We can apparently add Louie Psihoyos’s documentary The Coveto our list of Movies That Really Made a Difference. The secret-camera-employed expose on the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, is getting credit, at least in part, with a stoppage of the dolphin killing, the season for which would have begun this week.
Dolphin activist and trainer Richard O’Barry, who appears in Psihoyos’ film, showed up to protest as usual accompanied by a group of international journalists and media crews, only to find the titular location void of fishermen.
He immediately reported his happy discovery to Take Part, writing, “it is a good day for the dolphins. And for me personally, as the police only wanted to talk with me, not arrest me!”
While this is certainly good news, it’s also not surprising that a documentary dealing with the killing of animals would be more successful in its goal than the countless films raising awareness of human genocides and poverty.
Of course, this is a sign that documentary as activism can make a difference, so I don’t mean to be cynical. I honestly hope that The Cove will be made an example and that other films inspire similar change.
Check out what other film bloggers are saying about The Cove’s success after the jump:
Morgan Spurlock’s new documentary, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden, follows a similar gimmick to his first film, Super Size Me: take a controversial topic, put yourself at risk exploring that topic, and make it funny. While not a perfect film, it does work on many levels, especially in humanizing average citizens of the Muslim countries Sprulock explores. The film also turns Mortal Combat style video game fight sequences into biting political satire. Read a full review of the film here.
I was one of the many who enjoyed Morgan Spurlock’s debut feature documentary, Super Size Me, but mostly only because it came at the tail end of an anti-fast-food kick for me that began with Eric Schlosser’s 2001 book Fast Food Nation. By the time Spurlock showed up on the big screen with his silly McDonalds-only diet/experiment, I had already given up fast food two years prior, had lost 65 lbs. over the course of a summer (only partially as a result of not eating fast food, of course) and wasn’t exactly in need of convincing. But I was in the mood for some comedy, and Spurlock entertained as needed. Did he deserve the Oscar nomination? Not at all.
This time around he’s even less of a pioneer. In fact, I think the Where is Osama Bin Laden? jokes were already dated when Super Size Me hit theaters. This isn’t to say that I think the search for the terrorist should be over, nor that I think we should shrug off the topic of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda just because it’s been more than 6 years since 9/11. I just don’t see how a feature-length documentary, which from watching the trailer appears to consist of nothing more than Spurlock annoying people with his query, can keep the issue funny enough throughout its whole running time. Actually, thanks to the trailer I now have doubts that Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? is even funny for a minute of the film’s length. Of course, it received mixed reactions from Sundance last month, where KarinaKevin reviewed it somewhat favorably, so perhaps my doubts aren’t completely justifiable. Maybe this is just a failed trailer. Or maybe, judging by the little (also dated) joke on The Da Vinci Code(or is it on National Treasure?), this trailer is simply aimed at a broader audience with a broader (and simpler) sense of humor.
As of yet, The Weinstein Co. has not set a U.S. release date for the film.
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden is the latest autobiographical odyssey by Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock. The film has a wry, snarky tone, so while Spurlock actually does tour the Middle East poking around for the world’s most wanted terrorist, the mission is understood to be secondary to the wider political comments the film attempts to make. If the mission to find Bin Laden is tongue-in-cheek, then what is the point of the very real dangers Spurlock subjects himself to?
Comparisons to Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 are well deserved. Both rely heavily on darkly comic animated history lessons about the underbelly of American foreign policy. These segments are very entertaining, but also frustratingly simple. While it could be argued that Spurlock is intentionally over-simplifying complex histories in order to spoof the mainstream media’s penchant for cartoonish dichotomies, the animated segments instead prop up widely held beliefs with more humor than information. I can already hear undergrads at a party saying, “The CIA did some seriously messed up shit, didn’t you see that 90 second cartoon in that Morgan Spurlock movie?”
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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