The Cove is a documentary in the form of a heist thriller. As
with all heist films, a team is assembled to do a big job. Each member
of the team has a skill: the diver, the equipment expert, the muscle
man, the go-to man, the driver. A plan is made with maps of the area
(Taiji, Japan), and the mission is set into motion at night. The
challenges: Taiji’s law-enforcement agencies and aggressive fishermen.
The prize: images of dolphins being slaughtered.
That is the structure and content of the whole movie, and the go-to
man of the team is Richard O’Barry, a former trainer for three of the
dolphins that played Flipper in the long-running TV series of the same
name. O’Barry is passionate, insane, dedicated. His life has the
heaviness and certainty of absolute meaning: Wherever a dolphin is in
captivity, it is his job to set it free. Indeed, the man who played a
role in popularizing the mammal, and as a result sending them by the
thousands into the hell of water parks and aquariums, is now their
Moses. O’Barry began as a trainer and ended as a savior. The
transformation was caused by one of the Flippers committing suicide in
his arms. He eventually came to the conclusion that the line between
humans and dolphins is very thin. And now if you look into O’Barry’s
mad-Moses eyes, you can see that this is a man who places the
intelligence of dolphins on a higher level than the intelligence of
humans.
I love this documentary! But I do not think dolphins are that smart. Fishermen easily trick the poor things into their nets of
captivity and death. If dolphins were really smart, they would avoid
visiting Taiji in September. In fact, they would avoid Japan
altogether. There are so many places on earth that have humans who do
not care to turn their flesh into sushi. How can we humans communicate
this important piece of information to them? Who is their leader?
The end of this documentary is brutal. One of the main reasons why
the images captured by the team are so disturbing is because dolphins
have blood that looks like human blood. When they are slaughtered, the
sea turns red.
Because of this documentary, I have come to regret this line from
the review I wrote for March of the Penguins: “The only animal
worth making a documentary about is the human.” That is the fourth most
stupidest thing I have ever written. Sorry, penguins. Sorry, dolphins.
Sorry to all other forms of life that happen to not be as smart and as
deadly as humans. 
For years, I’ve been hoping you would apologize for that line. Thank you.
Wow. That actually wasn’t painful to read. I’ll read anything you write that Lindy endorses from now on.
OK, so that’s item number 4. I’d love to see the whole of Mudede’s self-determined ten most stupid top list.
It occurs to me I ought to put myself through the exercise: make up such a list for the things I’ve written, or maybe the things I’ve said. One though that immediately comes to mind is that my Ten Most Stupid list and my Ten Most Regretted list will be quite different from one another. I’ve said and written some entirely unstupid things I nonetheless wish I could take back.
I think you mean absolute meaning
I’d like to read the three stupidist things too!
Great review Charles. I heart you!
I’ve always thought that line was the single funniest thing you’ve ever written, and possibly the only thing with any merit due to it actually being entertaining. And now you’ve taken that away.
Hmmm.
Too bad I skipped The Cove to go see Harry Potter instead.
“…dolphins have blood that looks like human blood…”
As opposed to, what, the green blood of the sharks??
Well, I’d agree that humans were smarter than dolphins if it weren’t for the fact that thousands of humans willingly drive large metal cars that kill them when they have a collision. Or live in highly disaster-prone areas. Or live in the city with the highest number of serial killers (Seattle).
Just saying–we are only smart some of the time, other times we are absolute dullards. I suspect dolphins are the same–brilliant minds, just as capable of stupidity. By the way Mudede, all vertebrate blood is red like a human’s. Red blood is not a unique trait.
Dolphins probably live in Japan because there is a food supply that encourages their being there. Hunting them has not encouraged them to move any more than human predation on other humans has not encouraged *them* to move.
Aren’t all animal documentaries in the end really about humans, anyway?
Are dolphins stupid? Are they wreaking the planet? Do they beat their children? Do they eat unhealthy food? etc etc. A dolphin mother will keep a dead baby on the surface for up to a week before she gives up on it.
So comparing dolphins and humans is a bit pointless.
Dave
Aotearoa-nz
@11
Dolphins are also known to kill each other basically for sport. A “game” once known as ‘baby tossing’ has since been found to be a fatal “game” amongst dolphins. They do it to smaller dolphins and porpoises. They ram into the smaller animal at 30-40 miles an hour throwing the smaller animal out of the water and causing massive internal damage killing the smaller animal. Obviously not ALL dolphins do this, but it is also not a rare occurrence.
Dolphins like to brutalize porpoises for funsies, and they occasionally rape people with their giant prehensile penises or their vaginas, strong and dexterous as a human hand (they can pick up rocks!).
Dolphins scare the shit out of me.
Thank you Kathy and Suz…
support for the ‘good sonar’ is applicable… if not translucent.
But they’re SO DELICIOUS!
“Deadly humans” indeed but are we really smarter?
If we humans were smart then the world would not be such a mess and we would know that all living creatures have rights, rights come from existence. Being selfish is not smart at all. We don’t need to touch dolphins to be touched by dolphins. Dolphins have the right to eat, live and do as they want or swim to Taiji whenever they want just as humans have the right to chose where to live, near a volcano, in a hurricane prone area or in a state known for risky tornados or earthquakes. That has nothing to do with being smart it is our right to fulfill our role in the great community of existence. It is not smart to create swine flu, bird flu, mad cow disease, infectious salmon anemia virus (ISA) etc. all due to cramped cages, animals injected with hormones and medicine in unhygienic poor environments, all created by humans. Living consciously is the best way to go. Don’t be fooled by the captive dolphin industry (or any other animal business/industry) become aware, sorry for breaking the spell but at least 51 orcas were named Shamu. Ignorance is no excuse to tolerate animal abuse; it is a choice to stay ignorant. The Cove is definitely an eye opener and hopefully we can all help the Japanese people to become aware of their manipulative government. Check out what you can do http://www.takepart.com/thecove/
It is time that we do something in return for the dolphins.
‘ “…dolphins have blood that looks like human blood…”
As opposed to, what, the green blood of the sharks?? ‘
Actually, yes:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/200…
Dolphins can’t be smart if they can be scared into a cove and trapped… uh, Charles, aren’t there castles on the coast of Ghana where… you know…
Bad things can happen to all of us.
Heck, the U.S. military now has sound weapons (and other nonlethal weapons) that can clear the streets of a crowd. Much louder than a Japanese fisherman banging on a pipe, and enough to make a human stop whatever it is they were doing.
It’s a sad film, and I hope it inspires people to treat dolphins better. And, yes, humans are smarter than dolphins, and so they should know better. For the posters who (falsely) argue that humans aren’t smarter than dolphins or other animals, you are excusing all human behavior, since your assertion is the equivalent of saying that humans don’t or can’t know better. After all, if you wouldn’t fault the dolphins for not knowing or choosing not to avoid the cove, then you similarly couldn’t fault the humans for killing them. It just becomes one sad and misguided bit of moral relativism. Humans ARE smarter than all other animals on the planet. This doesn’t mean humans are incapable of very stupid acts; quite the contrary, in fact it means that humans out of all the other animals they should KNOW better. So, stop with the crap about humans not being smarter than dolphins or horses, etc. Not only is it scientifically inaccurate, it also excuses any and all human behavior. After all, dolphins and horses aren’t sitting around wondering about the moral implications of their behavior with respect to humans. But, humans do have this capacity, and with it comes responsibility.
To the so called “writer”, charles mudede, I hate to be the one to break this to you but you are either another spokesman for the world fishing organization, or you are at least 10 years old. You are so ignorant to the facts, or you are just so ignorant to the messages you leave within the world. Is this how you want to be remembered? I think a toad is smarter than you. God gave every creature on this planet different tools to use in order to live in harmony, the sad part is, he gave us humans too much intelligence, which turns to greed, and is certainly leading to the extinction of every mamal on this planet. Thanks for being a MAJOR contributor tothis process. STUPID.
To the so called “writer”, charles mudede, I hate to be the one to break this to you but you are either another spokesman for the world fishing organization, or you are at least 10 years old. You are so ignorant to the facts, or you are just so ignorant to the messages you leave within the world. Is this how you want to be remembered? I think a toad is smarter than you. God gave every creature on this planet different tools to use in order to live in harmony, the sad part is, he gave us humans too much intelligence, which turns to greed, and is certainly leading to the extinction of every mamal on this planet. Thanks for being a MAJOR contributor tothis process. STUPID.