MYST

Over winter break i watched a movie called Blackfish. It is a documentary about the training of killer whales and all the harm it has caused. This movie was very fascinating and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I would give it a four out of five stars. I typically like to watch documentaries so i thoroughly enjoyed this. This really captures what happens during the training of whales. The purpose of this film was to show the real story of the tragedies that occurred at SeaWorld. It definitely does a good job of swaying the viewers opinion to think that training whales is cruel and not okay. I think most documentaries try to change the audience's view in some way. I watched another documentary over winter break called The Worlds Most Deadly Drug. This film is about crystal meth and what it does to your mind and body. The purpose of his film was clearly to show the audience how dangerous the drug is to potentially prevent viewers from trying it.



Blackfish has great cinematic elements to capture the horrors that occurred at SeaWorld. The technique used was switching back and forth from videos of the training done, pictures of victims, and interviews with those involved in the occurrences. The footage shown is so raw because a lot of it was taken from SeaWorld tourists and security cameras at SeaWorld. this realness aspect to the film is definitely what gives it its haunting feel.

One key scene that stood out to me in the film was when the death of one of the trainers in Spain was explained. The scene starts out with the trainers widow being interviewed. She is standing outside by the ocean telling the story of how he proposed to her. Starting off with his story made the whole scene a lot more sad because the viewer gets to know the victim more. Then its explained how whales were brought into an amusement park in Spain. They were put in unhealthy water and a very small pool. They show a video of the whales teeth being cleaned and it's explained that the whales did not have good hygiene because of the poor conditions they were in. The footage of the dirty whale was a good addition because it creates pathos and makes the audience feel bad that the whales suffered. Then it shows interviews with the trainers former coworkers. They described him as being the best trainer they had. When the story of his death is told there is a video of his wife recalling the feeling she had when she got a call from the amusement park saying her husband died. Throughout the scene there are images and videos of the trainer before he died. This scene was done in a way to really move the audience and create pathos.



Overall I really loved this film and would suggest it to anyone who wants to hear a fascinating story.