They’re mammals, of course, not fish. Perhaps that’s symbolic of the misunderstanding here. And, believe me, “misunderstanding” is a very kind euphemism for how orca whales have dealt with captivity and stage fright. Blackfish is about SeaWorld orcas, the trained clowns of the giant bathtub. Used to swimming 100 miles a day, these rec room sized mammals -once in captivity- often occupy tanks easily circumnavigated by leashed toddlers in mere seconds. That would make anybody crazy.
Yeah, I’m on the side of the whales (go figure). Even Tilikum, the serial killer among them.
Tilikum is the star of Blackfish. Check imdb, he gets top billing. Tilikum has also killed three humans since first becoming an entertainer. In a normal zoo, this animal would likely be put down. In SeaWorld, he’s encouraged not only to live on, but reproduce – he’s sired 21 children to date.
Blackfish is a documentary, and lists itself as drama as well, but I’d consider it among the top horror films of 2013. The film can only show the footage it has, which, while not 100% explicit, is fairly graphic, very disturbing, and scarier than any Paranormal Activity film. While the focus of Blackfish is essentially on the deaths of former Tilikum handlers Keltie Byrne and Dawn Brancheau, the mood of the piece is consistently sympathetic with the whales. It doesn’t matter how docile the six-ton beast looks … or acts. These things have huge brains – it’s very possible their emotional understanding is deeper than that of human beings– and SeaWorld is trotting them out on little bicycles and locking them in closets for the night. Did you ever wonder why that dorsal fin is folded over? That doesn’t happen in the wild.
Is the documentary fair? No. It has deliberately painted SeaWorld as the villain and orcas as innocent victims. But I find it impossible to side with SeaWorld even under the best of circumstances. All you have going on your side is entertainment. Even if you buy into the lies (“Orcas are happier in captivity.” “Orcas live longer in captivity.”), all SeaWorld has for justification is a big dollar sign. Don’t care about animals? Fine. But how do you justify the disavowal of all responsibility when people, specifically employees, get hurt? What’s justifies human casualties?
This is the kind of art that makes you rethink every trip to the 
zoo or the circus you’ve ever had in your lifetime. No animal is actually meant to be caged. I’m not interested in setting them all free; zoos are darn useful for education and species propagation purposes. But maybe captivity just isn’t right for certain species. Maybe we give the ones with bigger brains or an intense desire to leave a break, huh?
Personally, I think Blackfish joins the ranks of Super Size Me and An Inconvenient Truth as documentaries that ought to be required viewing for high schoolers. It’s a shame that all of these films come with such political baggage because, call me naïve, but I don’t believe any of these were made for (primarily) political reasons. They’re wake-up calls for people not listening.
One fish
Two fish
Bled fish
Rue fish
Blackfish
Zoo fish
Old fish
Through fish
That one is a major star
Here’s his semen in a jar
Say! What a stack
Of bills there are
Some are sad
And few are glad
And some (execs) are very bad
Very, very, very bad*
Rated PG-13, 83 Minutes
D: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
W: Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Eli B. Despres & Tim Zimmermann
Genre: Ruining your childhood
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: PETA
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: SeaWorld executives
* Parody inspired by One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
