Documentary Review: Blackfish
Summary:
Blackfish is a documentary about the consequences of holding orca whales in captivity. The movie talks about the deaths of 3 sea world employees to emphasis the dangers. It starts with the capture of killer whale, Tilikum, and it only gets more sad from there. The film talks uses science and personal experience to show that not only do the whales lifespans decrease drastically but their quality of life goes down with it.
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In the B-Roll and throughout the entire documentary, the Ken Burns effect was used very well. It all flowed amazingly thanks to the ken burns and the transitions alongside strategic sound design.
Interviews:
The interviews in this documentary were done very well and made better with B-Roll from now and from the past. The array of interviees, current employees and retired divers.
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The clips chosen to be included were very powerful, talking about the whales impending psychosis which was shown by B-Roll of the whales growing more violent after more time in captivity.
John Crowe on hunting down Tilikum- "this is the worst thing I've ever done.... like tearing a child away from her mother" ​
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A critic I have on the interviews is that though the filming is good and the frame is well organized, sometimes (like in John Crowe's interview) the background was distracting. Mostly when what he had to say was so important to the storyline.
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The was the story line progresses with the different cinematic strategies is what makes the film so good. Starting with a dark screen and suspenseful music and flashing to the diver with Tilikum set the stage for the rest of the film. The way phone calls to the police were incorporated was very clever and made the suspense very intense.
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Another thing the film makers used to enhance the quality of this documentary was animation- because there isn't always footage of what happens in the wild- animations were used in place of that. For example, to show how whales protect their young from being captured - an animation was used to show the whales separating.
Sound:
Something that I found to make this documentary so powerful was the use of sound design. Music and background noises provided suspense, sadness, and other emotions. The directors choice to include sound from real footage and silence the rest showed the seriousness of tearing the orcas away from their families, dating back to the 1970s. The footage was of the capture of Tilikum and the tragic deaths that resulted from it.
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I would recommend this movie to anyone. It is not only well made but educational. Anyone debating going to Sea World should see this.