Whales and Wiener Dogs

So I got up this morning, and, after nearly having my entire day ruined with a trip to Time Warner to return my cable box (good riddance), I walked downtown to watch “The Cove” at the Angelika. And, you know, I’m sure that even in NYC it’s not easy to just print money by showing independent films, but one does wish they could find a way to do something about those seats. I mean, they hurt you. They are that bad.

I’m pretty sure the last movie I saw there was Mulholland Drive. And I go see a lot of movies. Especially independent movies.

And I don’t think the AC was working too good, either. And then the guy across the aisle from me was eating his popcorn really loudly, and then when he was done he fell asleep and snored. And then when he woke up, he ate his popcorn really loudly again.

So you can see why I rarely leave the house anymore. It’s not me, it’s you.

And I didn’t take notes or anything, so all of this is from memory, and I’m going to try to bang out the gist of what I think I’ve got to say about this film in a single sitting and before I get to the bottom of the glass of the Tasmanian wine I picked up on the walk home.

And since I’ve already written about as much as I’d wanted to write. And since the new Fallout 3 DLC isn’t going to just play itself, here goes…(and I suppose the right thing to do now would be to say SPOILER ALERT)

Each year, it seems, in Taiji, Japan, as many as 23,000 dolphins and pilot whales are herded by fisherman from the open ocean into the town’s coves. A handful of these animals are sold – for up to $150,000 – to animal trainers, zoos, aquariums, and private citizens. But the rest are herded out of sight, into a “secret” cove, where they are slaughtered and processed for food.

The meat attained from these dolphins is filled with poison and toxins, and it’s often given to schools for their lunch programs or introduced into the commercial marketplace incorrectly labeled (sometimes as whale meat).

Louie Psihoyos, director of “The Cove,” would like to put an end to what goes on in Taiji. In the film, he says there are two kinds of people in the world; those who are active, and those who are inactive. He falls into the latter category. He’s an activist, and he aims to end what he’s exposed.

And with that stated objective, there’s really only one criterion by which the film’s success probably ought to be measured, and that is whether or not the film brings about the end of the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan.

Psihoyos and the rest of his filmmaking crew have certainly mustered enough ingenuity and daring to have earned the right to make such ambitious statements. From the moment they arrive in Taiji, they are harassed by local officials, tailed by shadowy figures, and harassed by intimidating fisherman armed with camcorders who try to bait them into a fight (which they can then record and give to the police).

And, honestly, it was some of these encounters that really got my dander up, even more so than the holy grail bloody water footage that comes at the end of the film. There’s this one scene where a couple with the film crew watches as a dolphin that’s escaped the secret cove bleeds out and dies. As the couple tears up, a few locals stand nearby laughing and joking and just generally acting intimidating.

It’s enough to make you want to gut-harpoon somebody.

But I digest…The film crew, however, is more than up to the challenge. They circumvent their shadows. They stake out the cove. They monitor the movements of the men who guard it. Then they sneak in after dark and plant hidden HD cams in fake rocks made by Industrial Light and Magic (no shit). Two of the best free divers in the world plant hidden underwater microphones. They even build and bring some remote-controlled drone aircraft armed with cameras.

And, in the end, they get what they came for; graphic audio and video footage of marine mammals being casually slaughtered as the water in the cove turns entirely bright red with blood.

It is, quite literally, a bloodbath.

But the entire film is not ALL about just showing us how the sausage is made.

There’s quite a bit more to it than that actually:

There’s a connection made between marine mammals in captivity and the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. (If you ever want to enjoy yourself at Sea World again, don’t go see this movie)

There’s a case made for the intelligence and consciousness of dolphins.

There’s a pretty strong indictment of the International Whaling Commission, and an especially strong indictment of the role that Japan plans within the IWC.

There are some shocking revelations about exactly how toxic the seafood that we eat is.

And there’s even an attempt to try to understand exactly why the hell Japan insists on doing this shit.

Psihoyos, the director, comes across as the kind of guy who’s almost done doing the list of 100 things he wants to do before he dies. And you know that he’s got some really hard stuff on that list, like time travel and seeing Stevie Nicks naked. If they make a movie about him, he’ll be played by George Clooney, if he doesn’t just play himself. You get the feeling that the guy will figure out a way to stop what’s going on in Taiji.

But it’s a guy named Ric O’Barry who’s the heart and soul of the film. Ric was the guy that trained the dolphins for a 60’s TV show called “Flipper,” and he blames himself for the whole dolphins in captivity movement and for the popularity of people watching dolphins do tricks. (To this day, my favorite football team is the Miami Dolphins ONLY because I used to watch “Flipper” when I was a kid). Ric is the guy that turns Psihoyos on to what’s going down in Taiji. And it’s Ric that makes some of the more compelling arguments for a dolphin’s capacity not just for intelligence, but for consciousness, for their ability to know what’s going on and to perceive what’s going to happen.

He tells a story about how his life changed when one of the Flipper dolphins committed suicide in his arms. Yup. Committed suicide. She just stopped breathing and sank to the bottom of the pool. O’Barry seems to have a bit – but not too, too much – of Timothy Treadwell in him, but whatever you make of his story, he was in jail later that day for freeing a dolphin from captivity.

And there’s some stuff about dolphins recognizing themselves in mirrors and saving sexy surfers from tiger sharks, too.

A lot of light is shed on the IWC and the role that Japan plays there. They basically bribe 3rd world countries into joining their voting bloc. Again, sorry for all the spoilers, but there’s a scene where the Japanese delegate to the IWC gives a power point presentation asserting that the reason ocean food stocks are in decline is because THE WHALES AND DOLPHINS ARE EATING ALL OF OUR SEAFOOD.

Look, there are some clear cultural differences evident in the film, but that shit’s like comic book villain evil. It’s really hard to fathom. (And it’s also revealed that local fisherman believe they’re performing a worthy “pest control” service).

And all that meat they harvest is full of toxins, especially mercury. One scientist in the film finds levels of mercury in a piece of dolphin meat to be 2000 TIMES THE RECOMMENDED LEVEL.

Seriously, 2000 times.

Later, the deputy of fisheries submits his hair to a mercury test and finds out he’s got mercury poisoning.

(I actually checked the above two facts against my recollection and other published articles and reviews by “real” publications).

And there’s also the case of a town called Minamata where the Japanese government conspired with a local corporation to cover up the damage done by decades of dumping mercury into the local water supply. (I checked that fact, too).

So…if killing dolphins is unpopular, unprofitable, and unsafe, why do they do it? There doesn’t appear to be a really good answer. Nationalism, pride, and anti-Western sentiment are possibilities for some. Others believe Japan, which more or less dominates the global seafood industry, is embarking on a sort of bizarro-world ecological trip, i.e. we’re running out of fish so people are going to have to get used to eating whales and dolphins. Who knows? Even if you’re willing to accept that people eat meat and fish (i.e., they’re not all vegetarians). And if you’re willing to put aside concerns that marine mammals are highly intelligent and social creatures. And even if you’re willing to accept that the populations of some marine mammals are big enough to sustain harvesting – they’re still poisonous to eat! And almost nobody wants to eat them!

So, after the film I’m walking home and I’m trying figure out whether or not this film is going to get dolphin killing in Taiji, Japan 86’d.

I don’t know.

I sort of don’t think so.

Does anyone know about this film? Does anybody want to see it? It looks like it ran on four screens for about 5000 people it’s opening weekend. There were only about ten people there today when I watched it, and one of those people slept thru most of it. (But, yes, I do concede that most people don’t go to the movies on Monday mornings).

The filmmakers threw bones to Hayden Panettiere and Paul Watson and a few other activists and celebrities. I’m sure they’re doing their part. I’m sure Whale Wars doesn’t hurt.

But does anybody know about this film? Does anybody want to see it?

I mean, even if they never effected a change in policy, why and how did the films of Michael Moore transcend the HBO “America Undercover” genre and enter the collective pop culture consciousness? Creativity, execution, promotion and self-promotion…those are maybe some reasons. But maybe big business, health care, the psychological health of American children, and the war in Iraq are woven into the fabric of our culture. They can’t be ignored. They have to be addressed almost every day in some capacity or other.

I guess I just don’t know if poisonous Japanese dolphin meat and seeing how the sausage is made, specifically or in general, is that high on the list of things people want to subject themselves to right now.

But I could be wrong. I hope that I am. I’d like millions of people to see this movie. I’d like to see Psihoyos shut that place down. But I don’t know. I kind of get the sense that if there was an uproar to be heard, the momentum for it would be there already. The “what can I do?” section of the film’s web site sends you over to TakePart.com where they tell you to write letters, learn more about dolphins in captivity, choose the safest fish to eat, and write a check. The movie’s already made. And I’ve already seen it. I’m convinced it should stop. Write a check for what?

Okay, maybe helping them (financially) get the word out in Japan might actually help. That seems to be the key to me. Yes, ocean ecology issues are obviously global, but I think the litmus test will be whether or not the particular issues of this film are woven into the fabric of Japanese society in such a way that they can’t be ignored and that they can’t go unaddressed; issues like their health, the corruption of their government, their perception abroad, etc.

Or maybe the film is just part of a much larger plan. Psihoyos is one of the founders of the Oceanic Preservation Society.

And/or maybe this thing is going to take off like wildfire. Maybe around Oscar season.

I guess we’ll see…but do yourself a favor and go check it out.