The cove was a very interesting documentary that I could not stop watching. It was very interesting and something that I had no idea was going on in Japan. It was very intense and yet very educational. This film was about the mass murders of dolphins in Japan. The secrecy of this operation by the Japanese fisherman is completely mind blowing. The way that the town portrayed dolphins, you would never expect any slaughtering of dolphins to be going on. The population of the town hardly had any idea that this was taking place. In the town at the start of the film, the town seemed very loving and proud of the dolphins that existed there. There were paintings and statues of dolphins everywhere which almost gave the town a sense of pride displaying them as their main attraction. It is horrible to find out that this is hardly that way.

The perspective of this film is from the American perspective. They take this matter very seriously and feel that the Japanese need to stop what is going on. They view the dolphins as intelligent creatures and this is not ok what is going on within the cove. Throughout the film, it is constantly showing us the horrible things such as slaughtering of dolphins along with their meat being sold as tuna fish. It kept on throughout the movie in trying to prove their point and hammer into the audience’s brains that this is completely a serious issue and should not be overlooked.

This film was a very up and close personal style of movie because they were following the mission of getting evidence of what was going on at the cove. It showed different ways in getting the footage of the dolphins being killed. The second half of the movie was more persuasive, more interviews and displaying of the culture of the town so that the audience has a better idea of what the town and people are like. The movie was in two different tempos. It was slow at times, while other parts were fast paced and more intense. It kept me very interested and wanting to see and know more. Throughout the movie at certain points, Obarry tells his own story and background with training dolphins, how he became an activist and now has dedicated his life full time to saving the dolphins. A personal story from Obarry was how one dolphin suffocated itself by closing up its blowhole. That was basically the thing that changed his life and his motives.

There were a few images that really struck me when I was watching this film. The pitch forking and slaughtering of the dolphins really took an effect to me. It was hard to watch this happen but yet seeing it made me care more towards the main idea of the story. The bloody ocean and the Japanese fishermen also were images that really stuck in my mind. I could not believe how the fisherman had no problem killing these dolphins. They would be laughing and showing no kind of negative emotion to what they were doing. I found this hard to take. When it came to sounds, you could hear the sounds of the slaughtering, and the dolphins underwater.

I find all these issues educational but also almost hypocritical. People probably watch this film and think, how could people slaughter dolphins like that? But is it that much different then what we do to cows, pigs and chickens in America? We are killing millions of cows and other live stock on a daily basis here in America, but yet not that many people would take serious offense to this. The Japanese could make for the same argument but in the opposite way. Obviously the way they are killing the dolphins and wasting so many is wrong and definitely needs to be stopped. There is no need for them to be selling dolphin meat as tuna fish. I can only hope that this does not happen in America as well.

One character from the film that discusses our humanity throughout the movie is Richard O'barry. It shows how people admit to their mistakes and how people can change. He used to be involved with dophin training, and capturing these dolphins. He now has completely changed his motives and is now fully dedicated to saving dolphins around the world. It is the basis of this film and how it is immoral to slaughter such innocent creatures and how it is wrong that they sell the dolphin meat because there is such high mercury in it, which can lead to sickness and death of the human population exposed to it.