A disturbing and infuriating documentary about the abuse of Orcas in captivity, and how that treatment has lead in turn to a startling number of deaths and serious injuries of trainers.
The film posits that taking an up to 12,000 pound creature used to freedom and traveling up to 100 miles a day with it's incredibly close extended family, capturing it and plunking it in a giant concrete swimming pool with strange whales from other pods and goading them into performing tricks multiple times a day is a good formula to lead to these intelligent and amazing creatures to slowly go crazy, and act out. It's a hard concept to argue against.
This is indeed a one sided film, but there are cases where 'fair and balanced' is not an appropriate approach for a documentary. There aren't always two equal sides to every story. This is one such situation.
It's very moving to hear ex—trainer after ex-trainer express their remorse for how the whales were treated, and their sadness and anger for their fallen and injured comrades, And it's deeply chilling to see so much compelling evidence that Sea World knew just how bad things were, and worked overtime to keep it from the press, the public and even the trainers themselves – many of whom were fed lies about the whales (e.g. they live longer in captivity) that they in turn fed the visiting public.
The footage of the actual attacks are truly terrifying. This is not a film for kids. But it is a film to remind us of how far companies will go for a buck, and how humans can blind themselves to the sufferings of others – Orcas or other people – when it's in their short term self-interest.
The film posits that taking an up to 12,000 pound creature used to freedom and traveling up to 100 miles a day with it's incredibly close extended family, capturing it and plunking it in a giant concrete swimming pool with strange whales from other pods and goading them into performing tricks multiple times a day is a good formula to lead to these intelligent and amazing creatures to slowly go crazy, and act out. It's a hard concept to argue against.
This is indeed a one sided film, but there are cases where 'fair and balanced' is not an appropriate approach for a documentary. There aren't always two equal sides to every story. This is one such situation.
It's very moving to hear ex—trainer after ex-trainer express their remorse for how the whales were treated, and their sadness and anger for their fallen and injured comrades, And it's deeply chilling to see so much compelling evidence that Sea World knew just how bad things were, and worked overtime to keep it from the press, the public and even the trainers themselves – many of whom were fed lies about the whales (e.g. they live longer in captivity) that they in turn fed the visiting public.
The footage of the actual attacks are truly terrifying. This is not a film for kids. But it is a film to remind us of how far companies will go for a buck, and how humans can blind themselves to the sufferings of others – Orcas or other people – when it's in their short term self-interest.