The coastal city of Taiji, Japan has practiced dolphin fishing for many years. As the small town lies right along the path of the bottlenose dolphins' migratory route, the access to dolphins has become too easy and the capturing of dolphins for trainers around the world and killing for meat is out of control. In 2009, a documentary was released which sought to expose the barbaric practices of the Japanese in Taiji. Every aspect in each section of The Cove fights for justice and ultimately argues that the occurrences in this Japanese cove are cruel and unnecessary. The beginning, middle, and end all provide a piece of the fundamental persuasion and stack upon each other to drive home the film's emotional message.
The Cove begins with dusk footage of a lighthouse perched upon a rocky crescent, it's dull yellow light sweeping the rolling waves below it. An eerie tune accompanies the silhouetted picture. The darkened lighthouse represents the small town of Taiji, living in an ever mysterious world. The beam of light projected from its tower represents director Louie Psihoyos and his crew, searching for secrets to shed light upon. The eerie background music adds to the mystery of the lighthouse while foreshadowing scary and haunting events. Upbeat Oriental music suddenly plays, juxtaposed with the black and white silhouettes of Japanese markets, representing Taiji's facade. "It looks like the town likes whales and dolphins...[Taiji] is a little town with a really big secret," spoke Richard O'Barry, the former world- renowned dolphin trainer who trained and caught all five dolphins who played the role of Flipper in the 1960s' hit TV show Flipper. He speaks of one of these dolphins, Kathy, who chose to end her life. Since every breat...
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...s of the treatment of the dolphins by the fisherman. The high pitched cry of distressed dolphins, young and old, swells in the viewers' ears as the dark blue ocean turns a bright red from the blood of these slaughtered mammals. Japanese fishermen stand in long boats with spears stabbing at the water aimlessly as dolphins thrash and try to swim away. The audience is left appalled at the heartless actions they are witnessing. The footage goes on for a while, each second increasing the Japanese villainy.
The Cove is a beautiful movie which reflects the horrors of the Japanese dolphin fishing and capturing in Taiji and argues that it is sadistic and unwarranted. The argument of this eco-activitist documentary is impeccable. Each minute of it, it's footage, lighting, music, and narration, is carefully calculated to empower people to step up and stop the heinous crime.
The close up shot of the sheriff overlooking the people on the beach with the look of concern and distress, opposed to the family in the background, smiling and enjoying the nice sunny day. This shot of him explains his perturb feeling that he knows what awaits in the water, unlike everyone else. The long shot of the person floating in the middle of the sea exposed makes the audience feel relaxed but also cautious. Over the shoulder shot shows the attention is not on the man talking to the sheriff but on the woman in the sea, which was a false alarm, of the woman screaming, but also keeps the audience alert. Another long shot is shown when the children get up to go to sea, makes the audience anxious for danger that is about to happen.
Blackfish is a well-known film about how whales were kept in captivity while being mistreated. This film explained the situation in more of a sequential order stating each event one after another from occurrence. This film was made to inform people of all the cruel and monstrous things that Sea Land and Sea World were doing to the whales.
This shows how humans being cruel to those innocent animals, killing them for their own
In the opening credits there is sounds of dolphins this sounds very calm to the audience, then it starts to build tensio...
Blackfish is a 2013 documentary attempting to elevate public awareness regarding the orca that are being kept in maritime amusement parks, specifically SeaWorld, and the inherent danger of their captivity. The film is effective because it raises a set of important ethical questions for the viewer while presenting with a necessary fact-based style of documentation that does not evoke gratuitous scenes of abuse in order to inspire sympathy, unlike some of the other films that are intended to raise awareness about animal abuse. The film focuses on one orca, commonly referred to as a killer whale, in particular by the name of Tilikum. The documentary begins as a group of contract fishermen hunt a family of killer whales off the coast of Iceland.
“Whales provide us with the food for our bodies, bones for our tools and implements and spirits for our souls.” “We haven’t hunted the whale for 70 years but have hunted them in our hearts and in our minds.” “Whales are a central focus of our culture today as they have been from the beginning of time.”
A fisherman sits in his boat on the open sea, alone save for the fish below the water’s surface. The calmness of the ocean is disrupted by something underneath, something big. Fear seeps through the fisherman’s heart as he sees the shiny gray dorsal fin pierce the sun-glinted surface of the ocean. The creature stops its ritual and pulls its head out of the water, revealing the face of a great white: scars from countless battles in the ocean’s depths, a mouth full of lethal daggers, and dark, savage eyes.
Interpersonal relationships are a potent entity that wildly flutter, like a liberated pigeon, through the miserable docks of Elia Kazan’s 1954 film ‘On the Waterfront,’ shaping the moral metamorphosis of protagonist Terry Malloy – from an analysts perspective, the ‘power’ source of the film. Terry’s voyage from an inarticulate and diminished “bum” to a gallant “contender,” is the pedestal that the film gyrates around, however, it is palpable that Terry – a man branded with his primitive mores - is not equipped of emancipating himself from the self-preservative cycle of “D and D” singlehandedly. Therefore, the catalytic, moral facilitation of inspirational outsiders - Edie Doyle and Father Barry – are essential to the rewiring of Terry’s conscience and his propulsion into “testifying what is right against what is wrong.” However, rapports do not simply remain ‘strong’ and stable for the entire duration of the film – they fluctuate. Terry shuffles closer to the side of morality each scene, portrayed by the simultaneous deterioration of Terry’s intertwinement with Johnny Friendly and “the mob” and intensification of his romantic involvement with Edie and confidence in Father Barry. Relationships fuel and glorify Terry’s powerful, audience-enthralling journey to morality.
In a crucial scene in Jaws, chief Martin Brody must use his mistake as guide for to him complete his goal of saving the town from the antagonistic shark. After catching a tiger shark, the local town fishermen all celebrate their victory together with Brody and the mayor believing they have solved Amity Island’s problem. Soon the mother of the deceased child who was killed by the great shark appears on the boardwalk. Her costume, a solid black dress appropriate for a funeral, contrasts with the bright sunny day on the beach that is represented with high-key lighting. The dress also symbolizes the mother’s multiple feelings of mourning for her child and her anger towards Brody, which again juxtaposes the feelings of success among Brody and the fishermen. Her conversation with the police chief is executed through a shot-reverse shot sequence but she catches Brody’s attention with a smack to his face. She goes on how Brod...
Attention Gainer: For the attention gainer, I plan on showing the audience a two minute and thirty second video in order to display the tragic events that are happening around the world regarding shark killings. My attention gainer will enable the audience to become aware of the situation as well as invoke a serious and potentially sad mood in the classrooms, before I begin to touch on the terrible situation we have
Cowperthwaite begins Blackfish by discussing the biggest accident SeaWorld is known for. The audience is introduced to a chilling 911 phone call regarding one of the whales and the trainers. It appeals to shock factor by stating “a whale ate one of the trainers” (Blackfish, 2013), this phrase is repeated a second time which adds emphasis to the context of the film. In contradiction
While this footage plays, the former trainers discuss the alarmingly low amount of information they, as employees who worked with these orcas on a daily basis, were given. Footage of Tamaree being pulled into the water by Orkid and the resulting compound fracture in her arm exemplifies a situation that could have ended in a fatality. Cowperthwaite also includes several minutes of footage of the Ken Peters attack, as well as footage of him receiving medical attention in the aftermath. A multitude of shorter clips of trainer accidents surround these longer clips. The interviewees comment on the culture at SeaWorld where they were expected to get right back out there after an injury and that SeaWorld ignored risks to trainer safety. The interviews about the danger the trainer’s were unknowingly placed under are disturbing on their own, however without the footage of bloody and injured trainers, there is less of an impact. By including the gory footage, Cowperthwaite forces the viewer to acknowledge how dangerous working with orcas is. In turn, the interviews contrast this evident danger with SeaWorld’s repeated claim that working with orcas is not particularly dangerous, thus showing that SeaWorld knowingly misinforms their
The Fishes, led by Julian, is a non-conformist revolutionary group who are “at war with the British government until they recognise equal rights for all immigrants in Britain.” The high modality of “at war” emphasises their non-conformist nature and difference in values; the Fishes fight for refugees’ justice and subvert the fascist values of the British government. Rebellion amongst other members of the population can also be seen in a scene with Theo on the train. Cuarón uses a long continuous shot is used as the audience follows him on his journey, which creates a documentary feel and makes the film more realistic. The scene begins with an anti-immigration propaganda played on the train and the camera slowly pans over Theo and to the windows where the rebels could be seen throwing rocks onto the train. The slow pan from the anti-immigration propaganda to the rebels emphasise the dissension in the society; the rebels disagree with the British government’s values and policies. Cuarón represents people and politics in a unique and evocative way through an exploration of conformity and non-conformity in a dystopian
Currently, live whale performances have become well liked for tourists to visit. When they are there, they only see what they want to see and do not care or want to know all about the complications the whales go through just to make people smile. The documentary “Blackfish” exposes the truth about the whales, their habits, and why they act the manner they do when in captivity. The inhumane treatment of whales in captivity causes negative effects on the animals which, in turn, affects the humans who care for them.
The quest to gain international agreement on ethical and legal norms for regulation of whaling has had a long and troubled history. The modern phase of global concern over whaling ethics and conservationist management originated in 1946, when the International Convention on Regulation of Whaling was signed. Thus, the International Whaling Commission was created. The International Whaling Commission was designed to control and mandate the whaling industry. From it’s beginning as simply a whalers club with scientific guidance, to the current day conservationist body, the IWC has undergone many revisions and transformations since the start.