I watched The Cove last night. I won’t write a complete review, just my usual bullet points.
Warning: Spoilers, but barely.

• The film is really well made. When people who primarily make movies make a movie about animal or environmental issues, that movie is generally better than a movie made by non-movie makers. I was surprised by the film and editing quality. Very good.
• It’s NOT fundamentally an animal rights movie, despite anyone’s claims. It’s a movie about activism and change-makers. It’s a movie about people more than about animals.
• The story is essentially this: dolphins are smart, we like dolphins, let’s stop the people who kill them by exposing the massacre with hidden cameras. The bulk of the film is about how these film-makers and “adrenaline junkies” sneak past barricades and secretly film the brutal dolphin killing in Taiji, Japan.
• Some great shots of ocean life, dolphins, swimmers, and surfers.
• Some sad stories of loss. Some audience members cried, but I didn’t. Perhaps if the music had been different or if I had been in a different mood it would have evoked more of an emotional response in me. The film probably could have used just a little bit more of an emotional tug.
• Likewise, the action could have been just a tiny bit more intense. Or just more intense music, heh.
• To me, it was frustrating how much of the film’s mainstream motivational message hinged on dolphin intelligence. I understand why and it’s persuasive. I understand why so many animal advocates hang their ethical hats on intelligence and sentience, but when the film showed the massive piles of dead bodies, I couldn’t easily see the difference between the tuna and the dolphins. Why must an animal’s basic right to live rely on humans’ perceptions of that animals’ intelligence? Why are the dolphins’ desires to live more important than the tunas’? What’s different in the violence required to kill dolphins versus the violence required to kill tuna?
• The defense that dolphin-killing isn’t so different from pig or cow killing is both valid and invalid. The film touched on the one way that dolphin-killing is different: Japanese people – when they have a choice – don’t regularly eat dolphin meat the way that Americans regularly eat cow and pig meat. However, the differences between cow-eating and dolphin-eating are shades of gray, not black and white.
• The film has a strong call to action: Get Involved, Get Active.
• Negative: the call to action isn’t “go vegan.” To the contrary, the website they suggest says things like “Eating fish can be healthy, however not all fish are safe to eat. Some contain mercury and other contaminants.” It suggests the Mercury calculator.
• Overall, I give the film 4.5 stars out of 5.

Have you seen the film? What did you think?

Sections: Vegan Et Cetera
Topics: direct action, dolphins, film, fish, japan, oceans, taiji, the cove, undercover video. movie, whales, whaling