The director Gabriella Cowperthwaite on the 26th of July 2013 released Blackfish as a documentary that showed the story of Tilikum, a killer whale/orca that was held captive at SeaWorld Orlando, Florida. The documentary highlights the problems within the sea-park industry, the complex relationship between nature and man, how much we actually understand about these intelligent animals, and the dangers of working with these wild mammals.  This film explores how these ancient mistaken beliefs and damaging living conditions may be causing these orcas to act out in a violent manner towards the SeaWorld trainers and public. Tilikum was cruelly caught off the coast of Iceland in 1983 when he was only two years old, he then proceeded to spend his life in performance pools most of which at SeaWorld until January 6th 2017 for his last show. During Tilikum’s restrained life he was involved in three deaths; Keltie Byrne his former trainer at Sealand of the Pacific, Daniel Dukes a park trespasser who entered Tilikum’s pool at SeaWorld, and an experienced SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau. In this essay, I will discuss and evaluate how successfully the filmmakers achieved their desired purpose for the documentary. 

The documentary tries to convince the audience that the orcas do not belong in captivity by presenting facts about how they live and behave in the wild and how they live and behave in captivity. One of the facts used to build the case that should not be kept in captivity were that no matter how big SeaWorld made the pools the animals still were cramped and had nowhere to escape to when the other whales were trying to establish a hierarchy by being violent towards each other. Another fact the film highlighted was that taking the youngest whales it separates them from their mother’s at an age where they would have never left their sides and this breaks up existing family pods that would stay together all the time in the ocean. Furthermore, a fact that the filmmakers pointed out was that SeaWorld said that orcas only live until they are about 30-35 years old which they said was longer if they were in captivity than the wild; however, it is entirely untrue as orcas have the same life expectancy as humans and they live a lot shorter lives if they are kept in captivity. In addition, a fact that was explored in the film was that when orcas are kept in captivity makes the dorsal fin collapse due to the animal lacking space and spending so much time on the surface of the water. SeaWorld had said to many touring groups that it was completely normal for the fin to collapse when in fact less than 1% of males and no recorded females in the wild have a collapsed dorsal fin compared to the 100% of males in captivity and many females too. And lastly, a fact that SeaWorld lied about was that all the whales they had were from the same pod but actually, they are not from the pod or even the same country therefore they can’t speak the same language as that is something that varies from pod to pod so this further isolates these emotional animals and incites the aggression between the whales. 

The film argues that trainers at SeaWorld were misled and not given proper protection which put them in danger and ultimately resulted in the loss of life. One way the trainers were misled was that the trainers were not briefed about the first trainer (Keltie Byrne) killed by Tilikum whilst he was in Victoria BC at Sealand of the Pacific. It showed that they didn’t care if a trainer got hurt or killed by the whale, so long as they were able to make money from people to be able to see a creature they normally wouldn’t see. Another way the trainers were misled was that SeaWorld didn’t care if the trainers were qualified to be trainers as long as they were good swimmers and had a good personality, this puts these trainers at risk as they weren’t trained enough and have no experience working with these whales. Further way trainers were misled is when SeaWorld didn’t have any safety protection for trainers once they were in the water, the only thing other trainers could do is stand, watch and let out a net for the trainers to swim over so that they can separate themselves from the animal if they were still alive. This is not a real way to protect these trainers because if the trainer can’t get to the net then they are doomed as no one can do anything else to stop the whale once it has a hold of someone therefore the trainers are greatly at risk every time they get in the water. Lastly, the trainers were further misled when Dawn Brancheau was killed at SeaWorld by Tilikum, the other trainers and the world were told many different stories but all of the statements were trying to blame Dawn even though there was video evidence saying that the death took place in a different way. This places all the trainers at risk as they weren’t told if Tilikum did it on purpose or not which places them at a huge risk of repeating history and being the next causality at the park. 

The filmmakers appealed to the audience’s emotions and sense of logic in order to gain support for the film’s position that orcas do not belong in captivity and that SeaWorld is a corrupt organisation. The filmmakers convinced the audience of their position by showing emotional footage of how they treat the animals before they get to the facility and once they get to the park. This makes the audience emotional because they can imagine what it feels like to lose a family member but to have them taken away or kidnapped and they can’t save them breaks the hearts of those who watch this difficult scene. Another way the filmmakers convinced the audience of their position was by showing more footage of interviews of various former trainers and whale/animal experts giving their opinions and accounts of the ordeal surrounding SeaWorld and the treatment of their animals. This grips the audience because the audience gets to hear first-hand from them about the conditions of the animals and staff, what things were like behind the scenes and some truths that weren’t told to the public. Lastly, a way that the filmmakers convinced the audience of their position was through the use of logic to incite negative emotions towards SeaWorld by showing how they got the orcas to the parks by taking baby whales from their mothers and placing them in small sleeping containers in the dark. 

Some elements of the film were weak and perhaps even misleading but overall I think the filmmakers did a good job. I believe that there was not any reasoning that seemed weak as you can’t argue that it is cruel to take a baby from its mother (human or animal) or to keep these emotional and social animals in pools where they are mixed with other whales which leads them harming each other as there is no pre-established hierarchy as they were taken so young that these things were not taught to them by their mothers. This film also has put forward a position of showing how wrong it is to keep these animals in small concrete pools that are a fraction of what they need/use in the wild which leads to more fighting amongst the animals where they are constantly having to defend themselves against other wild whales that are doing what comes naturally to them in defending their territory, this additionally shows how the film didn’t give any weak reasoning as this could be classed as abuse to the whales and a way to instigate violence between the mammals. However, one part of the film was slightly misleading and confusing as they tried to give the argument of Tilikum’s offspring could have violence-towards-people gene whereas throughout the rest of the film it was suggested that the root of Tilikum’s violence was his previous treatment at Sealand of the Pacific and his treatment at Seaworld. By including this it contradicts the rest of the documentary by changing the root cause of his violence misleads the audience and confuses them about the argument that the film is trying to put forward. If this aspect was removed/wasn’t put in then it would have given the documentary an edge of trustworthiness as they have entirely thought through what was spoken of in the film, but due to including this, it has left room for questioning of the other points raised in the documentary and slightly weakened the film’s position. 

There were many cinematic techniques that were used effectively in the film to heighten the audience’s emotions and make them feel a wide range of feelings such as sad/angry/outraged, that persuaded the audience to agree with the filmmaker’s point of view/argument. For instance, by showing footage of a baby orca being lifted in a stretcher and hearing that his pod didn’t leave the area to freedom but stayed and made noises that could be described and compared to a mother’s cry of grief. This appeals to the audience’s emotions by making us think of it were a human child how would we react therefore encouraging the viewers to agree with the position of the film advocated within the documentary. In addition, at the beginning of the documentary, they had a black screen with haunting background music while the audio is of one of the numerous phone calls that were made to the police/emergency services about an orca attacking a trainer at SeaWorld. This appeals to the emotions of the audience because by putting in an audio clip that is this alarming at the start of the documentary, the audience becomes entirely astonished and put on the back foot with something they couldn’t have even imagined; that a seemingly fully trained professional had been mutilated by an animal they work with on a daily basis is extremely terrifying and off-putting. Due to the strategic placing at the beginning of the documentary, the audience may potentially develop an immediate dislike for the whales as they have murdered a person for no apparent reason even though the trainers are there to take care of the orcas. 

This was an overall good documentary that puts forward a strong message that is very relevant in society, however, if the filmmakers asked for recommendations to improve this documentary here is what I would suggest. If I were to improve this documentary I would suggest that the filmmakers try to get some of the SeaWorld executives at the time of the incidents surrounding Tilikum and his trainers to comment and give statements about these issues raised in the film, so that the audience could see both sides of the story and ensure that the public was being told the correct and real truth. I would also opt out of the section of the film where they contradicted the rest of the documentary by saying that Tilikum being violent was due to his genetics whereas throughout the duration of the film it was suggested he was violent because of his treatment whilst in captivity. However, even without these changes I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary and its important message. 

The Blackfish documentary really opened my eyes to a topic that I had given little thought to before and shaped my opinion that SeaWorld is corrupting young minds to believe that these giant mammals belong where we can see them do tricks all day instead of where they actually belong; in the wild with their families. This film has shaped my opinion of SeaWorld to be a negative perception as the film showed the horrors these animals were put through from the graphic captures; to the unnecessary training of wild animals to do ‘tricks’, and to the placing these animals in separate pools at the back of the park in isolation from everyone. Through the learning of this information presented in the film, it has both shocked and appalled me as these are living animals that belong in the wild, not in pools performing tricks and actions that they would never do in their natural habitat for paying customers. I agree with the argument presented in this film that orcas don’t belong in captivity as the trainers, park employees and the SeaWorld executives could see that being in captivity was destroying both the physical and mental health of the animals, therefore they should have been released the animals but instead, they kept them in these conditions because seeing these creatures was something most people hadn’t ever seen so people would pay money to see them, turning huge profits for the parks’ owners that far outweighed the animal’s welfare. By showing the footage of the animals from capture to park to the incidents, it makes the audience understand what and where everything went wrong that made the animal lash out and become violent towards people/trainers but it also showed why the animals did this and the blame is on the park owners as the orcas would and have never attacked people in the wild.