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The Cove | 
 enlarge | Director: Louie Psihoyos
Actors: Richard O'barry, Brook Aitken, Joe Chisholm, Mandy-rae Cruikshank, Dan Goodman
Studio: Lions Gate
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $10.06
You Save: $9.92 (50%)
New (33) Used (12) from $7.98
Rating:  86 reviews
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: LGED26590D
UPC: 031398115700
EAN: 0031398115700
Theatrical Release Date: 2009
Release Date: December 8, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 12/01/2009 Run time: 96 minutes Rating: Pg13
Amazon.com
Maybe you've seen it all, and maybe you're already steeped in outraged, activist documentaries. But you haven't seen anything quite like The Cove, unless you can visualize a disturbing combination of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Free Willy, and the killing of Bambi's mother. The Cove is directed by the experienced National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos, who sets about to uncover a shocking (but regular) ritual on the Japanese coast: the herding and slaughter of thousands of bottlenose dolphins in the town of Taiji. A few dolphins are saved during this process, and sold off to aquariums so they can perform in water shows. The rest are crowded together and--away from prying eyes--stabbed to death, their meat sold as food. (Interviewing Japanese people on the street, they apparently have no idea that the "whale meat" on sale in stores is actually mercury-saturated bottlenose dolphin.) It's not that this mass killing is secret, exactly, but the fishermen of Taiji have done a proactive job of keeping cameras and other observers from getting a good look. Psihoyos wants to change all that, and he assembles a swashbuckling squad of scientists, filmmakers, and nerds (including movie F/X people who design fake rocks for hidden video cameras) to extra-legally smuggle recording equipment into the cove. The team's spiritual and emotional captain is Richard O'Barry, the man who helped popularize dolphins as cuddly animals as the trainer of TV's Flipper back in the 1960s--and who, horrified by the way dolphins have been used in public displays, has been an anti-captivity activist for decades. The footage that results is so shocking it should cause seismic reactions in viewers, and when O'Barry attends a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (portrayed by the film as ineffectual and/or bought off by Japanese interests) armed with video of the slaughter, he's like Rocky Balboa climbing into the ring for one more big fight. After what we've seen in the film at that point, it's unlikely many viewers won't be rooting him on. -Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 81 more reviews...
 Enlightening, sad and true July 29, 2010
Kathryn L. Asta (Texas)
I was hesitant to watch this movie at first since I knew it was really true about what was happening in Japan. I'm glad I did watch it and wish more people would watch it and take a stand again the senseless dolphin killings.
If you ever see only 1 movie in your LIFETIME... July 22, 2010
Oceana (Montreal, Canada)
A movie about the mindless slaughter of dolphins, the state of humanity, greed, the faulty systems in place (IWC needs to be shut down and responsibilities handed over to the Sea Shepherd), and the road to disaster if we don't all collectively do something. PLEASE watch this movie. "Doing something" doesn't mean closing up your life and volunteering for Greenpeace full time - it means being aware, simply not going to Seaworld so that you don't keep feeding the greed causing the slaughter, and you'll be shocked at the health impacts on yourself from eating sushi (you have to see the movie to understand, be sure to watch "Mercury Rising" in the special features section). Unbelievably courageous people who risked their lives and safety to get this footage - any one of this crew, or all of them, can easily be sitting in a Japanese jail right now. For your own health and for the environment, watch this movie and see what small simple things you can do to be part of the solution.
Remarkable Cove-rt Documentary July 10, 2010
Jerry P. Danzig (New York, NY USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Other reviewers here have described this film so well that I just want to add the thought that even folks who don't usually take in documentaries may find this one compulsively watchable.
That's because "The Cove" isn't merely an expose about the tragic and entirely unnecessary slaughter of dolphins in Japan, but it's also a Mission-Impossible-style thriller in which a team of experts employ state-of-the-art technology and cloak-and-dagger bravado to capture on film the truth of what the fishing industry and local government in a Japanese town are trying so hard to conceal.
That truth is very hard to take -- you have never seen an entire ocean inlet saturated as red with blood as this secluded cove after each killing session.
The saddest fact of all is that there seems to be no reason why the Japanese continue to slaughter these magnificent creatures. The fishermen are offered the same amount of money they now make to STOP their killing, and yet they persist, even knowing that dolphin meat is loaded with poisonous mercury that makes it unfit for human consumption.
Even the good guys in the film are shown to do injustice to the dolphins, like the scientists who employ hand signals to communicate with the species, knowing full-well that the finned creatures can't communicate in kind.
The DVD also contains some excellent extras, including one featurette on the ingenious cameras the team developed to reveal the secrets of the cove and another on the increasing prevalence of mercury in seafood and the environment.
In short, "The Cove" is a thrilling and compassionate work that should be seen by all, in the hope that the resulting outcry will at last shame the Japanese into finding better means of employment.
Riveting July 5, 2010
QA Chick (Atlanta, GA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The film starts out a little slow but etches into the climax around the second hour. It's just heart-wrenching to actually witness what is happening to these animals. It still stuns me to see what human beings are capable of for the sake of money. Please buy the video because some of the proceeds will go to this project to stop this insane murder spree. Shame on us!
 Shocked. July 3, 2010
incognito
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm a Japanese and I was shocked to know that people kill the dolphins and even eat the meat. This film gave us a chance to think about anti-whaling thing which is considered to be a racial issue here in Japan.
I don't think the U.S. government take this problem seriously or there's something which prevent them from taking decisive action, because I'm sure it isn't difficult for them to stop them killing dolphins and whales by just a simple phone call to our prime minister. If you know or not, the U.S. government can change anything which we can hardly achieve by ourselves.
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