Rhetorical Analysis Of The Cove

The Cove is a documentary about a man named Richard O’Barry who used to capture and train dolphins for the television show Flipper in 1964. However, he eventually realized that dolphins were not meant to be kept in captivity, but decided not to change anything. Then one day, his dolphin, Kathy, basically committed suicide in his arms. She swam to the surface, took one last breath, and voluntarily did not take another one. It was after this incident that Richard’s entire mindset had changed. He has now spent the last 35 years of his life freeing every captured dolphin that he can. This film focuses on one particular mission that Rick goes on that takes place in Taiji, Japan, in which the Japanese workers corral hundreds of dolphins into a cove. …show more content…
One major device he uses is pathos. One of the best examples of pathos in this movie is when they show the fishermen killing all the dolphins in the cove (1:16:40). At first, it shows the fishermen just going around stabbing all the dolphins. After that part ends, it shows an aerial view of the cove. The water is filled with blood and all you see is red. It makes your heart sink seeing all that blood. Richard O’Barry also uses a simile. He says “I was as ignorant as I could be for as long as I could be” (1:22:18). He says this while talking about his past as a dolphin trainer. Louie Psihoyos asks a rhetorical question to Hideki Moronuki, Deputy of Fisheries for Japan, while interviewing him. He asks “If they were killed other than this method, would that be cruel?” (1:22:52). He asks this question after Hideki explained the precise ways his fishermen are supposed to kill the dolphins, even though Louis knew that was not how they killed them, therefore causing him to ask that question, even though he already knew the …show more content…
If anything, it could have turned out being a film that promoted the killing of dolphins instead of promoting putting an end to the killing of dolphins. For example, the main goal of this film was to make the viewer feel sorry for all the dolphins and make them want to put an end to it. This is due to the usage of pathos. What if pathos was not used in this film? The same goes for the close up on Richard’s face while talking about the death of Kathy. If we had not been able to see his dreadful facial expression, how would we have been able to feel the same emotions he was feeling? Every movie relies on the techniques it uses to convey the message it is trying to get across. Without the techniques used in this film, the filmmaker would not have been able to get across his message that what the fishermen in Taiji is wrong, and it needs to be