

The film also had touched upon another aspect of how Man is offending Nature through our polluting ways, but Psihoyos deftly included that portion in because it's also related, but never letting it detract its focus from the main story. While dolphin meat doesn't appeal, being slyly packaged as something else is nothing less than cheating. Also, the high levels of mercury found in the meat not only endangers whoever is putting it on their dinner plate, but just emphasizes the entire polluted food chain with the fact that we are the #1 pollutants on this planet, and poisoning of marine life, or rapid consumption of food from the sea, is something that will impact us in time to come very soon, unless we wake up.

One of the world's most intelligent creatures getting slaughtered indiscriminately, and you can do something about it. Undoubtedly as a film this is very well made, and have received countless of accolades, but if audiences were to stop at this point then nothing will change and everything will be lost, starting from the efforts from the activists. This film is set to break into my top films of the year as well, but even that rings hollow.

What we can do, at the very least, is to vote with our wallet. Make some noise, talk about it, spread the word and get people go watch the film, and take affirmative action. With demand and attendances to sea-world-like or dolphin theme parks come crashing down because we choose not to patronize them, then demand for dolphins to perform at these locations will no longer be viable.

Something tells me that this heartbreaking documentary is going to stay with me for a long, long time. This movie depicts in painful detail the horrors of dolphin fishing (yes, you heard me right) which has been occurring for a long time in a secretive place called Taiji in Japan. How secretive? Even the common Japanese do not know that it is taking place in their country. The film takes its time in unfolding the horrors and conspiracy layer by layer and ends with a bang. It plays out like a suspense thriller but is far more effective than any suspense thrillers because this takes place in real life. I certainly will do my best to promote it to the others and support the cause. The direction is fantastic and several underwater shots seem to be taken right off Earth or National Geographic, which looks great on the big screen. This documentary has been made by activists that have been crying out loud to deaf ears for the past three decades. I am certain that this is not the last we will hear of it. This film should certainly make an impact and change a few things in the world.

Words can hardly describe how powerful this documentary is, and the lengths to which human cruelty can extend to. Louie Psihoyos and his team infiltrate a secret cove near Taiji, Japan and expose a brutal instance of animal cruelty. This film opens your eyes to the truly devastating fates of thousands of dolphins, who are slaughtered without remorse.Being an animal lover, and my dream to become a zoologist, this film has really inspired me to be active and do whatever necessary to protect the beauty of our planet. Alongside Ric O Barry, Psihoyos is able to clearly point out the error of these marvelous creatures in captivity, and how they deserve to be free, just like any other creature.

If you are one of those people that see my ways, then you'll be affected deeply too to take action. Forget the damn critics, this isn't a Hollywood blockbuster, this is a way of life for us and what we've become...what we've turned into.

Support the cause to stop this.