What else happened this year? Mao died, leaving hundred of millions of people to grieve the man who starved and killed millions. I have a feeling there was some Israeli thing too? Checked: Nope, that was 1967, 1976 was when Iceland and The UK pretended to go to war over fish. Simpler times.
What is the plot - in one sentence? A gruff academic works hard to train dolphins to talk.
I don't have time, just spoil it for me... Wait, what? They pretty much do talk, they also very much get abducted and used to bomb the President's boat. They escape and return after the 'hit,' but the academic tells them he doesn't love them to make them leave, and they escape together. He's telling them that because they'll stay if he tells them otherwise. It's supposed to be a big emotional moment, but it's an Oscar Winning actor bellowing in pidjin English at some dolphins. Also, the group that's fundung the 'talking Dolphins' thing, is also the group which kidnaps the dolphins, in what is revealed as a shock twist, but isn't a surprise at all - who else would it be?
What is the meaning of the title? Dolphins feature heavily in the movie, but 'Day of The Dolphin' suggests that there would be some sort of planet of the apes style uprising. I think they just went for that because it's alliterative.
Add in some elegant harpsichord music to this minutes-long scene of a stunt-actor pretending to be George C. Scott and a dolphin frrollicking romantically, and you really start to realise how freakin weird this is. [Here's the music]
Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? There's no violence against women (which shouldn't be a noteworthy thing) but there are a lot of scenes of dolphins being kept in tiny tanks and being laid out onto canvas stretchers. Actually this whole movie was as grim as it was crazy, and tt wasn't sane. Thinking about it, some of his staff et killed by government forces, but I've blanked that from my mind.
Any thoughts? This plot description I gave above sounds weird enough for a mid-budget movie with at least one genuine star in it (George C. Scott is there as the professor), but it's even weirder than that. Weirder than people voicing dolphins to talk to George C. Scott, weirder than him paddling around in pools with them, is the faux-gravitas of the music that is played throughout the movie. I linked to it above. It's supposed to sound intriguing and relaxing I guess, but it's used during the bomb scene, and during one of the scenes the dolphins are 'kidnapped' by being put on canvas and left in the sun on a deck of a boat.
Would you recommend this? It's weird, but left me feeling very sad, so it's not even 'weird funny' like a lot of movies of this era are. 'George C. Scott shouting at dolphins who shout back at him, directed by the guy who did the Graduate' sounds like it might be fun, but it isn't - so keep this on your 'too weird to watch' list. The only thing of note might be that the ending is a pre-cursor to Free Willy - in that the animal in question escapes by jumping over a wall but will probably die in the wild.
Final thoughts? George C. Scott's wife in the movie is George C. Scott's wife in real life. She's far too young for him, and it looks like he's married his daughter. The movie also starts with him giving a lecture about dolphins to an interested audience. He makes a couple of sentences to start, and then says 'any questions?' He's a terrible speaker - apparently he was pissed off about being made to look a fool in Dr. Strangelove, so made sure to be as cranky as possible in this movie. I'm not kidding that a lot of this made me feel very sad indeed, and not in the intended way. I'd be happy enough just forgetting this ever happened.
That's enough of that for the rest of my life, but if you want to read more of this waffle, please click here for a full list. I'd also like to thank blogspot, for not responding to coding to make all the text double spaced, and have half of the paragraphs smushed together. Cheers!
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