Product Details

• Actors: Richard O'Barry, Louie Psihoyos, Hardy Jones, Michael Illiff, Joji Morishita
• Directors: Louie Psihoyos
• Writers: Mark Monroe
• Producers: Charles Hambleton, Fisher Stevens, Jim Clark, Olivia Ahnemann, Paula DuPré Pesmen
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: December 8, 2009
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (198 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002PLMJ74
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,595 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Cove" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Maybe you've seen it all, and maybe you're already steeped in outraged, activist documentaries. But you haven't seen anything quite like The Cove, unless you can visualize a disturbing combination of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Free Willy, and the killing of Bambi's mother. The Cove is directed by the experienced National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos, who sets about to uncover a shocking (but regular) ritual on the Japanese coast: the herding and slaughter of thousands of bottlenose dolphins in the town of Taiji. A few dolphins are saved during this process, and sold off to aquariums so they can perform in water shows. The rest are crowded together and--away from prying eyes--stabbed to death, their meat sold as food. (Interviewing Japanese people on the street, they apparently have no idea that the "whale meat" on sale in stores is actually mercury-saturated bottlenose dolphin.) It's not that this mass killing is secret, exactly, but the fishermen of Taiji have done a proactive job of keeping cameras and other observers from getting a good look. Psihoyos wants to change all that, and he assembles a swashbuckling squad of scientists, filmmakers, and nerds (including movie F/X people who design fake rocks for hidden video cameras) to extra-legally smuggle recording equipment into the cove. The team's spiritual and emotional captain is Richard O'Barry, the man who helped popularize dolphins as cuddly animals as the trainer of TV's Flipper back in the 1960s--and who, horrified by the way dolphins have been used in public displays, has been an anti-captivity activist for decades. The footage that results is so shocking it should cause seismic reactions in viewers, and when O'Barry attends a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (portrayed by the film as ineffectual and/or bought off by Japanese interests) armed with video of the slaughter, he's like Rocky Balboa climbing into the ring for one more big fight. After what we've seen in the film at that point, it's unlikely many viewers won't be rooting him on. -Robert Horton

Product Description

In a sleepy lagoon off the coast of Japan, behind a wall of barbed wire and "Keep Out” signs, lies a shocking secret. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji engage in an unseen hunt for thousands of dolphins. The nature of the work is so horrifying, a few desperate men will stop at nothing to keep it hidden from the world. But when an elite team of activists, filmmakers and freedivers embark on a covert mission to penetrate the cove, they discover that the shocking atrocities they find there are just the tip of the iceberg.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 78 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars a must-see documentary February 4, 2010

By Roland E. Zwick

Format:DVD

****1/2

Ric O'Barry may be the world's premier lover of dolphins, but the one place you'll never find him at is Sea World taking in a show. That's because he'd much rather expend his time and energy in freeing those marvelous creatures from captivity - an act for which he has been arrested numerous times and which has earned him the status of persona non grata in many quarters. Yet, although O'Barry may be an "environmental whacko" (maybe even a "dangerous criminal") in the eyes of some, to others - and certainly to the dolphins whose freedom and well-being he champions - O'Barry is a real life hero.

The remarkable, consciousness-raising documentary "The Cove" chronicles O'Barry's efforts to make a clandestine video record of a dolphin slaughter that takes place regularly in a secluded cove in Taiji, Japan, far away from public view. Here thousands of dolphins are trapped, some to be captured and sold to dolphinariums, but most to be brutally massacred for food. To get his video, O'Barry enlisted the aid of various friends and colleagues, who formed a kind of "Ocean's Eleven" special ops team of high-tech video and sound engineers, to pull off the scheme.

Why, some might wonder, should animals like dolphins and whales be protected from such ritualized slaughter when other mammals like cows and sheep are not? O'Barry would posit that it is because, alone among all God's creatures, the dolphin has a uniquely symbiotic relationship with mankind, as evidenced by tales told from time immemorial of dolphins rescuing humans stranded at sea and even of protecting them from underwater predators such as sharks.... And scientists have certainly shown that the dolphin is second to none among the animal kingdom when it comes to "intelligence" and the ability to communicate with one another. O'Barry goes so far as to argue that dolphins are so self-aware that they even have a sense of their own mortality.

The movie points out the irony that this obsession with training dolphins and whales for show purposes began in the early 1960s with the immense popularity of the TV series "Flipper." In other words, it was people's sudden intense interest in and love for the dolphin that became largely responsible for the desperate plight they're in today. O'Barry acknowledges his own culpability in this regard since it was he himself who helped to capture and train the five female dolphins that were used in the show. In the time since that program aired, dolphin-capturing has become a multi-million-dollar-a-year industry, primarily in Japan, and has resulted in "the largest slaughter of dolphins on the planet" (to the tune of 23,000 per year in that country alone). But after seeing the harm inflicted on these magnificent creatures by their captivity - dolphins normally swim 40 miles a day in the open waters - O'Barry's views quickly evolved to the point where he became a hardcore activist tirelessly fighting for their liberation. As he himself states, "I spent ten years building that industry up, and I spent the last thirty-five years trying to tear it down." If nothing else, "The Cove" is a story of one man's search for personal redemption.

But "The Cove" is much more than simply an informative documentary designed to do good in the world. It possesses all the drama and suspense of a real-life cloak-and-dagger espionage thriller as we go along with the team as they sneak their video and audio equipment past the authorities and plant it where it will do the most good. The movie also has all the emotional pull of a classic David and Goliath story, though in this case, there are actually two Goliaths, one, the Japanese fishing industry that is green-lighting the slaughter, and, the other, the farcically impotent International Whaling Commission (an admittedly weaker giant) whose job it ostensibly is to see that the slaughter doesn't happen. Quite a bit of the movie's running time, in fact, is devoted to showing the rampant corruption of that organization, as we see Japan overtly bribing smaller countries for their votes.

"The Cove" is definitely hard to watch at times, and the slaughter scene itself is certainly not for the faint-of-heart. But it is something that cries out to be seen - and acted upon (the movie appropriately ends with contact information for all those interested in helping out the cause). And director Louie Psihoyos counterbalances the ugliness with gorgeous shots of dolphins swimming freely in the open ocean - objects of matchless grace and beauty in the natural world. Moreover, the visuals are richly complemented by a lyrical, haunting score by J. Ralph.

No matter your view on the environment, after seeing "The Cove," you will never be able to look at Flipper or Sea World in the same way again. Read more ›

76 of 88 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Secret Slaughter: Today's "Silent Spring" February 18, 2010

By B. Merritt VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

About 3/4 of the way through THE COVE, I nearly turned it off. Not because it was a bad film, but because it was almost too painful to keep watching. I grew up, like many my age, watching the hit TV show, Flipper. It was a great adventure going along with Bud, Sandy, their dad and, of course, Flipper the dolphin. I used to pretend to swim with him (Flipper) and thought it would be the coolest thing to be able to feed and play with a dolphin. So it was doubly troubling to see Ric O'Barry (the man who helped capture and train Flipper) as the centerpiece for this film. After watching the original Flipper die in captivity, Ric learned a hard lesson: that creatures with this kind of intelligence should never be kept in captivity, nor should they be harmed.

Fast forward to today, and we find Ric in Taijii, Japan near a small cove where, every September, the unthinkable happens. A mass slaughter of hundreds or even thousands of dolphins turns the water (literally) red. The local government and fisherman don't want anyone to see this event, nor even get too close to the cove. Ric and his friends, who simply try to film here, are harassed, pushed away (physically) or arrested on "pending" charges. So, in order to get the footage they need, Ric and friends hire specialized cameras and camera operators to hide digital recorders around the cove (including an underwater microphone) so that this atrocity can be witnessed.

They go in like a Navy Seal team, with night-vision and under the cover of darkness. It is an act of incredibly risk because it has become all too apparent that the locals will do anything (including act violently) to protect their secret slaughter.... When the recordings come back, and we get to see them, it is ....how to even put it into justifiable words ...it's so painful to watch that I actually got choked up. There's no music playing; nothing to add to the pulling of your heartstrings. The repeated stabbing of the dolphins is ...beyond cruel. They literally bleed to death. But if it weren't tough enough watching that, we get to see the response of the other dolphins while they await their turn. A baby dolphin, probably no more than two feet long, tries to jump out of the water in order to save itself, only to fall back into the red sea and be slashed across the throat. It is this brutal act that will stun most viewers and will undoubtedly spur some into action against Japan's ocean policies.

Not surprising, Japan has been battling to keep it's commercial whaling and fisheries open. And in these tough economic times, it has even found friends in the IWC (International Whaling Commission).

The great thing about the film is that it isn't anti-fishing. It simply asks that this type of senseless slaughter stop. No one eats dolphin (knowingly), and most shouldn't because of the high levels of mercury present in the meat (even sushi-grade tuna has high levels). So why does this slaughter happen? The real answer is individuality and not wanting to be told what to do by outsiders. A few of the dolphins are singled out for "saving." They'll become trained dolphins at Seaworld and the like. But the rest become additive fish meat wrapped in plastic in the fresh fish section.

The only downside to the film is that it doesn't address what would happen to the small city of Taijii if the dolphin slaughter were stopped. Would the city survive? What would happen to the fisherman who's livelihood relies on this? If those who really want to affect change are interested in procuring that change, they should make a plan that involves the Taijii fisherman and their future livelihoods if the dolphin slaughter were halted. That would be a great way to succeed in stopping this annual "event."

Still, this story was amazingly told and was so tough to watch, that it will linger with me for a very long time. Read more ›

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching and inspiring... February 10, 2010

By Rodrigo Conde

Format:DVD

I really think everyone should watch this documentary, not because this is just a great documentary (and it is), or because their cause deserve any more attention than any other animal cruelty or global warming issue, but because it pictures the kind of people the world is most in need nowadays.

These people are different from us, who, in most cases, see what is happening to earth and its wildlife and just think: "i wish i could do something to change all this", or maybe just don't care at all. This is where these people differ from us, they actually got out and did something about it, sometimes even risking themselves.

What is happening in Japan, and other places in the world, where dolphins are being literally slaughtered, is a cruelty, plain and simple. When i see something like this happening i think: "there is no hope for the human race, we're just doomed, we're killing this planet a creature at a time." But when these kind of people try to do something to change all this, the hope that was lying dead inside me just awakens again and I pray that my children and grandchildren (I'm 22 yo) can live in a better world than this.

Even without knowing any of them, I feel proud for the people who did this documentary. And if this post or review helps to gather more and more people to their cause, than this is just a tiny drop of water in an ocean compared to what they did. So buy this movie, donate to their cause, shout at the streets, just trying to do anything is better than doing nothing.