Blackfish 5 paragraph Movie Review

Blackfish movie review

The movie Blackfish focuses on the captivity of killer whales, specifically Tilikum, and the repercussions of capturing orca whales for human entertainment. The movie is a documentary set in SeaWorld over a twenty year time period. The movie is compiled of multiple interviewees - either former trainers at SeaWorld, researchers, or witnesses to attacks - all who at first expressed their amazement of the killer whales before they realized how corrupt the captured whales are. Blackfish opens with the interviewees speaking of their initial attraction to SeaWorld and the connections they forged with the orcas. The film takes a darker turn when the 911 call regarding Dawn Brancheau, SeaWorld’s top trainer slaughtered by Tiikum. The interviewees sadly remember Dawn as an energetic woman who loved animals. The movie raises the question of: Why did Dawn die if she was so skilled in training whales? 

After mentioning Dawn’s death, Blackfish jumps to footage of Tilikum being captured from his pod and explains the brutal process of kidnapping young whales from their families. Researchers speak of orca’s larger brains and their superior intelligence and emotional capacity to man as the cruel capturing of Tilikum, the largest orca whale in captivity, is shown. An important fact the movie mentions is there is no recorded incident of an orca ever harming a human in the wild. The movie introduces SeaLand, a small park in Canada. Tilikum is sent to SeaLand and his training is brutal; whenever he doesn’t do a trick, the other two female whales gang up on him and beat him up. Tilikum kills his first victim: a young swimmer named Kelty. SeaLand closes and Tilikum is sold to Sea World. The former trainers of SeaWorld recall being amazed at the size of Tilikum and how surprisingly easy Tilikum was to train. They also admit that SeaWorld never told the trainers of Tilikum’s past as an aggressive whale - it is later revealed that SeaWorld conveniently forgets to mention all injuries and deaths that happen to their trainers to their own employees. After Tilikum has been at SeaWorld for a few years, one morning trainers enter the park to find a man dead in Tilikum’s pool. SeaWorld blames the accident on the man, even though all evidence points to Tilikum. The climax of the movie is the death of Dawn Branchaeu, a talented trainer. Interviewees are outraged that SeaWorld blamed Dawn for her own death, and again, all of the evidence points to Tilikum as the killer. The movie ends with protestors crowding SeaWorld and charities being set up in Dawn’s memory, but the viewer is still troubled by the disturbing footage and questions even after the movie ends.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the director of Blackfish, has received a lot of praise from her skillfully constructed film. Gabriela was not initially interested in animal rights - after Dawn Brancheau’s death in 2010, the documentary director felt compelled to investigate the case. I thought that the interviewees Gabriela picked out were very diverse and added a lot to the film. I especially liked how many of the people being interviews were former employees or owners of SeaWorld-like parks. Some of the footage, such as trainers being injured or whales being captured, was very graphic but it brought the main message of the movie across. The interviewees told an emotional, gripping tale of the problem of keeping whales in captivity. Overall, Gabriela did a great job in directing Blackfish.

The background music of Blackfish was subtle, but in my opinion it affected the emotions of the audience. Without the dramatic buildup up the orchestra in the background as Tilikum approached a swimming trainer, the audience would not have been as suspenseful and apprehensive. Although there is not one specific sound director, the main people involved in the sound department of Blackfish include Shawn Coffman, Jonathan Ingalls and Vince Tennant. Without the dramatic orchestra in Blackfish, the film would probably not be as dramatic and suspenseful. 

Although Blackfish was very hard to watch, I thought the movie was very interesting. I have only gone to SeaWorld once, but after watching Blackfish I will definitely not be going to SeaWorld ever again. Blackfish is really sad and dramatic, so I would not recommend it to people who are very emotional. I have never really been an animal activist, and I still won’t be even after watching this movie, but Blackfish made me realize the cruelty and corruption orca whales are enduring for the purpose of human entertainment. Overall, Blackfish was kind of a slap in the face, but a very good movie regardless.