The Cove (2009)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary Deleted Scenes Featurette-Mercury Rising Featurette-Hidden Camera Footage Trailer DVD-ROM Extras-Study Guide
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	87:34 (Case: 92)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (27:36)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Louie Psihoyos
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Mark Monroe Joe Chisholm Mandy-Rae Cruikshank Charles Hambleton Simon Hutchins Kirk Krack Isabel Lucas Richard O'Barry Hayden Panettiere Roger Payne
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	J. Ralph

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	?
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English (Burned In)	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    As of 2009, Japanese fisherman purportedly kill 23,000 dolphins for food each year, many in quite a brutal fashion, unbeknownst to many Japanese citizens (so goes the opinion of this documentary at any rate). Inspired by Ric O'Barry's campaign to highlight the inhumane practices of the dolphin fishing industry, The Cove follows the efforts of a small team of conservationists to expose the secretive fishing practices in the Japanese town of Taiji (celebrity gossip followers may remember this was the town where Hayden Panettiere and Isabel Lucas got into strife for getting in the way of the fishermen). The general goal of the film is to try to bring about change in the industry as a whole by exposing the horrific practices of one of the larger dolphin fishing communities.

    Ric O'Barry was the original dolphin trainer for the Flipper TV series. He radically changed his views on dolphin captivity after witnessing the painful demise of the original flipper dolphins and has now spent decades trying to undo what he sees as the damage he did to the genus in only a few short years work.

    Enlisting the help of a variety of surveillance experts, radio controlled helicopter pilots, free divers and camouflage experts (in the shape of ex Industrial Light and Magic prop manufacturers KernerFX), filmmaker Louie Psihoyos mounts a complex operation to capture video and audio of the dolphin slaughter. The local population are, unsurprisingly, rather unhelpful and the task of filming involved leading police escorts astray and all manner of covert shenanigans. The resulting footage makes for some stressful, though powerfully motivating, viewing.

    Directed by Oceanic Preservation Society founder and National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos with the intimate involvement of Ric O'Barry, it is hardly a surprise that this is an utterly one-sided affair and that the argument for that side is presented particularly well. What is a genuine surprise is the way this documentary has been seamlessly weaved into a real movie. Rather than just another soap-box piece about overfishing, The Cove plays out like a real-life thriller, three part story arc and all. Better still, the story it tells is gripping and undeniably emotional. The tension during the film's covert operations is enough to make your hairs stand on end and the gizmos on show outdo James Bond.

    Amidst this nail-biting narrative the film still manages to dish out all the raw facts that you would expect from a conservation documentary. The film's exploration of mercury poisoning caused by fish that are high on the food chain, particularly dolphins, is fascinating and (pun intended) easy to digest. The international political game being played by the Japanese government in the International Whaling Commission is also examined at an accessible level, particularly the practice of buying votes from third world member nations.

    The Cove is certainly manipulative, particularly in the way it demonizes real folks and a real industry as a movie villain which (no matter how justified) may do the cause as much harm as good when the armchair cynics put their minds to it. The movie is certainly careful enough with its storytelling to avoid trivializing the situation but it does open itself to speculation about how much has been exaggerated for dramatic effect. Nevertheless, from an entertainment perspective the film is near flawless.

    The Cove deservedly picked up a 2010 Golden Globe for best documentary and is in an excellent position to follow up with an Oscar in due course. Regardless of your opinion on the film's political standpoint, there is no denying that this is brilliant filmmaking.

Video

    The film is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced. The film was pretty much entirely shot on digital video and this disc offers a pretty accurate translation of the source.

    The video looks quite clear and sharp for the most part, although the clarity varies substantially due to the various sources of material. There is generally minimal grain in the image and a good level of shadow detail. Some of the footage looks quite spectacular, particularly some underwater shots and the very cool thermal vision camera footage (well, technically I guess it's the complete opposite...).

    The colour in the image is pretty well balanced throughout and looks quite natural although, once again, there is some variance depending on the source of the material.

    Mild mosquito noise and some odd purple cross-colouration affects some of the hardcoded English subtitles in the film. Mild background pixelation is noticeable in shots with a lot of movement although only the fussiest viewers are likely to notice. There is no sign of film artefacts save for semi-deliberate artefacts on older stock footage.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) and 2.0 (224 Kbps) audio tracks.

    The audio is generally clean and clear. Dialogue and voice overs are both easy to discern and appear to be in good sync with the video.

    The surrounds get modest use for environmental audio and for dramatic effect in a few key sequences. There is really little call for surround usage in this type of film. Obviously realising this fact, The Cove uses the surrounds intelligently. Likewise, the subwoofer is rarely heard but is put to effective use the few times it is used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The disc features a bevy of bonus content that is pitched at both casual viewers and the educational market.

Audio Commentary

    Director/host Louie Psihoyos and producer Fisher Stevens pretty much explain the effort that went into the film's production in their opinionated commentary. As you may expect the commentary more or less echoes the theses of the movie minus any politically correct restraint along with the odd amusing anecdote. Anyone on-side with the opinions of the film will certainly lap up this commentary.

Mercury Rising Featurette (18:32)

    An extended examination into mercury poisoning in fish. This expands on one of the more interesting examinations in the movie, roughly doubling its length. It really offers no new points to its discussion but adds substantially more depth to the points made in the feature film. As you would expect there is a lot of doubling up with footage from The Cove. Well worth a look.

Hidden Camera Footage Featurette (8:57)

    A look at the many different types of camouflaged cameras constructed for the film along with some of the footage taken by each. Included are Nest cam, Thermal Cam, Rock Cam, Helicopter Cam and "Blood" Cam (an underwater rock camera that filmed the colour change in the water during the slaughter). This light technical featurette is like an excerpt from Mythbusters!

Deleted Scenes (15:04)

    5 reasonably substantial sequences that were cut from the film. Each is quite substantial and expands on a different aspect of the film. There is some particularly good free diving footage in this lot and a fun sequence in which Ric O'Barry goes to the wig shop to buy a disguise!

Theatrical Trailer (2:12)

    An excellent trailer that plays up the world-ending-conspiracy angle for all it is worth and makes the movie look every bit as good as it can.

ATOM Study Guide

    An 11 page PDF study guide aimed for use in schools. This guide distils each of the topics in the film down to a few paragraphs with glossy key art to match. The material is no more balanced than the film itself.

    Region 4 wins by a nose in this one. The Region 1 edition is nearly identical to the Region 4 but it lacks the PDF study guide of the Region 4 edition.

    A brilliant documentary about Japan's annual massacre of dolphins. Regardless of your opinion about the film's political standpoint, The Cove is a magnificently told film and a rare truly cinematic documentary.

    Audio and video presentation is fair. The disc includes a broad range of worthwhile extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall