‘The Cove’ is an eco-message with style

I’d been hearing about a film called “The Cove,” a documentary about the slaughter of dolphins in a remote Japanese village. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to see another nature-oriented doc with an eco-based message that was likely to leave me feeling guilty.

But I’m big enough to admit it. I was wrong.

Here’s what The New York Times said about “The Cove”: “(T)his is no angry enviro-rant but a living, breathing movie whose horrifying disclosures feel fully earned.”

I quote the Times for a couple of reasons. One, it’s a credible source (now that Judith Miller no longer works there). Two, New York is where I saw “The Cove” last night (at the Angelika theater ).

The strength of the film is not just the story, which reveals an industry that causes the death of 23,000 dolphins a year. It’s not even the fact that dolphins are the prey, basing its emotional underpinnings on the notion that dolphins are higher life forms that deserve better fates than, say, your average cow, chicken or pig.

It’s as the Times says: This is a complete movie. It’s as much about the making of the movie as anything else. But instead of retaining the kind of self-congratulatory mood that often infects such eco-minded crusades, the film becomes something else. As filmmaker Louie Psihoyos and his crew come to learn about the issue, get to know former dolphin trainer Richard O’Barry and form their production plan, the entire project evolves into the kind of action film that represents Hollywood at its most energetic.

Thus the movie boasts excitement (Psihoyos and his team plan their movie as if they’re all Jason Bourne executing a covert mission). It resonates with passion (O’Barry, a trainer on the original “Flipper” show, has devoted his life to freeing all captive dolphins). And it ends up offering a strong health warning (dolphin meat is literally toxic with mercury, yet it was planned to be offered as part of grade-school lunch meals for Japanese children).

Add to that the spectre of having to work in an atmosphere where the police (or worse) follow your every move, where videocam-toting thugs try to bully you into physical confrontation and government officials lie even to their own countrymen about what they’re allowing to happen under the cloak of secrecy … and you have the basis for a good movie.

I have no idea when, or if, “The Cove” will be offered for general release. As word slowly gets out, it very well could be picked up by more and more distributors (which would bring it even to Spokane). The requisite money shots that the filmmakers get of the actual slaughter deserve at least a PG-13 rating (it has no MPAA rating), which would make it an unsuitable family view.

But for those adults who like a bit of excitement with their message movies, “The Cove” is well worth the time and expense.