Present a detailed, critical analysis of a cultural text.

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Rachael Guilfoyle,

Student number: 12033787

Critical Perspectives [UA1APQ-15-1]

Year: 2013-14

 

Present a detailed, critical analysis of a cultural text.

 

The documentary film “Blackfish” has created a social media storm since its release in July 2013, with more and more people reacting to its message that the use of animals as entertainment is wrong, especially at the theme park SeaWorld. The main reason I chose this cultural text to analyse is due to my long standing passion for animals, and after hearing so much about how this film has impacted people’s perceptions of SeaWorld- somewhere I have had issues with since watching the film Free Willy (1993) as a child, I had to watch it for myself. Thankfully it is available to watch on Netflix, a popular film and TV streaming website, which, having around 31 million viewers in America alone (Mattera, 2013), was the perfect platform to spread Blackfish’s anti-SeaWorld message.

This intense message portrayed to the audience is done so by the composition of information, for the interpretation of information depends largely on how it is conveyed, and by using raw footage and evidence, film creators are able to produce an argument that is organized to suit their ideals and therefore can put across any message to the public that they want.

For this reason, the focus of this essay will be primarily on how the documentary is composed; looking at the use of narrative, structure, themes, interviews, raw footage and also the combination of image and audio to create atmosphere, and influence the audience to believe what they are being shown. By choosing to analyse this cultural text, I hope to gain knowledge about how information can be arranged to portray a particular message-“Craft is about wielding the unique tools of a chosen medium to the full and best advantage, without going too far.” (Bernard, 2010:4) The book gives an insight into how documentaries can be presented as stories to convey a message, and Marxist ideas, that explain how a text reflects and challenges established cultural values and social relationships will be used to accomplish my goal of analysing the film, and ultimately be able to provide a thorough analysis, as required.

 

The beginning of the film is very dramatic; with the opening scene setting the tone and atmosphere immediately. It is very sinister and dark, with white text of a date and time shown over a slightly dark, blue screen. This is followed by a montage of clips showing killer whales acting in a friendly manner in between the film credits. These clips seem to be recorded by amateurs, most likely by SeaWorld spectators, as the cameras are shaky. A screenshot showing an example of this camera work is displayed to the right. This suggests that the videos were taken without SeaWorld’s knowledge, and therefore implies it is real footage, and not staged. Furthermore, after actually watching the film, looking at this screenshot is rather sad; for on one side of the glass there are people staring at this magnificent creature, marveling at its enormity all the while being ignorant of the reality for these whales in captivity. The audio over these clips is a couple of recorded emergency phone calls, which adds a great amount of drama as you are hearing quite emotional accounts of incidents at SeaWorld involving a killer whale and a trainer. It starts of with only a minor incident being described, but then escalates to another, which is much worse. This dramatic introduction to the film instantly builds suspense, as straight away you are emerged in drama.

 

The structure of the documentary is very story-like, with the main protagonist being an Orca named Tilikum. Looking at the documentary from a dualist approach, it is initially suggested that the SeaWorld franchise are evil, and Tilikum the captive Orca is good- despite killing over two people. Moreover, from a Marxist approach, the theme of classism is hinted at slightly, with the viewer feeling as though all people who work at/have been to SeaWorld are evil, and are lower classes seeing as they need animals to provide entertainment for them. Another initial question of classism in the film is how the trainers who are being interviewed are presented; they sound quite unintelligent and naive to be frank- and as stated in the film, didn’t need much training before jumping into the tanks with the massive whales at all, and furthermore were unaware of trainer deaths that had occurred before. On the other hand, as the film escalates, it is implied that all who allow this cruelty to happen are immoral, not just people who have directly abused the whale, or even gone to see his shows. This leaves the viewer feeling guilt, shame and anger, no matter who they are or where they come from. A quote taken from an article by Brian Clark Howard (National Geographic, December 2013) reveals how a 10-year-old girl reacted to a proposed school trip to SeaWorld, after watching Blackfish “she didn’t want to go, after seeing how the film depicted the park’s treatment of whales.”

Many of the assertions of the film are supported by interviews with those involved, video footage, or reference to autopsy reports and court testimony. “If you were in a bathtub for 25 years, don’t you think you’d get a little psychotic?” Jane Velez-Mitchell, a CNN anchor, wonders in a clip that’s used in the film. The interviews in the film are extremely powerful, due to the raw, overwhelming emotions of the interviewees, in particular the ex-trainers, who feel great remorse for their involvement in the SeaWorld franchise. Furthermore, this use of interviews gives the viewer a sense of realism, because the filmmakers’ views are shared with others-the interviewees, and thus makes them more valid. This technique provides the film with a type of narrative; there is no main narrator, it is simply a montage of people describing their own experiences and knowledge of the same events and feelings.

 

A few themes came to mind while watching the film, one is tragedy, for Tilikum plays a “tragic hero” role- despite the fact that he has killed people, and left others injured. The film makes the viewer sympathise with the animal, and feel guilty for how it has been treated. It portrays Tilikum as an abused whale who was harshly taken from his family at a very young age, was “bullied” by other whales whom he shared a tank with, and only behaved as he did due to frustration. This in my opinion is quite understandable, it is just interesting to see how experienced trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was killed by Tilikum, and who, according to the film, was the most experienced trainer and had the closest bond with Tilikum, wasn’t portrayed with a stronger tragedy theme. After watching the film, you feel sorrow for the trainer, Dawn, but the sympathy for Tilikum is almost overwhelming.

 

To conclude, Blackfish is very effective at conveying it’s message to the world through it’s creators use of filmmaking techniques; interviews, archival footage and among others to convey the core message. Furthermore, by taking on a dualist approach, the filmmakers were able to create a personality for the whale Tilikum, and from there humanize it. This generated a greater feeling of sympathy for the whale, which adds to the success of the film, as the audience would come away feeling responsible for the situation presented to them by the film. Moreover, the film challenges established cultural values and social and economic relationships, by reflecting on how humans interact with sentient creatures. It forces us, as the human race to acknowledge our behaviour and hopefully make us realise change is needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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