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damalc 
"last watched: Sausage Party"
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 Posted - 11/09/2009 : 01:10:21
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The Cove
i saw this one based on a recommendation from Esquire magazine. really not my type of film on the surface -- i'm generally not into save-the-(insert animal) projects -- but it turned out to be one of my favorite documentaries ever. it's about a dolphin harvesting operation in Japan, but it's bigger than the usual animal sympathy story. it's that, but it's also part covert action, and part health crisis. it's way more important than just saying save the cute sea mammals.
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Edited by - damalc on 11/09/2009 01:11:30 |
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 11/09/2009 : 01:54:59
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Here's my take from Sundance last January:
THE COVE***** [U.S. Documentary Audience Award] Ric O�Barry trained Flipper -- at least, the five dolphins who played him on the popular TV series. But as he got to better know these friendly, intelligent creatures, he became struck with remorse: taking them out of their natural habitat, even for Sea-World-like purposes, was clearly and demonstrably inhumane. Furthermore, fishermen in the Japanese town of Taiji, the world�s largest supplier of show dolphins, select for training only the finest specimens, worth as much as six figures each. The rest are herded by sound into a secret cove where hundreds per day are brutally slaughtered for meat -- that nobody wants, since it turns out to be black with mercury! Following O'Barry [a pariah in Taiji who can only go there in disguise] and his singular passion, Louie Psihoyos and his crew intend to break Taiji�s strict prohibition against photography and trespassing and reveal its shame to the world with technology [some of it coming from similarly outraged ILM visual effects veterans] and sheer courage. This documentary is partly a polemic, partly a caper film, and partly an appeal to our most basic ideas of right and wrong. The climactic scene is as cathartic as anything I�ve ever seen.
My complete report on Sundance 2009 |
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The Cove
