As with so many documentaries these days, The Cove is actually a film about making a film. It shows the filmmakers having run-ins with stiff, interfering Taiji officials who definitely do not want anyone going near ‘the cove’; it shows them climbing hills in the dead of night to plant video cameras disguised as rocks so that they can film the cove-based slaughter; and of course it shows them looking shocked and shedding tears as they watch their own footage of the killing of the dolphins, because what’s the point of making a film about how much you care about dolphins in contrast to those evil Japanese if you don’t show yourself on camera, actually caring?