Sundance Film Festival Reviews: Blackfish

Blackfish left me thinking…why does SeaWorld still exist? Which is exactly the purpose of this film. But why, you ask? Blackfish is an eye-opening documentary that exposes the evil behind the operations of SeaWorld and the disastrous consequences of keeping whales in captivity.Most have a childhood memory of going to SeaWorld, watching an Orca whale wave and launch a human in the air, splashing water everywhere as its 12,000 pound body slaps the pool. You probably thought that this experience was the coolest thing ever, never questioned the lack of humane treatment of those whales, nor ever heard of many orca whales attacking and killing their trainers either. This is where Blackfish comes in to fill in the details.The film focuses the on a killer whale named Tilikum. It describes his inhumane capture and separation from his family, the other whales aggression towards him and his history of aggression towards other trainers. It claims that these whales are pushed towards psychosis because of their bad living conditions. It all leads up to a death that Tilikum caused, the death of Dawn Brancheau, a loved and honorable SeaWorld trainer. You may have heard of this scandal in the news in 2010, but Blackfish reveals that there is more to the story than the media has ever covered.I won’t spoil everything, but the facts that this film brings to light are truly shocking. The number of lies that SeaWorld has told is appalling. The company has attempted to cover up attacks as trainer errors and have been lying to their employees about previous attacks. One former trainer said that there have been over 70 orca whale attacks on trainers, 30 of which took place before she took the job. She knew of none of them.Many facets of this documentary were heartbreaking. My heart broke when a whale was separated from his family and I even started tearing up a bit.Other parts of this film were disturbing. The in-depth, dramatic portrayals of the killer whale attacks were graphic. One of the animals that I’d seen perform at SeaWorld had scalped a human and eaten its arm. Purely disturbing.This movie has had SeaWorld worrying about its reputation. SeaWorld even put up a response to this documentary on its website called “The Truth about Blackfish.” But after reading what SeaWorld has to say, it seems like Blackfish has left out some key information. SeaWorld still denies the shocking facts brought out by the movie and one man even ventures to say that he does “not recognize the world that they portray in the movie.”Most of the facts in Blackfish seem irrefutable, but this may be because the film uses an hour and a half to draw in viewers with sad or disturbing stories and is well-made, something to be praised for. Still, the film fails to mention that SeaWorld is one of the world’s leaders in zoological care, and no longer traps baby whales from the wild—all of their orcas are now born in captivity.After Brancheau’s death, SeaWorld trainers have been banned from being in the water with killer whales, but SeaWorld has appealed, as this hurts their business.I recommend that everyone see this documentary. It is a critically acclaimed film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival of 2013. It will change your opinion of SeaWorld and animal captivity. But still, it is up to you to decide whether SeaWorld deserves support from the media, or a boycott, and only your previous beliefs on animals in captivity will help you in this decision.