Review of Blackfish (2013) by Ben T — 05 Jan 2016

From an audience perspective, Sea World is a touristy and popular place to visit in Florida. Sea World includes an exciting show with specialized trainers performing in cooperation with massive orcas. These killer whales can be rather interesting to watch in a performance, but there is another side to the story that Sea World isn't telling the public. All the whales contained in Sea World, especially Tillicum (the main focus of the documentary) have been held in captivity for our amusement. Because of this the whales are under fed, and spend 2/3 of their life sitting in a small tank, doing nothing. It's easy to imagine how frustrated these whales have become, and there only desire is to escape this prison called Sea World. A number of trainers have lost their life, or had a near death experience from these unpredictable creatures.

Sea World employees were told lies about the whales life span, which then lied to the general public that the whales are happier in a tank rather than in the wild. It was surprising how much footage was caught of these accidents and how raw and eye opening it was. On the other hand, the documentary did a fine job at educating the audience about the whale's life span, their brain, and how they communicate. Lots of footage was rather graphic, but helped to perceive how realistic these incidents were.

As for the documentary itself, it was very well made, thought out, and emotional. The video contained multiple testimonies from former trainers, and their input on how Sea World is a world full of lies. The video appealed to a more general audience, so you don't need to be a whale expert to enjoy this documentary.