Blackfish -- Film Review
Blackfish
Directed
by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
It is a documentary about SeaWorld, the whales that perform
in their shows, the trainers that train them, and whether or not it makes sense
to be doing this. The impetus and center
of gravity of the film is the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was killed
on February 24, 2010, by Tillikum, a 12,000 pound male orca at SeaWorld,
Orlando, Florida. Brancheau was 40 years
old and a senior trainer who knew Tillikum well and was comfortable with
him. SeaWorld blames Brancheau for the
mishap, but Tillikum had killed at least two other humans prior to Brancheau,
and he also had a history of maltreatment, not only at SeaWorld, but also before
he came to SeaWorld from Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria, Canada. The film explores all of this material in
great detail. It is well documented and
accentuated with interviews with former trainers who know Dawn Brancheau, and
who provide much background and insight into the world of training orcas, the
relationships of the trainers to the whales, and the conditions the whales are
forced to live under at SeaWorld. Did
Dawn Brancheau make a mistake that cost her her life, or was this a ticking
time bomb destined to go off sooner or later?
You decide.
The film makes the case that it is not such a good idea to
be keeping these huge animals in the cramped quarters of the SeaWorld pools, separated
from their natural social connections, and it is even less prudent to be
letting young trainers, who don't really have a clue what they are getting
into, to swim into a tank with these powerful undomesticated animals.
How do you think a behemoth like Tillikum gets to be 12,000
pounds? Not by eating potato chips in
front of his TV. These animals are top
predators. There are good reasons why
they are called "killer" whales.
There is one dramatic sequence in the film of several whales attacking a
seal that is stranded on an ice floe.
The whales work together to tip the ice floe enough that the seal is
toppled into the water. Once that
happens, it is all over for the seal in seconds. It seems to me that this is the truth that
people -- including children -- should see about these whales.
There is a video on YouTube of a man clowning on a beach at
the water's edge. Two orcas creep up on
him right at the shoreline, knock him down, and devour him in seconds right
before your very eyes. Some people think
the video is fake. It shows you how
strong is this will to believe in the benign nature of fierce predatory
animals. Perhaps it is a way of denying
our own vulnerability and how quickly we can be snuffed out and disappear at
the hands -- or rather jaws -- of natural enemies. But this sort of thing goes on in the animal
kingdom all the time every day. An
animal can be placidly going about his business, and suddenly, without warning,
be beset and completely devoured within seconds. It is
a discomfiting thought which we would prefer to dispel, how sudden our lives
can be snuffed out by powerful predators, who don't really hate us, they just
want to consume us. It's nothing
personal. Just as it is nothing personal
when we raise chickens, or pigs, or cattle on factory farms in minimal
conditions feeding them just enough to get their weight to a certain point in
an optimal number of days at which time they will be abruptly and unceremoniously
slaughtered. You don't stew about that
when you sit down and enjoy a sumptuous steak in a fine restaurant, do
you? Predators cannot afford to be
sentimental about the animals they must kill in order to survive and
thrive. The orcas did not feel sorry for
that seal they toppled from the ice floe, nor for the man they probably mistook
for a seal on the beach. Rather than
dwell on that unsettling thought that these animals in their natural habitat
would kill us in a moment, we turn them into friendly teddy bears, companions
who can communicate with us and be friends with us. Denial is a first line defense against
anxiety.
The film does not mention the parent corporation of Seaworld
(which used to be Anheuser-Busch until it was sold to the Blackstone Group in
2009). It is now called Seaworld
Entertainment Inc., which is 63% owned by Blackstone. The Blackstone Group is a multi-billion
dollar private equity firm based in New York City, with offices around the
world. Just this week Blackstone held
an initial public offering of Seaworld Entertainment stock. According to the Wall Street Journal the
stock went up 24% on the first day of trading (Wall Street Journal, April 22, 2013). After this film circulates I wonder how well
the stock will do?
Blackstone cares about making money, and they're making a
lot of it on Seaworld. They don't
particularly care about the trainers at Seaworld, much less the orcas. They refused to be interviewed for this film
or make any comment about its findings. This
is an entertainment business that sells illusions. Illusions are strongly held beliefs or
viewpoints that are in contradiction to facts or conditions that should be
obvious. They reflect a human need to
see things in a certain way in order to allay anxiety, to provide a consoling
view of life that offers comfort or a feeling of security.
The illusion in this case is the belief that the natural
world is a benign place where humans are in control and living in harmony with
the other creatures in nature: that orcas, who are top predators in the wild,
are actually benign, friendly, good natured companions to humans who can be
domesticated to behave like entertaining pets.
However, this illusion is starting to wear a little thin and fray around
the edges. In order to maintain it, much
truth has to be concealed, downplayed, and outright falsified, which the film
documents very effectively.
The Seaworld trainers seem to be goodhearted, but naive, young
people who have very little background in orca behavior or ethology, but are
possessed of the illusion that you can get into a tank of water with a 12,000
pound captive whale that lives by killing, make him do all kinds of ridiculous
things that he would never do in the wild, and be perfectly safe. People want to believe that they can be
friends with their natural enemies, that the most fearsome predators can be
tamed and transformed into loving companions.
Yes, the animals have personalities, they have intelligence, they have a
complex social life, they have sophisticated ways of communicating among
themselves. Some people seem surprised
and charmed to discover this. But it
doesn't mean you can be friends with them.
They cannot be a substitute for wholesome, loving human
companionship. The captive environment is
very artificial and the animals understand their dependence on their human
handlers in this extraordinarily unnatural situation.
The film points to a record of at least 70 incidents where
killer whales have attacked their human trainers and several where the trainers
have been killed. Seaworld consistently blames
the trainers, saying they made errors which led to the attacks. In some cases this was true, but on the other
hand, you don't have a lot of margin with killer whales, and it is also true
that the whales are kept under inhumane conditions and often treated badly,
which, over time, probably builds up a lot of rage and resentment. Sometimes the whales reach a point where they
decide enough is enough.
The film brings to light a lot of unsavory conditions in an
inherently perilous enterprise that SeaWorld would prefer to keep under wraps,
and which they have done pretty successfully for many years. This speaks to the power of this illusory
phantasm of the benign natural world in the public imagination. People want to take their kids to this
grandiose spectacle and be dazzled by huge powerful animals cavorting to
entertain human audiences pleased with themselves to have subdued and dominated
these breathtaking creatures. But it is
insipid and barbaric. It gives kids the
wrong message about the relationship between humans and animals and it gives
them a very wrong impression about killer whales. Don't go to Seaworld. Watch this film instead. Seen at the San Francisco International Film
Festival, Sundance Kabuki Cinema, April 27, 2013.