IHC Movie Reviews: Blackfish (2013)

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Blackfish is in some theatres now, and is getting wider release soon. A documentary about a killer whale from Sea World, this film focuses on what happens when a wild animal is yanked out of the wild, submitted to detrimental conditions, and forced to perform daily. It’s a pretty controversial subject, and the film itself has caused Sea World a good deal of hassle. But how is it? Is it a thoughtful intelligent  documentary, or should it be left in a dark shallow pool?

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I really like documentaries, if done right. While I prefer mine to be a little on the less serious side (I prefer Spurlock over Moore) this peaked my interest due to my awesome girlfriend telling me about it. Its subject matter is something I don’t really think about much, but I figured it would at least be interesting. And while I certainly wasn’t wrong, some of it just didn’t feel right to me.

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The film starts by showing the capture of Tilikum the killer whale off the coast of Iceland. As it progresses, it shows how he was captured, how he was kept, and eventually how he was transferred and trained at Sea World. People involved and random experts pop up and tell us why all of these things are bad, and how we should feel sorry for this majestic creature captured and kept against his will, and how his captivity has driven him mad and that has caused him to kill. It’s informative, and it does do a noble job of holding your attention, but afterwards you just feel like you watched an indoctrination video.

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Gabriela Cowperthwaite, who wrote, directed, and produced the film does a pretty good job lining up experts who talk about the dangers of keeping animals like this captive, the effects capture has, and tons of other little subjects throughout the film. But, the film goes to great length to be more subjective than objective. While I understand that’s the point of a film like this, I think debating issues and hearing more from both sides would have caused a greater impact of the subject, at least on me. And the thing that I don’t agree with the most is how most of the facts put forward are just guesses. To put your reputation on the line and say “This animal acted this way because of this” with nothing but guesswork to back it up seems weird to me. It seems far fetched to nail down without a shadow of a doubt why a wild animal acts the way he does. We don’t know why he does the things he does. While I’m sure scientists and experts are well versed in their area of study animal psychology, especially stretched this thin, just seems like made up crap sometimes. Until we can train animals to talk, or invent something to allow us to communicate, no one really knows. Hell, that day may come, and when asked why he did it, the whale might just respond with, “I just wanted to give her a hug!”

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All in all, it’s not a bad documentary, though it feels more like a piece of PETA co-opted propaganda sometimes than an actual objective documentary. If you’re a wildlife fan, you’ll enjoy it. If you take yearly trips to Sea World, skip it. If you’re a hardcore animal rights fanatic, you officially have your Citizen Kane. If you’re looking for a light hearted documentary, only watch if you feel like getting depressed.

1.5/5

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  1. joedissolvo submitted this to iheartchaos
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