The Day of the Dolphin

With a name like The Day of the Dolphin and a story involving political insurgents using a talking dolphin in a crazy plot to assassinate the American President, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this film. And yet it's all played out completely seriously and is actually a great movie, not at all ridiculous or schlocky... it's just a serious film with a wild premise. I wasn't sure where The Day of the Dolphin was going a lot of the time due the unlikely premise, at first I thought it was going to be a horror film or something a bit more speculative. It builds up slowly, piquing the viewer's interest and playing up the tension by coming at the fantastic concept in a highly realistic manner, and then in the third act it veers into political thriller territory.

Dr. Jake Terrell (George C. Scott) is a marine biologist working at an isolated dolphin research facility on an island. He and his wife (Trish Van Devere) have been secretly curtailing their funds into one single project, teaching a dolphin named Alpha how to speak and understand English. Soon the money men come calling, looking for evidence of worthwhile spending. Jake tries to keep Alpha a secret, especially when an enigmatic and bullish writer named Curtis Mahoney (Paul Sorvino) also shows up, but soon the proverbial cat is out of the bag and rogue elements within the U.S. military hatch a plan to exploit Alpha in the worst possible way.


The Day of the Dolphin actually succeeds in making dolphins seem sinister. Alpha is by no means a monster or antagonist, but there's something about these keenly intelligent creatures that makes them seem so alien. A lot of this film is devoted to examining the complex relationship between two very different intelligent species, and it's done in a completely believable way. This is mostly thanks to a well-researched script and George C. Scott taking his role very seriously.

Scott's role is akin to the 'mad scientist' archetype seen in horror and sci-fi films, but (owing to the nature of this story) he's a more balance and sympathetic version of this character type. Scott's a giant of acting, and he could very easily hammed it up or phoned it in due to the odd premise (as are the big actors sometimes known to do when their careers are in decline). Instead he takes this single-minded dolphin expert and plays it in a controlled and emotionally-real Oscar-worthy way. He's essentially acting opposite an animal, unable to use the dolphin's alien body language for cues, but he pours himself into this believable father-son dynamic and by the film's moving ending you'll be invested in his plight completely.

Don't watch this film expecting a whole heap of action, the poster above is a little bit misleading. A lot of Day of the Dolphin deals with themes and fears relating to exploitation, and offers a fascinating speculative scenario. It also features a beautiful baroque-flavoured score of harp, strings and woodwinds to help create one of the most unique takes on the 70s thriller/drama ever put to celluloid.

DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Buck Henry, based on a novel by the French writer Robert Merle.
KEY ACTORS: George C. Scott, Paul Sorvino, Trish Van Devere, Fritz Weaver, Edward Hermann, Jon Korkes

RELATED TEXTS:
- The 1967 novel A Sentient Animal by Robert Merle.
- The Day of the Dolphin formed the inspiration for part of Treehouse of Horror XI, a Halloween episode of The Simpsons.
- The late 90s indie film Black and White features extensive references to The Day of the Dolphin in a scene featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Brooke Shields.
- Just to give you an idea of how strange and unique The Day of the Dolphin is, the two closest films in similarity are the paranoid 70s thriller The Parallax View and the children's conservationist adventure Free Willy.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - nominated for Best Music and Best Sound.
Golden Globes - nominated for Best Music.