Blog 6

Death by Japanese Fisherman


The film The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos in 2009, was a revelation to viewers because of the harsh treatment Japanese fishermen use when they are literary murdering dolphins. The entire movie is focused on a single town in Japan that kills dolphins at an alarming rate. The Americans in the movie go to great lengths in order to prove their point against this horrible treatment of mammals. While the film does give a little insight as to why Japanese fishermen kill dolphins, it does not provide a strong argument as to why these fishermen kill the dolphins because there is simply no need too.


During the film, there are countless attempts to influence the viewer’s perception of the events that go on in Japan however; there are always two sides to an argument. The director attacks the Japanese fishermen for placing the dolphin meat that contains high concentrations of mercury into stores for people to buy. Yet, the director does not go into a lot of detail as to why the Japanese people do this. Usually, there are reasons behind the actions that people do. Yet, the producers and director did not feel the need to place them into this movie. Psihoyos simply did not allow the movie to provide a convincing counterargument to the issue of killing dolphins. Also, throughout the movie only one Japanese government official is interviewed. This one government official ended up getting fired and thus providing for a great interviewee for the movie. If Psihoyos wanted to make a move convincing argument in favor of the Japanese people, he could have easily interviewed more officials about the issue and added more examples as to why the fishermen in Japan killed dolphins. One interview cannot be considered a fair counterargument. But, frankly Psihoyos did not and should not add more examples in favor of the fishermen because he is under no obligation to provide a counterargument.


A persuasive movie should never provide a counterargument that could possibly hinder the views of the audience watching. The producers wanted the audience to make a difference after a watching the persuasive movie. By placing a counterargument within in the film could be harmful to the overall movie. This is even the same for immoral and unethical arguments. The argument within the movie is that people are killing dolphins daily, something that is absolutely horrible to even think about. A counterargument for the sake of fairness is absurd. If people are so obsessed with arguments having two sides then, these same people need to have the Japan provide an argument as to why they are killing dolphins. No film director should feel the need to provide a counterargument for something that they feel is just plain wrong.

Blog 5

Our Lives in Turmoil

Godfrey Reggio’s movie Koyaanisqatsi, made is 1983, is a film that can capture the attention of audience with only a single word being spoken. Reggio uses only images and music as he illustrates the beauty and horror of the world people live in. The director exemplifies the uniformity in technology and the irregularity in nature through the accretion and juxtaposition of images within his film.


In the beginning of the film, the beauty of nature is shown vividly. Nature is shown as a peaceful image and then suddenly the film switches to the front of a truck bulldozing the landscape. This juxtaposition of scenes comes suddenly and surprisingly. First, everything is calm. Then, everything is chaotic. Reggio uses outlooks such as this to explain to the viewer how technology is destroying nature and putting our life into turmoil. Also, when the film showed a picture of nature everything was curved and irregular while, the cities only had straight lines making everything look the same. These great technological cities created by men are nothing but bland and uniform lines. The beauty of the world is forgotten as the human race creates regularity. Every view of the city is layered on top of each other making the city and the technologies created by man seem less impressive. Reggio wants the observer to understand that the true beauty of the world lies within the nature that man is destroying. This argument by Reggio can be explained with the scene of the atomic bomb. As the mushroom cloud from the bomb slowly ascends towards the sky, the fear slowly enters the minds of all of the people viewing the movie. Reggio’s use of slow-motion and accretion creates the longest, most fearful buildup to an explosion that I have ever seen. The viewer can only watch as the movie shows countless times how technology is destroying our world. Each and every scene within Reggio’s movie presses his argument against technology.


The director’s argument is very much present throughout his movie. The word koyaanisqatsi means life in turmoil and that is what Reggio wants the viewer to know. The technology the human race has created is destroying the beauty of nature. Also, the technology the human race has created is destroying the asymmetrical nature and is replacing it with regular and featureless straight lines. Reggio uses the word koyaanisqatsi because we are destroying what makes our world diverse. I completely agree with Godfrey Reggio because soon our planet may become nothing more than a giant computer chip. A world without diversity is a world without beauty.