Documentaries bore me. March of The Penguins was total borefest, Taxi To The Darkside made me sleep. Only Fahrenheit 9/11 was able to hold my interest, mainly because it was a Bush bashing narrated by a crazy fat dude. But damn... I loved The Cove. And when I mean love.. I mean really really really love to the point where I wanna save dolphins now.
The Cove follows a group of activists and filmmakers in their attempts to infiltrate a well guarded cove in Taiji, Japan to film and expose the shocking dolphin killing tradition that has been kept secret for many years.
It's basically an insight look at the Japanese annual activity of whale and dolphin killing which what was initially said to be a cultural tradition which, through the film, unravels to be a a terrible act of animal violence that hass been happening in this heavily guarded cove in Taiji, which is both unknown to the mass Japanese public and the world and what also could cause a serious health problem all around the world.
What makes The Cove such a kick ass documentary is because of it was made like it was a heist film. They storied the documentary around the premise of a thriller Oceans Eleven kind of movie. Every minute as the filmmakers are trying to break into this well guarded cove in attempts to capture the animal cruelty on film gets you on the edge of you're seat. You keep thinking are they gonna get caught or not? What's gonna happen next? It really keeps you immersed in the whole operation.
The night scenes where the filmmakers dive into dark waters and swimming into the cove to plant cameras are exceptionally terrifying. So kudos to the filmmakers on that for being able to get across a very important message and doing it with high levels of suspense that is really entertaining to watch.
The film builds and builds on the suspense towards the big finale and when it happens, the film totally snaps you back into reality. You suddenly realize that you weren't watching a movie at all. This is all real. And it is scary. When the film shows the dolphin killings in the cove you just want to turn the TV off. My God it was so sickening. I'm never eating sushi again. The killing scenes will leave you speechless.
One scene in particular that was incredibly horrifying was a shot taken from an underwater camera. At first it shows an underwater view from inside the cove and as time goes by the water begins to turn blood red to the point where you can't see anything but red anymore as dolphin screeching is heard. And you know.. anything sounds scary underwater so imagine how scary it is when 23,000 dolphins are screeching like crazy.
I personally found The Cove to be very moving, very heartbreaking and very entertaining. It's a call to arms to do something about this disgusting tradition that is still taking place annually despite worldwide condemnation. What we need now is a version of Inglourios Basterds where a group of soldiers get dropped in Japan and doing one thing.. and one thing only. Killing Japanese fisherman. Muahahahahaha.
RATING: 8/10
