The 2010 documentary “The Cove” gave me all the reason I needed to never return to SeaWorld again. While that film played like a melodrama, horror movie, heist caper and took swipes at an entire country and their “culture”, the new documentary “Blackfish” targets the amusement corporation directly with a scathing journalistic exposé.
Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s film is produced and distributed by CNN Films, and it has a sharp investigative quality and traditional, talking heads approach to this horror story. While it lacks some of “The Cove’s” pathos and energy, it still packs a wallop.
“Blackfish,” like “The Cove,” has the unique quality of not being an environmental film. Both dolphins and whales are characterized as animals with specifically human-like qualities. Each of the trainers that interact with the orcas describes the sensation of looking into their eyes and seeing something back. Cowperthwaite can reach the audience on moral terms and never has to raise questions of the effect of removing these whales from their habitat on the broader environment.
It’s more accurately the story of Tilikum, a male killer whale captured from the wild in the ‘70s since used to breed others throughout the SeaWorld enterprise. In 1983, he killed a female trainer at a dinky amusement part called Sealand. The “accident” was swept under the rug and Tilikum was sold to SeaWorld, where 20 years later he killed Dawn Brancheau in much the same manner. Continue reading “Blackfish”