(May Contain Spoilers)
This film had been recommended to me so many times and I have only just got round to watching it. I am not always a bit lover of documentaries, despite loving fictional stories based on real people, so I don’t know how that works. Anyway! Black Fish highlights the problems with animal confinement, especially with Killer Whales and the scandals of SeaWorld. One of the greatest performing whales was Tilikum who was caught as a baby in Iceland, he was 22.5 feet (6.9 m) long and weighed 12,500 pounds (5,700 kg)! This CNN documentary focused on the physiological damage caused to Orcas in captivity as there had been many incidents with Orcas hurting OR KILLING SeaWorld trainers.
This 2013 doc used a mixture of talking head interviews alongside home videos, photographs, and SeaWorld footage. I didn’t think this film would have the affect on me that it did, the way that the ex-SeaWorld trainers spoke about the Orcas and their love for them, as well as showing the remorse they had not only for their lost trainers, but regret that the Orcas were in captivity. I had heard about the big uproar with people protesting to “Free Willy”, but I didn’t think that much of it, rather it was a way of life. This came after I watched Tiger King (2020) and felt sorry for the confinement of big animals.
It has become apparent to me that America have a huge problem with captivity of large, endangered, and wild animals and something NEEDS to be done about it!
Black Fish focused on the story of Dawn Brancheau who was killed by Tilikum and she was an experience trainer. The documentary illustrated the behaviours of these animals in confinement, even showing a doctor who did an MRI scan on an Orca, which showed that they have a deeper and more complex emotional side of the brain than humans. Tilikum had killed one person prior to moving to SeaWorld and that was at Sealand. The common story is for these whales to pull the trainer down to the bottom of the tank and bring them back up and back down again all whilst biting. There was one scene I remember, where we watched this happen to one trainer with an agitated Orca, but when he came back up from the water, he stroked and tried to calm the Orca and after a exhausting 15 or so minutes the Orca let the trainer go who swam as quick as he could out of the pool!
Watching this documentary shocked me to see how SeaWorld covered up so many tragic accidents and seeing moments of the Orcas being taken from their mothers from the sea and their crying was truly heart-breaking! Tilikum killed three people throughout his life time and the documentary suggests that Orcas have a similar life span to human, unfortunately Tilikum died in 2017 only living 35 years-old. This is a must watch documentary for anyone, you will come away probably scared of these animals, but also understand why they got aggressive. Would you not be the same?! Heart-breaking, shocking, and educational.
Available now on Netflix.
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