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Blackfish

Blackfish

Documentary · 2013

Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.

Movie details

Blackfish

“Never capture what you can't control.”

2013 Documentary 1h 23m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

8.1 / 10

75.8K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

98 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

83 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Blackfish?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Written by

Gabriela Cowperthwaite · Eli Despres

D

Dean Gomersall

Self

S

Samantha Berg

Self

J

John Jett

Self

J

John Hargrove

Self

C

Carol Ray

Self

J

Jeffrey Ventre

Self

K

Kim Ashdown

Self

Court is in session

Put Blackfish on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Auteur Devotee

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.