How whales sea the world.
The movie “Blackfish” tells the heart wrenching tale of wild Orcas being captured and used for amusement. The movie follows several whales including one named “Tilikum”. The movie starts off showing a video of the Sea World trainer named Dawn Brancheau who was attacked by Tilikum. It’s a fast start to an aggressive film.
Right from the get go the movie pulls you in and attempts to give you the eyes of a “killer whale”. After being presented with Tilikums back story, several interviews are done. Whale hunters, former Sea World trainers, and an Orca specialist all provide opinions on whales being held in captivity. The real tear jerker to the movie was when a baby Orca being kept at Sea World was ripped away from it’s mother and sent away. The mother whale cried and screeched towards the camera, and it played the heart strings perfectly.
I applaud the time spent to seek out actually Sea World trainers. They added a sense of belief and trust to the film. Sea World is a big name, and putting it in your movie will assure lots of attention. The movie was very professional, well shot, and nicely presented. It was organized in an easy to follow format, and it flooded the viewer with intriguing information. The movie was also respectful toward Dawn Brancheau, which I think was an important thing. The movie was very careful to paint Sea World’s trainers in a positive light. Sea World itself however, was not so lucky.
With all of that being said, the movie took a one sided aggressive approach to whales being held in captivity. This is OK though! That was the purpose of the movie! It was made to convince people that Orca’s should not be kept in captivity, forced to perform, or bred. The movie delivered exactly what it was supposed to. It is my opinion that you have to take movies like this for what they are. “Eat the meat, and spit out the bones.” Take what is presented and filter it for yourself. If you can do that, then you will find this movie quite educational. This movie was a whale of a time.
Starring: N/A
Rating: Pg-13
Runtime: 83min
HFR Rating:
