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Excellent but underrated film

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I truly feel that this movie should be a must watch for young adults. It has a ton of educational value on the lives of orcas, as well as some heart-wrenching lessons in human depravity that seemingly have not sunk in for decades. The documentary tells the story of Sea World and one of its affiliates located in Spain. More specifically, the deaths that were caused by distressed Orcas at these venues. I thought they did an excellent job of chronologically developing the story so that you see how it all began. As a visitor of Marine Land in Niagara Falls, I had no idea that the treatment of these sea creatures was so deplorable. We should be ashamed that the abuse of animals for profit is being allowed to continue and there are some very valuable lessons to be learned here.Incredible footage will keep you mesmerized. Have watched several times and would do so again.

A disturbing and infuriating documentary about the abuse of Orcas in captivity, and how that treatment has lead in turn to a startling number of deaths and serious injuries of trainers. The film posits that taking an up to 12,000 pound creature used to freedom and traveling up to 100 miles a day with it's incredibly close extended family, capturing it and plunking it in a giant concrete swimming pool with strange whales from other pods and goading them into performing tricks multiple times a day is a good formula to lead to these intelligent and amazing creatures to slowly go crazy, and act out. It's a hard concept to argue against. This is indeed a one sided film, but there are cases where 'fair and balanced' is not an appropriate approach for a documentary. There aren't always two equal sides to every story. This is one such situation.It's very moving to hear ex—trainer after ex-trainer express their remorse for how the whales were treated, and their sadness and anger for their fallen and injured comrades, And it's deeply chilling to see so much compelling evidence that Sea World knew just how bad things were, and worked overtime to keep it from the press, the public and even the trainers themselves – many of whom were fed lies about the whales (e.g. they live longer in captivity) that they in turn fed the visiting public. The footage of the actual attacks are truly terrifying. This is not a film for kids. But it is a film to remind us of how far companies will go for a buck, and how humans can blind themselves to the sufferings of others – Orcas or other people – when it's in their short term self-interest.

Never have I seen a documentary on nature and animals that has made me cry. This was the first one. It is horrifying to see how badly we as man have treated our relations who live on this planet with us. To know that young Orca whales are herded like cattle into traps and torn away from their crying, begging mothers. It is also infuriating that Sea World would use such petty arguments in the following court cases to make themselves not seem at fault. This documentary sheds some much needed light on the illegal, unethical, and sickening practices of whale catchers, and Sea World themselves. I do not feel that such enormous, agile creatures should have to live in any type of enclosure. They were born of mother Ocean, and that is where they should be free to live their lives. These Orcas will suffer physical and psychological abuse from each other, and from the management of their establishments when placed together with non-family members in such small enclosures.

Released with the haunting tagline 'Never capture what you can't control', this BAFTA nominated documentary questions the merits of capturing and breeding killer whales in captivity with concerns for both human safety and distress on the aquatic animals themselves. The film was inspired by the public outcry in 2010 when one of SeaWorld's most experienced trainers was killed by a whale, leading to revelations that the whale had injured many others before. Interviews with the deceased's former colleagues prove powerful as they express dismay at SeaWorld blaming the trainer for an error of judgment when research has shown that whales can be driven to psychosis. The film effectively splices in SeaWorld television advertisements to show just how much what SeaWorld tells the public differs from the reality of whale breeding and while there is no video footage of SeaWorld when taken to court, the filmmakers strikingly use animated sequences to reenact the trials based on transcripts. If riveting to view, there is no escaping the fact that 'Blackfish' is a heavily biased affair. To a degree, this cannot be helped since SeaWorld refused to be interviewed for the film, however, with the filmmakers unable to locate a single former employee willing to tell SeaWorld's side of the story, it is hard not to wonder what the counter-arguments may be. If one leaves the film with some doubts though, its stance still lingers in the mind long afterwards. Certainly, it is understandable why SeaWorld's profits have dropped since the documentary's release.