duminică, 7 mai 2017

The Cove, written by Mark Monroe and directed by Louie Psihoyos

The Cove, written by Mark Monroe and directed by Louie Psihoyos

A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:


This is my first note on a documentary.

-          But what a phenomenal film this is!!

It has won the Academy Award for Best Documentary and thirty nine other important prizes, being nominated for another 17.
The Cove has a metascore, which basically combines the ratings from Variety, The New York Times and many other prestigious publications of

-          84- which is really impressive

The real story is an outrageous one.
And I was thinking that if this would have happened on the Somali coast, it could have been less astounding.

In a poor, let’s say less civilized land, with many people facing starvation, a struggle for food might appear more acceptable.
But to learn that this is happening in one of the most advanced countries in the world, which has a culture that I admire, comes as an appalling revelation.

Alas, they do not just kill thousands of dolphins, but they also insist on killing whales for pretended scientific purposes.
And they are not the only ones, it must be emphasized that other humans have a habit of killing whales and other creatures that I respect and feel that should be protected and not slaughtered by barbarians:


The above link would have some photographs of waters that are red because so many lovely beings are murdered.

It is the Faroe Islands that is involved in the – should I call it massacre, or the way they prefer it- tradition? - That you can see following the above link.

But then there is the Nordic country that is so admired and gives so many lessons on how to do things- Norway:
“Norway has killed nearly 12000 whales since 1993, outpacing Iceland and Japan as the global leader in whaling”


Returning to The Cove, the protagonist is Richard O’Barry, who has been one of the first to work with dolphins.
He regrets his involvement in capturing and then training the intelligent, charismatic creatures that are so close to humans.

Stories with dolphins and the help they offered to humans in distress go back to ancient days and their charisma is so well known and alas one of the main reasons of their ordeal, for their likeability makes people want to see them in shows.
Richard O’Barry is the one who made Flipper and then so many other shows possible and familiar around the world.

When one of his dolphin friends committed suicide in his arms, this hero became the fierce opponent of captivity for dolphins and he is now called whenever a dolphin is in trouble and he helped many return to the wild.
In Japan, near Taiji, there is a cove which gives the title for this film and where many thousands of gentle beings have been slaughtered and the locals defend this madness with an aggresivity that is abominable.

This Taiji is not known as a place where many humans have died, but it is a horrific place and it shows how abhorrent people can be.
Of course, cynics would point out- and they would be right to a great extent-that other intelligent creatures- pigs for instance- are slaughtered in their millions, on a daily basis, around the planet, except for where they are religiously forbidden.

But it nauseating, disgusting to see how many dolphins are killed in order to trap those who will be sold to aquatic parks all over the globe.
They also eat the meat over there and it could be again argued that eating any type of meat is unethical.

When asked on the streets of Tokyo, many Japanese appear to have no idea about what is going on in the Cove.
But their government- and the Norwegian one to an even greater extent!!!- has a policy of killing whales in spite of the international outcry.


And the Nordics are considered the supreme role models… 

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