Review of Blackfish (2013) by Carley B — 05 Jan 2016

Blackfish is a stunning documentary about what really goes on inside the walls of the iconic theme park Sea World. The film is unlike most documentaries, it evokes emotion. These whales have been hunted, taken from their pods, their families and forced to live out their lives in these enormous concrete tubs.

There are various aspects to the film that kept it interesting. The trainer interviews were a part the particularly caught my interest, the fact that they were so blind to what was going on inside the park in reference to the "accidents" that had happened with the whales and humans was astonishing.

Training videos brought to life how these killer whales are not "killers" they are compassionate and friendly creatures. Watching interviews from scientist and neurologists I discovered how intelligent whales really are and how they sense emotions in an more intense way than most mammals.

It shocked me how close the trainers got to the animals and how some were brought to tears once they had figured out how these magnificent creatures had been treated in captivity. Anybody who watches or have watched this documentary would have lost all respect for Seaworld.

The franchise is not honest with their employees, they lie to cover up incidents,some believe that the employees who were witnesses in the courtroom either were lying or had no idea what was really going on.

The former trainers admit, they knew close to nothing when it came to the history, anatomy or any fact about the killer whale itself, all of it was propaganda for the park. The film was directed quite well, it had a mix of interviews (the majority), training tapes, new reports, courtroom animations and hunting footage.

Music was also well thought out throughout this film, at first the trainers described their jobs as happy, upbeat music played and once the first attack was shown the music had a more suspicious undertone.

The interviews were not always shot from a medium angle but close ups were used and kept my attention. Overall, this documentary was not only informative but interesting which makes for a solid documentary in my opinion.