Review of Blackfish (2013) by Eric F — 26 Jul 2014

"Blackfish" is a heartbreaking, eye-opening documentary about SeaWorld's treatment of captive orca whales. It also delves into the history of Tilikum, an infamous killer whale with a reputation for violence and aggression. This film goes into raw details about how these animals are captured, how they are bred, and just how many people have been injured or even killed as a result of being in close proximity with these undeniably beautiful creatures. But "Blackfish" isn't one of those "these are wild, vicious beasts"-kind-of-cautionary tale, instead it presents the idea that there are better solutions to this multiple-decade-spanning controversy than simply releasing all the orcas back into the wild...

The issue Tilikum raises isn't the idea that orcas can't be friendly and (by all accounts made for whales in the wild) harmless, but rather that these animals are psychologically complex enough to undergo and experience trauma and psychosis in a way that is so similar to humans, it begins to seem more than barbaric to imagine that such a mentally unstable life-form could be kept in captivity even after all these years and all these incidents, not to mention still being used to breed young.

"Blackfish" is an astonishing film that sheds light not only on the brutal mental and physical abuse that some of these whales go through when put into a confined area with other whales they are unfamiliar with, but also the horrendously deceptive, irresponsible, and dehumanizing way in which SeaWorld treats it's trainers, the very people that we (the public) are suppose to trust to know exactly how to handle themselves in the event of an "incident". This isn't just a problem involving animal abuses, it eventually falls into an argument of human rights as well. These are majestic creatures that have been observed in the wild to be a thousand times more healthy and happy than they are in most SeaWorld parks (as well as others), and they deserve as much right to be treated with compassion and moral intellect as we humans deserve from each other. Those that especially feel a deep connection to the natural world and to wildlife will find this film gut-wrenching, sobering, and most-likely vindicating.

These animals are our friends, but how can we even begin to imagine how to treat them with respect, when we can't even allow ourselves the honesty of knowing when we are deliberately disrespecting them, and each other?