How about here: I believe this is easily the best piece of non-fiction work I've ever seen. I mean, seriously. I just watched it yesterday and I can't stop thinking about it. That's a true sign of amazing story telling.
One of the many reasons why this film is so successful is because the film makers have an excellent message to share with the audience. Further, it's a message that really really appeals to your emotions. Anytime a film maker is able to successfully pull at your heart strings, the film is going to be a success. I'm pretty sure I'll never go to SeaWorld again (don't let that stop you from watching this doc though!) and had I been eating dolphin, I'd stop. This, clearly, is not an issue.
Louie Psihoyos narrated the majority of the film. He explains the main goal, which is finding out what happens in a small cove located in Taiji, Japan where tens of thousands of dolphins are killed each year. Our protagonist is Richard O'Barry who was a longtime dolphin trainer, and starred in the TV show Flipper. After about ten years in the business, and having acquired a large amount of knowledge about the incredible intelligence of dolphins, he began to campaign for their freedom and in many cases, their life. He is able to elicit the help of Psihoyos who has many film industry contacts that are able to help provide their cause with some of the most state of the art equipment in existence today, as well as a group of people whom he describes as his own "Ocean's 11."
So in addition to having a great story, this film was technically amazing. Their budget was obviously extensive. I'd really like to know what they spent here. However, the awesome top of the line equipment they used was absolutely necessary in successfully telling their story. For example, the image above was taken with a thermal-sensing camera that displays pictures based on the heat of the objects around it. Because many of their operations had to occur in the dead of the night to successfully plant cameras without being caught, there was obviously not a lot of light for normal cameras to pick up on. Also, with this piece of equipment, they were able to watch for guards approaching in the dark. And it just looks really cool on your tv screen...They coupled this with several night vision, infrared cameras to add a different dynamic to the scene. Everything they shot, everything, was in high definition and looked amazing. It didn't feel as though they just picked up whatever camera they could get their hands on, despite quality, and started grabbing footage. A lot of documentaries today do have a very digital feel to them. Not this guy...every shot was beautiful. Major kudos to Brook Aitken, their cinematographer...major.
Next we have their method of story telling. We know from the get-go that the whole point of this film, what we want to know most, is what's going on in this cove. The plan is to set up secret cameras to record exactly what is going on there, since the only people who know are the fishermen directly involved in the slaughter. Throughout the movie we get Louie Psihoyos and Richard O'Barry giving us the logistics of pulling off this immensely important footage capture. However, the story often gets interrupted by other imperative information that helps the audience realize more as each scene is completed, why we are dying to see what happens in that cove. We learn about how dolphins became such a fascination in modern culture, how smart they are, who eats them, the current plans to keep them safe, etc. But these little nuggets keep getting interrupted by other scenes that bring us back to the task at hand. The suspense that they build is crazy good. By the time we see the fruits of their labor, I was about to lose it!
That brings me to the conclusion...when we finally see the footage they captured, I had an idea what was coming, but I was completely stunned. Not only was the video telling, it was truly beautiful. They had those cameras placed in extremely successful, strategical positions. They couldn't have had better footage. There's one particular shot, and I can't tell you what it is without giving it away, but this shot was perhaps one of the best and most powerful shots I think I have ever seen in all my years of film watching. No lie. (Normally I don't care about ruining the ending of films on this blog, but you just need to see it for yourself.)
Curious? Go see this movie!! It's on instant Netflix! It won that Academy Award for a reason, people. Seriously.
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