Preview

Blackfish Documentary Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
539 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Blackfish Documentary Analysis
I have recently watched a movie called blackfish. Actually it was a documentary about orca whales written and directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. For those of you who don't know orcas are the black and white whales, they have also been referred to as Shamu, blackfish, and my favorite, the killer whale. I've always found it kind of fascinating that they are called the “Killer Whales” because they are used at water parks such as SeaWorld. Disney World wouldn't use anything dangerous in their parks. Would they? As it turns out that is a far more complicated question than a simple yes or no answer. Blackfish tells the story of the orca whale and their trainers at SeaWorld. How they interact with each other on a daily basis and ultimately how they felt about each other. Throughout the documentary you see several whales; however, it was …show more content…
The first trainer that was killed was Kelsey Bern while Tilikum was at Sealand in British Columbia. The second death was at SeaWorld in Orlando Florida. Daniel Dukes was the name of the civilian and Dawn Branchaeu was the lead trainer at Seaworld in Florida. In all three cases the judge ruled the park was not responsible for the deaths of the victims. Tilikum is still being used to this day. The film was very well done; Gabriela Cowperthwaite explained how the whales were herded and captured. Several trainers were interviewed that were directly involved with the training of Tilikum and several other whales. Listening to the trainers tell their stories I was very moved, it felt like I was personally invested in the whales. There's times where you laughed, when you wanted to cry, and when you were just plain mad about how these whales have been treated. Even knowing Tilikum has killed three people and doesn't always cooperate with the trainers, you still develop a certain sense of admiration for

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Tilikum Research Paper

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “A killer whale gone very bad” talked about a killer whale at SeaWorld who weighs about 12,000 pounds by the name of Tilikum. He is also the star of the movie called “Blackfish.” SeaWorld made Tilikum out to be a killer, but he is actually a victim of their greed. He was captured in 1983 from the wild at the age of 2 from his mother in Iceland where he was kept in a tank for about a year. Afterwards, he was sent to a park called Sealand of the Pacific. There he spent most of his day in a tank where 2 female whales bullied him. The article also explained how during a performance at Sea Land a performer fell into the water and 3 whales including Tilikum drowned her. While the whales very extremely vicious to her, there were no lawsuits filed…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Throughout the documentary “Blackfish” many rhetorical strategies are used to persuade the viewer about how captive and free killer whales living styles are affected. The main devices used to manipulate the viewer are: ethos, pathos, and logos.…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The website for SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment is speaking towards anyone that has seen the documentary BlackFish, or anyone who thinks that SeaWorld is abusing or mistreating the orcas or other animals by keeping them in captivity. They also attract the corporate side of SeaWorld as a business. The website gives information about what the business does to give back to the community, how their animals are treated and shows their credibility to draw in customers. The tab titled “The truth about Blackfish” states multiple points about how the producers of the documentary were lying about their facts or over exaggerating to appeal to multiple viewers. The purpose is to fight back against Blackfish and support the owner’s business of SeaWorld as a corporation. The company aspire to let viewers know that the documentary was made of lies, and they want to inform everyone of their side of the story for how orcas and marine life are treated under their care. The SeaWorld website appeals to viewers by the use of logos, ethos, and pathos to contradict the slanderous statements said in the documentary, BlackFish and to attract customers to their entertainment business. .…

    • 971 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The documentary entitled Blackfish directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite uses a few rhetorical approaches to reveal the disturbing hardship that orca whales experience in captivity. The film follows the shocking story of a killer whale named Tilikum and the three human deaths that he is responsible for. Cowperthwaite uses interviews with concerned former trainers and whale experts as a device to explore the difference between SeaWorld’s public image and its intense reality. Researchers find that the wild orcas can be described as highly socialized and intelligent creatures; these gentle animals are then compared to the whales pictured in footage from SeaWorld’s marine parks. Whales kept at SeaWorld are mistreated, restrained to dark cages, and live in small concrete pools that cannot be compared to the hundreds of miles that they would routinely swim on a daily basis. To this day, many admire SeaWorld for its broad assortment of marine animals. As a documentary, Blackfish takes on the immense task of trying to alter the audiences’ perceptions of SeaWorld. While Blackfish employs all three forms of rhetoric to accomplish this mission, it predominantly attracts the emotion of its audience using a combination of stock footage and interviews.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ethos In Black Fish

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gabriella Cowperthwaite (2013) the director of Black fish uses logos to illustrate what is happing at SeaWorld. Black fish is a documentary about SeaWorld and the orcas that “live” there. In SeaWorld they have a male orca named Tilikum. Tilikum has a reputation for lunging at trainers and even killing them (Cowperthwaite, 2013). SeaWorld bough him form…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Blackfish, the 2013 documentary about the attacks of killer whales provides a profound look on the miserable lives of orcas that are being held against their will. However, the film focuses on more than the “Free Willy” longings. This film is extremely emotional and somewhat graphic as it visually shows why killer whales, at numerous SeaWorld and marine parks, attack the trainers and why these whales should not be held in captivity.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The father (Albert Finney) is dying and he wants to tell the son (Ewan McGregor) about his life, so that people could remember him. However, he tells in specific way, the way of imaginary stories : when reality interlaces with fantasy, when human meets giant, witcher, when people can have two heads or use magic. Nevertheless, these stories tell about father's passions, adventures and also fails. The aim of spectators to define, where is fiction and where is truth.…

    • 167 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Seaworld Captivity

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages

    SeaWorld claims they are providing education and new research, but in fact, “they have had no new scientific releases on any animals in their parks for decades, so they are not contributing to the science of whales in any form”(projectaware.org). Just within 15 years, “Washington and British Columbia” captured “275 to 307 whales [...] 55 were transferred to aquariums” and “12 to 13 died during capture operations”(seaworldofhurt.com). The courts “included [SeaWorld] by name [...] prohibiting orcas from being forcibly removed from their rightful ocean home”(seaworldofhurt.com). Throughout all of the wrongdoing, SeaWorld knows they are at fault somewhere in their actions, being that, after the premiere of Blackfish, SeaWorld “declined requests [...] to be interviewed”(takepart.com). SeaWorld is nothing more than an amusement park that captures and abuses ocean wildlife solely for the purpose of profit, while claiming to be recording data and new discoveries of killer…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After Seaworld Analysis

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Aquatic and wild animals seem to be a huge contribution of our society and entertainment, but rarely we see incidents recently recalling killer whales at SeaWorld. Reading the article “After Seaworld, ‘Blackfish effect’ on circuses and zoos?” by Kelly Wallace, shows the viewpoint on the topic of the movie called “Blackfish.” The film is about Seaworld and the famous killer whale Tilikum. The history of him and his seaworld experience was introduced. He ended up killing his trainer Dawn Brancheau, and some people even blamed her for it. This is a topic that is rarely discussed in society, but it seems as if people have a misunderstanding or don't know enough about it to have an opinion. The shocking news, is that this is not the first time…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over thirty years and three deaths have occurred at the marine park SeaWorld, Keltie Byrne, Dawn Brancheau, and Daniel P. Dukes. The media blew up about the aggressive behaviors of the whales; killing innocent trainers. SeaWorld San Antonio alone is responsible for fourteen deaths of Orcas in the past thirty years. Where is the media's articles for the deaths of Winnie, Kahana and Kortar? Three orcas of the fourteen that have died in the care of SeaWorld's facility.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A video shown in the documentary Blackfish shows an incident that procured on November 3, 1987 of one of the experienced trainers getting crushed between two whales. Luckily this trainer survived along with another 70 others on documented reports from whales injuring humans throughout the years that SeaWorld has been operating. Yet, others have not been so fortunate, in the past years one whale in particular, Tilikum, has taken the lives of 3 people in the 30 plus years he has been held in captivity. One trainer who was very experienced and cultivated a boundless connection with Tilikum was Dawn Brancheau. Written in Tilikum's description explained in Blackfish it is said that he often lunges at trainers which is a serious problem when a 1200lb animal does this and should have been established as a threat against humans after the first two deaths. Sadly in 2010 Tilikum took Dawn's life in a brutal way by dismembering her and breaking the bones in her body before ultimately drowning her in the middle of her last performance. These types of deaths are preventable and SeaWorld should have taken care of this ordeal in the past before it occurred again, instead after the incident happened SeaWorld blamed Dawn for her own death. This is extremely unprofessional and unorthodox to blame someone who is dead and cannot even talk for themselves, SeaWorld should be tremendously ashamed of their accusation. The incident itself is heartbreaking, but for management to not claim responsibility for their in actions taken at their park is utterly…

    • 1855 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    I picked my essay about orca whales in captivity, specifically in SeaWorld. I made some researches about that and looked at several documentaries about whales in captivity as well in wild life. I found a very interesting article in Los Angeles Times, which I want to analyze. The first SeaWorld Park opened in 1964 orca whales were not popular; they were even hated and also hunted. Half a centaury later people came to SeaWorld and learned about these animals and started to like orca whales, which led to, that visitors don’t think orcas belong in human care. The California Coastal Commission, which is a state agency, wants to ban breeding orcas in SeaWorld. SeaWorld declared they are ending the breeding program with orcas and the theatrical shows…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Blackfish Essay

    • 1976 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In 2013, one documentary changed the world for animals in captivity forever. Blackfish, premiered in the Sundance Film Festival and was immediately picked up by Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films. Director Gabriela Copwerthwaite and her team spent years investigating and creating one of the most controversial and inspiring documentaries the United States has seen. Over the past year, Blackfish has made over two million dollars at the box office, making it one of the most popular documentaries of our time. Not only does Blackfish inspire people to reconsider going to Sea World, it generates people to try to make a change for the animals in captivity. Blackfish is a documentary that centers on the life of the killer whale Tilikum, most famous for his large structure and his collapsed dorsal fin. The documentary begins explaining the attack of three different whale trainers while employed by Sea World. Ironically enough, Sea World was not the only common thread among these deaths. All of these victims also shared the same cause of death: Tilikum, the…

    • 1976 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Seaworld, to this day, has a whale who has been brutally taken from his home, put in two different new homes, and in result to this situation he has killed three people. Despite his clearly shown aggressive traits, he has been used as a breeding machine for seaworld's past years, making 54% of the orcas at seaworld share his genes. This is why there has been a big debate since 1970 on whether or not these parks and entertainment should be allowed. These parks are making the animals sick and hurting them; Not only that, but they are teaching the people unrealistic expectations about the relationships between humans and animals. These animals lives are being shortened in captivity.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Blackfish

    • 1198 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “ 11 Things You Didn’t Know About SeaWorld - SeaWorld of ...” 2014. 11 Oct. 2014…

    • 1198 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays