Review of Blackfish (2013) by Dillon K — 06 Jan 2014

In 2012, SeaWorld Orlando placed as the tenth most attended amusement park in the United States, garnering over five million visits that year. Since it opened in 1973 (nine years after sister park SeaWorld San Diego opened), SeaWorld has been a wildly popular amusement park for fans of marine animals. Home to a wide variety of sea animals, including killer whales that SeaWorld are known for, SeaWorld has successfully established itself as a household name for amusement park junkies. However, the SeaWorld company has gotten a good deal of flak in recent years over several incidents involving their largest and most famous whale, Tilikum. With three deaths reported by this whale alone, there's certainly something wrong with the situation. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite delves deeper into the story with Blackfish, an overlooked documentary that changes your outlook on killer whale captivity, no matter how preachy it may be.

Blackfish primarily tracks the life of aforementioned orca Tilikum, from his capture in Iceland in 1983 to the death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010. Along the way, director Gabriela Cowperthwaite takes note of the many incidents caused by Tilikum, tying them all back to a recurring theme: animal captivity. Backed up by heartbreaking interviews with former SeaWorld whale trainers, Blackfish points out the SeaWorld company for what it's really doing to these animals.

Blackfish is a phenomenal documentary for what it's worth. Managing to be powerful, thought-provoking, and thrilling, Blackfish is a perfect example of an engrossing documentary. It's a little slow to start getting interesting, but once it does, it pulls you in and never lets go (no Tilikum reference intended). Not only is Blackfish about the incidents involving Tilikum; it's about how captivity is the main cause of this aggression, and how SeaWorld is lying to their tourists about this. The film is preachy at times, but only due to the lack of information relayed from SeaWorld themselves.

The documentary has it's fair share of problems, but they aren't able to bring down how well-done this documentary really is. The pacing isn't perfect for the first third of the movie and it's overly preachy at times, but Blackfish is masterfully directed by Cowperthwaite, aggressively thrilling, and eye opening towards the subject of orcas in captivity. Blackfish is a must see for anyone, especially those with a history of SeaWorld visits or a large interest in marine animals.