The Cove - Critical Review

     The lights go down and a cool, dark stillness creeps through the room on cat‘s paws.  The only light passes through an open window shackled and chained into a corner by the walls that hold it.  Great attention is being placed upon a television in the center of the room and, almost, all eyes watch in anticipation. Images begin to form on the screen, and suddenly a lighthouse appears to guide me on. My classroom is no more. I have been transported.  I am far across the oceans of my world. I am in Japan.  I am in Taiji.  I am in pain.
   
     The Cove is a documentary based on the whaling industry and the so-called “dolphin slaughter” that is happening in Taiji, Japan. It, in depth, describes the massive amounts of dolphins killed each year by the local Japanese “fishermen”. It also documents a cove located in Taiji where we can witness the tragic method used to capture the dolphins and the sickeningly brutal manner in which the dolphin slaughter takes place.
   
     Hosted by Ric O’Barry this film bombards the viewer with information, however incomplete, at an alarming rate.  Like an emotional rollercoaster this documentary keeps the viewer enthralled by providing information that causes a serious of  emotional peaks and valleys.  This, well thought out,  information organization technique proves most effective.  However, the films intended purpose is to “bring down” this industry and condemn them for their crime, and therefore is lacking, in many ways, complete information. Without further analysis outside of this film to locate this missing information, there are many questions left in my mind and, inevitably, the mind of most viewers.
   
     As this film as been referred to, and accused of being a, Trojan Horse, for me that can only lie in the content of the subject matter and the manner in which it was presented.  Upon viewing this film I felt it slowly eating away at the insides of me, even long after our class was over. I was unable to forget or to see what was happening now that my eyes had been opened to it.  Of course there are other prejudices at play here.  For instance; the American viewer has,  most-likely, grown up in a society where the dolphin is a treasured and nearly sacred animal.  This makes the subject matter almost instantly one sided.  How could someone hurt our precious friend the dolphin?  Why would someone do it?  And the most common of human responses who can be punished for this!?
   
     I think that in general the Japanese people had no true idea of what was going on.  Did they know that dolphins were slaughtered in Japan? Probably.  Did they know the extent or the brutality associated with this?  I don’t think so.  Human society tends to provide a great ability for “rational ignorance”.  Rational ignorance, though usually used in Economics, states that if the cost of educating oneself on a particular subject enough to form an opinion outweighs the benefits of doing so, then rational ignorance happens and humans just don’t pay attention.  I sure the Japanese people had some idea of what was happening but without the need to know more, they didn’t.  This films does place a grim look on many people in Japan, but Taiji’s residents are not the whole country, and I do not see need to cast any blame without further understanding.
   
     I hope that people will seek out the truth before deciding to cast their vote for or against Japan or the country’s people. This situation, like many others on Earth, needs to be studied properly and a better decision based upon all of the facts can be reached.