The Cove

My family has a subscription to Netflix. On the site, subscribers are encouraged to rate movies. Netflix then recommends movies to you given your previously shown tastes. Netflix held a competition to improve this system (you can read about that here).

Anyways, I was browsing the site when I stumbled upon a documentary titled "The Cove". What really caught my attention was what Netflix assumed I would rate the movie: 4.8 out of 5. I have never seen Netflix recommend a movie so highly to me (apparently, I'm really critical). 4.8 out of 5 is really a big score for anything to receive critically. If you translated this into p4k terms, The Cove must be the MPP of documentaries. So, I took their recommendation and watched the film.

Netflix gives the synopsis of "The Cove" as: "This riveting documentary (winner of the Audience Award at Sundance) follows a group of animal activists to a scenic cove in Taijii, Japan, where they use surveillance equipment to capture footage of a secretive and heavily guarded operation run by the world's largest supplier of dolphins. As the daring group risks their lives to expose the horrifying truths behind the capture of dolphins for the lucrative tourist industry, they also uncover an environmental catastrophe."

I don't want to talk about the film too much but I highly encourage you to watch it. While it's a total piece of propaganda and as one-sided as the supposed "villains" of the documentary are made out to be, it's a thrilling ride. Usually, thrilling is the last word I would use to describe a documentary and that is why this film is so unique. "The Cove" combines fast-paced action with the traditional elements of a documentary. While it doesn't merit 4.8 stars out of 5, I'd highly recommend that you watch it.