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Gabriella Cowperthwaite Blackfish Essay

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Director, writer, and producer, Gabriella Cowperthwaite, in her documentary, Blackfish, describes the shameless hunting and treatment of killer whales. Cowperthwaite’s purpose is to persuade us into opening our eyes to the reality of what we are doing to killer whales by confining them in captivity. She invents an emotionally wrenching tone in order to transmit to the adult viewers that living in captivity may not be acceptable life for the whales. The film effectively showed that the whales should not be kept in captivity by giving the audience examples of their signs of aggression and displays of emotion. Cowperthwaite begins her documentary by showing how killer whales can become barbaric when held captive. Tilikum was captured from the …show more content…

The events following this attack prove that there is an issue with these whales in captivity. The police report on the attack on Dawn first claimed that she slipped or “fell” into the pool, when she was actually pulled in by the whale. The lies told to the public clearly showed an issue with aggression. Not only did they lie once, they continued to change the story. After saying she slipped and fell, they then said that the whale grabbed her ponytail. The continuous telling of tall tales in regard to the reality of the attack is more evidence that the attack was something of concern. It wasn’t so hard for police and trainers to blame the attack on Dawn when she was no longer alive to protect and defend herself. One of the professionals from the film said that all whales in captivity are emotionally destroyed and physically traumatized. The evidence given in the documentary shows this to be true. One of the other speakers in the documentary was talking about how Tilikum is not killing to be a savage; he is killing because he is frustrated. These whales are unpredictable and dangerous because they are aggravated as shown in the film; they need to be kept free in the wild. We can either stop capturing and training whales, or people will continue to be injured and even killed. This is an example of the either/or logical fallacy, and it is proven in the film.
The documentary, Blackfish, is jam packed full of arguments

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